School Supplies Tool Boxes


This picture is a great example of organization and disorganization existing in the same place.  On a shelf inside our homeschool cupboard, sits this untidy line-up of very organized tool boxes.  I'm sort of addicted to them, so I'm sure this won't be all I ever make.  The larger cases came from Walmart, but the smallest one on the right came from Amazon.  I thought some might enjoy a peak inside.


The smallest box in the collection holds one-inch wood tiles.  One side has a plain D'Nealian letter on it, while the reverse side is done like a Scrabble letter with a value.  There is both uppercase and lowercase letters to allow for lots of spelling opportunities.  The colored tiles are phonics blends for when we move past simple CVC words.  I'm planning on making a second box (told you I wasn't done) for the cursive letter tiles.  The printable for all these letter tiles (print, Scrabble, cursive, blends) can be found here.


The box without a side label is our phonics object box.  Each place is filled with objects that start with that letter of the alphabet.  As you can see, some of the letters have a lot and some have very little.  Objects were collected from around the house.  I also bought a pack of 300 random trinkets off Etsy.  I think these objects will be very fun for beginning sound sorting and spelling.


I wrote about this box here so there isn't a lot more to add.  The letters are from Educational Insights.  I think there are two lowercase letter sets in this box.


Yet another way to spell words!  These Melissa and Doug stamps can be used on either paper or in play dough.  I like that the set comes with punctuation so we can work on sentence structure with capital letters at the beginning and periods or question marks at the end.  The ultra washable ink is a must if we're going be be using them on paper.  As a bonus activity, I'm going to have the kids wash the stamps after we finish using them.


As we move toward writing on paper, we have a writing tool box.  This box has a bit of everything in it.  Pens (lots of colors), pencils (two sizes!), chalk, colored pencils (rainbow writing), and highlighters (which will glow under a black light).  The big purple push pin is for poking out messages and pictures- a good activity for strengthening finger muscles.


Those who have read this blog post won't be able to recognize this husk of my math tool box.  I have been tweaking how I store things and haven't quite figured out what all is going to go in here.  Maybe some of my math games or maybe just objects for higher math.  I know I'm going to be putting our rulers in here for sure.


I included the printable for the place value cards here.  This box is why the math tool box is so empty.  I decided that I wanted to make room for a hundreds tile and the cards, which meant putting the Cuisenaire rods in a new box.  The white, orange, and blue cards have a bit of velcro on them to help the layers stick together (make them less slippery).  They can be layered to express a number or taken apart to represent place value.  I think they will be a valuable part of our homeschooling journey for many years.

What would you put in a tackle box for your homeschool?

Products from this post:
Elite homeschool cupboard
small tackle box
Educational Insights Magnetic Letters
Melissa and Doug stamps
ultra washable ink
pens
pencils
chalk
colored pencils
highlighters
black light
poke pin
Cuisenaire rods


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