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Why Organizational Skills Matter

Organization skills really do matter because this is something that can follow kids throughout their life. If they do not know where their homework is then they might not turn it in, and if they don’t turn it in then they are going to not get the grades that they need. If they don’t learn organizational skills this could be the case for many years and could affect their grades throughout school. You may not know how to teach organizational skills to students but that doesn’t stop them from being important, and I will teach you how in this article. 

Organizational skills are also needed for the real world. How many times have you seen a how to get organized article that promises to help you get your life together. One of the reasons that you see articles like this is because they do actually work. Organization can make you think clearly. These things show you how to develop organizational skills which help you learn how to teach organizational skills to students.  The key then is taking that information that is targeted towards adults and figuring out how to teach organizational skills to students. Luckily you have this article to show you exactly how to teach organizational skills to students so that they feel involved in the process and can own it.

Activities to Teach Organizational Skills

One of the great ways to teach organizational skills is through activities to teach organizational skills. I’ve listed some amazing ones below that are helpful to get students involved in the process so that they can really make these skills stick for them.

Activities to Teach Organizational Skills #1: Have a Meeting and Let Your Kids Own the Process.

The first step in how to teach organizational skills to students is to sit down with them and let them own the process as well. This will look different based on where you are and what kids you are working with. If you are a teacher who is teaching your students how to be organized you can hold a class meeting to talk about it. In this meeting, you can go over the important aspects of organization and why we should keep our classroom clean. You can also have kids say how it feels when they or their classmates are not organized. They can talk about what they are more likely to do when they are not organized. For example, they lose their homework more and how that affects their learning. This allows the kids to own the process which is something that kids enjoy now. They believe they should be invited into a conversation and not just be told what to do. They are more likely to stick to the organization plans if they had a part in putting them together, which makes this one of the greatest activities to teach organizational skills

Parents if you are trying to figure out how to teach organizational skills to students. A meeting is a great method as well. You can do some of the same things but even tailor it to your house. Present the benefits of organization to them and tell them what you expect of them in terms of organization in the house, but also let them speak into the process. Say the things that they like to clean or what things are hard for them to keep organized and what they may need a bit more help with. If they are able to speak into the process they will be much more likely to stick to it.

Activities to Teach Organizational Skills # 2 Organizational Relay

One way to jumpstart the organization process is to have an organizational relay. In the classroom, this could look like splitting up parts of the parts of the room and having teams compete against each other. This is one of the great activities to teach organization skills that you can do. This way especially for elementary school kids it adds a fun aspect to it. For older kids, they will like the competition aspect of it. You could also give a prize to the group the finished first. Just make sure that each group has about the same amount of work.

This works at home as well you can have the relays be each kid’s individual room or you can even have the whole family ban together to clean one area. Maybe you split it into two parts and have kids compete against the parents or another formation that makes sense for your family. Working together allows kids to own the process. They are more likely to keep it organized because they had a part in making it organized and know the work that it takes.

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How to Organize Homework

One of the major things that kids probably have the biggest struggle with is how to organize homework. This is why you need to teach them how to organize homework. There are ways to help your kids keep their homework organized at home and in the classroom. Below I list some of the greatest ways. 

How to Organize Homework #1: Homework Center

Homework centers are so important to have in the classroom and at home. In a classroom, this can look like a cubby system for all your kids. You can also have folders that as soon as they come in the classroom their finish homework needs to go into them. At break times you can go a get all of their homework and replace the file with the new homework and put it back it. If your kids get into this routine more than likely they will have their homework ready. If their folders are not organized and easy to grab the homework from you may even mark off points for it not being organized correctly.

At home, a homework station is a little more extensive. This is a place where kids can do homework where they will have all their homework together. This will be a place where all the supplies they need to get their homework done are also are. This way when they have a major project they won’t have to be searching all over the house to figure out where that glue stick went or where the scissors have disappeared to. This is incredibly helpful in the how to teach organizational skills to students process.  I talk more about how to set up one of these centers in my article about setting your child up for success for the school year.

How to Organize Homework #2: Planners

Another great organizational tool when thinking about how to teach organizational skills to students is planners. I know when I was growing up schools required students to have planners that were sold at the school. If your school does this is a perfect lesson for your class. You can teach students how they can use their planners and the best things to do to keep them organized. You can even reward them with stickers or extra credit if they are able to fill out their planners correctly all week.

For parents showing your kids the different options that they have when it comes to planners could be helpful to them. This will help them see how these things work for them. You can show them, different electronic planners, set out yearly planners, desk calendar planners, daily print out planners, or many more. If you are looking for some planners to gift them Erin Condren has some amazing ones. You can check out her website by clicking the banner below. Have your kids try out these planners and then they can see which ones work best for them and can use those ones. 

How to Organize Homework #3 Backpack Area

I also talk a bit about a backpack area in homes for parents in my article about setting your kids up for success for the school year. However, for teachers, it is also incredibly important to have a place where backpacks go in your classroom. I would suggest not having them on the back of chairs as they are prone to fall off them possibly drop all their contents all over the floor. Having either cubbies or what I have seen work better is a set of hooks either in the hallway outside your room or along one of the walls in your room. These work really well and you can even use students numbers to show where them where they should be putting their backpacks. This way they know what you want and you know how to teach organizational skills to students. 

Likewise, at home, you should have a backpack area by the front door where your kids can put their backpacks and shoes at night before they go to bed. This way their backpacks and shoes will be ready in the morning, and your morning will be much less stressful. I talk a bit more about how to put this together in my article about setting up your students for success. 

How to Make Sure these Skills Work for your Kids Long Term

You can work on how to teach organizational skills to students and do a good job at initially teaching them how to be organized, but if they don’t stick to it, if they don’t think that it works for them, and they become disorganized again then that will not be time well spent. The biggest part of teaching organizational skills is to make sure that students are following them for a long time.

Trial Period

This may not work as well in the classroom in a classroom you can be a little bit more strict on how you want your students to be organized and they should follow it. However, you can talk to your students and see if things that you have decided to implement with the input of your kids is actually working for them if it isn’t working you can change it.

A trial period workes really well for parents in their home with their kids. If you are especially teaching them how to use different types of planners. They may have to see what types of planners work for them and try a few out to see which ones the like best. It is good to talk with your kids over this and see their point of view on these types of things. This way they are a part of the process of finding out how to teach organizational skills to students. 

It is important to also have a follow-up meeting so everyone can express what is working what may need a bit more work and what to ditch. This is an important part in the how to teach organization skills to students process. Kids feel like they should be a part of the process and we should foster this as much as we can. You may have these meetings a couple times a year since people change over time, and what worked for your family at one point may not work at other points. Every year is even different for your kids when it comes to school and one group may need something different than another group.

Organizational Skills Checklist for Students

All of this information may seem overwhelming, but don’t worry I will break it all down in an organizational skills checklist for students for you. Subscribe to my blog to get access to this wonderful checklist. It has a checklist for parents and teachers about the process of organization. It also has checklists for students in the classroom at the beginning of the day and for the end of the day. Lastly, it contains a checklist for students at home so they can make sure they have all their things organized and ready for the next school day before they go to bed. With this checklist, you will truly be able to answer how to teach organizational skills to students. To gain access to this amazing resource subscribe in the form above. Current subscribers it is already available to you on the freebies page.

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