Executive functioning skills seem really abstract, and they can be for so many of our students. Teaching organization strategies to kids is always an essential lesson that us teachers tend to skip. Add in a pandemic, learning way more from home, and we have ourselves the potential for an organizational nightmare. How do you teach organization strategies to kids? Explicitly with modeling and practice, my friends.
Don’t make teaching organization strategies so hard.
Teaching organization doesn’t need to be too hard, and requires a LOT of modeling. When teaching organizational skills, I like to break it down into categories. Organizing materials, organizing space, and organizing time. While organizing time can seem like it falls into more of a time management skill, it definitely impacts organization. If time isn’t used wisely, we find ourselves rushing! We all know we’re way less likely to organize our materials and put items back in their designated area if you’re rushing.
Lists, systems, pictures of models (ex: a photo of a well organized desk), and other visual reminders can be exceptionally helpful for students. Many of our students are visual learners that benefit from examples. Seeing an example of a finished product can be the game changer between a messy and organized learning space!
It’s also good to remember that these skills are life long. Many of us adults use our planners, phone calendars, alarms, and labels to help us stay organized all day. Imagine if someone spent time teaching organization skills to us as kids?!
If you teach organization strategies to kids, you’re setting them up for life success.
I’ve got you covered.
I have created a set of executive functioning focused e-books on EF topics, like organization. Each product comes with an e-book featuring real photos. I also created a companion narrated video of the book and a list of related picture books. You can grab the organization e-book product here, and the bundle of all the EF e-books here.
Happy organizing!
