Student & Baby File Organization

Ok, so a couple of years ago, my school had an auction as a fundraiser and each class was supposed to create an artistic or recycled item to auction off.  I wanted to come up with something useful that anyone could bid on and have it not be too specific to our classroom.  A room parent, knowing my freakish need for planning ahead and organization, donated an older file cabinet and asked if I could use it in any way.  Yeah!  On top of that, she helped me with the creation of the project.

Haha, quite fitting that the picture of this file cabinet is in front of my "Get Organized" poster!

I feel students don't mind staying organized if they had something "fun" and it applied to them.  So I thought about myself as an elementary and high school student.  What sorts of things did I keep?  What would I need to keep track of that I may not think about at first?  The answers to these questions led to the files I inserted below.

Files:

1. Need to File - Who doesn't fall behind with filing, get a bit lazy, or just realizes that they need a totally different file for a certain item that hasn't been created yet?
2. School Pictures - It's a blast going back through how you've changed throughout the years.  I have sticky tabs for K-12 if they want to further organize that way.
3. Awards/Accomplishments - We all have something to celebrate, whether it's academics, social, sports, or more!
4. Report Cards - Always good to keep at least the last one for every year.  Again, I have sticky tabs for K-12 if they want to further organize that way.
5. Work I'm Proud to Keep - I remember that fabulous essay or assignment that my teacher showed as a model example for the class to see or just work that I really enjoyed and am not sure what to do with just yet... that's what this folder is for.
6. Finance - With my class economy system, students know how important it is to keep track of their finances, so even if they don't have any accounts of their own just yet, they'll have a place to store them when they do.  Subfolders include:
• Checking
• Savings
7. Extracurricular Papers & Forms - Where do you keep the sports information forms?  What about the band/orchestra rental paperwork that you'll need later?  and more?  This is the folder for you!
8. Must Read Book Lists - I created this Must Read Book List to promote reading and added it to the file.  I copied the first page front to back & had multiple copies before I attached the top sheet.
   
   
   
9. Fun Folder - Remembering what I loved to keep & what my students like to do, I had mini files in this folder for:
• Letters/Notes from Friends
• Stationery (with some fun paper and envelopes included)
• Random Doodles/Drawings
10. Reference - Some resources I found I inserted into these subfolders:
• Study Tips
• Math/Science
• Geography
11. Blank Files - Students can organize as they wish with these.  I also included more manila folders for them to use as sub folders.

I'm really bummed that I cannot find, for the life of me, the picture of the FINAL product!!!  Argghhhh!  Anyway, the cabinet was mod podged with the green, black, & white themed paper you see on the top of the file cabinet with inspirational quotes chosen by each student.  We cut the colored paper into squares and mod podged them in a diagonal checkered pattern with the quotes in the middle.  It turned out so well!!!  Students' names from our specific class that year were added to the back of the cabinet.

Parent's Baby File

Soooo, now that I have baby Max, he's not quite ready to have his own personal file cabinet.  I wanted to have an area where I can keep track of all his things in the mean time, so using the idea of the file cabinet created, I came up with the following files for baby.  

For the parent file, I didn't see the need to separate report cards, school pictures, and awards.  I'll probably keep those together.

I was made fun of for making files up to 12th grade, but if I am already in the process, why not???  If I'm not mistaken, people ALWAYS say how fast they grow up anyway.  :)