Managing Your Turn-In Tray Using Clothespins

Today I am joining a ton, and I mean a TON, of other bloggers for a fun blog hop! No products, just lots of BRIGHT IDEAS that you can put to use right away!


Do you ever feel like you are constantly checking to see who has turned in work, who is still missing work, or who the no-name paper belongs to? As a teacher, I think we all find ourselves dealing with the Turn-In Tray Mess! I came up with an easy solution that saves me time and best of all, it's cheap and easy!

At the beginning of the year, I give each student a number. It is their number to remember all year long. It's their cubbie number, desk number, clip chart number, and best of all....their turn-in tray number! For the turn-in tray, I put their numbers on clothespins. Let me say, yes, I could have used Washi tape or dye or paint or cute little numbers for the clothespins, but I was going for FAST and EASY, my friends! This is what my turn-in tray looks like before student work is turned in:

When the students go to turn in their work, they have to find their clothespin, clip it to the top of their paper, and place it in the tray. This is what it looks like after work has been turned in:

This serves two purposes. 1) If you find a no-name paper, you can quickly figure out who the paper belongs to because their student number is attached and 2) You can easily see who hasn't turned in their paper! Check it out below:

If you love this idea, please pick your favorite picture to PIN and spread the Bright Idea! :)

Since this is a blog hop, you're not done yet! There are over 130 bloggers with bright ideas posted and you can hop all the way through. Next up on the hop is Nicole from Teaching With Style where you can learn about Singapore Mental Math Strategies. Head on over to her blog to check out her Bright Idea!

Or if you don't want to follow in sequential order, you can always check out all of the Bright Ideas in one place by checking out the buttons below. This way you can pick and choose what you want to read about! Have fun! :)


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