Nothing to Fiddle with...

A pet peeve of mine is when the students have things in their desk to play with. A second grade teacher has found a remedy for that. She has the students at tables, not desks. Pencils are in a type of squishy cup in the center of the table with the eraser toppers on them. Each table has a different color of topper on top of their pencils to tell them apart. There is a little box filled with each student's box of crayons in it on each table. The pencils and box of crayons stay on top of the table at all times. There is a single desk at the head of each table for all of their supplies that would normally be inside their desks. They have a bin for each student underneath the "head desk," there is a cubby filled with glue and scissors, there is a little basket for each student's homework folder, etc. When it is time to use something then the teacher has one student from each table stand up and get them for each student at the table. It only takes a minute and sometimes the students need the minute to stand up and get their energy out. I love it!