Packing your bags for the next school day: why and how?

Occupational therapy

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using, and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going up to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Hi, today we're going to be looking at ways that will help you to pack your bag for school and the night before. And just some strategies for making sure that you always have what you're supposed to have in your bag. The packing our bag. But why is it important that we do it every night? I want you to think of an example of a morning where you've been really late and you said I haven't got my snack pot, or I can't find my English book, I mean, you've been late and which made you feel really stressed and unhappy.okay. So we need to pack our bags every night for number of reasons. One of them, so that it's always clean.Okay. So imagine going through your bag and you want to find something you put your hand in and you find a squished banana, or that would be really gross, right? If you pack your bag every night, you will always have the right books and the right items that you need. You won't waste any time in the morning, because you'll know everything is there, Everything is sorted. You can have a nice calm morning. And when you're in class or at school, you'll be able to find what you need really quickly and easily.Okay. Pause the video now to get the items that you will need. Paper, a pen or pencil, a bin, or a little plastic bag for your rubbish, your diary, or your planner, and then your usual school bag restart once you're finished. Okay, So what's the process for sorting our bags? Well, it's quite simple actually, once you've emptied your bag, you're going to clean it out, then you're going to look at your timetable and do something. You going to pack it in that order and make sure that everything has a set place. Our first activity. Now this might be a little bit gross, I don't know what you're going to to find in your bag, Good luck. You need to clean out your bag. Okay. So find some space could either be your desk, the kitchen table, the dining table, or you might just want to clear some space on the floor. Just check with that adult,that it's okay for you to use that space that especially if it's a shared space. Okay. I also want to just say here, make sure that there are no pets nearby who might cats like to sit on things? Don't they? and dogs like to take pieces of paper and run off with it. So make sure your pets aren't around so that they don't distract you or interrupt you.Okay. So you've got your clear space, you've got your bag, I want you to take everything out of your bag.Okay. All the little scraps of paper, you might have find little bits of paper like that, you might find tissues, okay. Everything in there You're going to take it all up, and anything that you can see immediately is rubbish, you going to to put it into a rubbish bag. Okay. If you have a bin nearby, that's great. Then you're going to find all the worksheets and you going to to put those in a pile, and they're going to go to one side, then all the books that you have, you're going to stack those all up and put those to one side as well. They don't want you to go into all the little pockets and patches and empty all of those as well. Okay. You're then going to take your bag and you can go outside or you can go stand over the main bin in the house, you going to tip your bag upside down and you're going to give it a good shake. Okay. So you going to get everything out of there. Now, this whole shaking but you don't have to do every night, but for the first time of organising your book, your bag, you going to have to do that and then again maybe once a week, you're going to shake it out completely,Okay. So, right. So that's what you going to do. I want you to pause the video now to clean out your bag. I hope it's not too gross with you and once you're finished. okay. Now I want you to look at your time table. So get your planner and find the day that we need for tomorrow. So say today is Monday, then you're going to have to look at Tuesday, which is tomorrow. I find quite useful as that I colour in the days of my timetable my plan and a different colour or I use a different highlighter just so that it's easy to find each day. Okay. And you might find that helpful as well. So you can see there's my planner and you going to to start at the top and work your way down. Okay. So I'm going to start at the top, I find the book that I needed for that first lesson and it's going to go into a pile for it needs to be packed. And you going to carry on going down this list, find the next lesson, get the books, put it in the pile. And what you're going to do is by the end, you going to have a pile of books that you need for tomorrow. And you going to have a section or a pile of things that you don't need for tomorrow. Okay. So that's really good. You've organised and sorted everything you need. If you find the following, the timetable is still quite confusing, then put some paper onto Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, so you can only see what you need. Okay. Now, once you've made your two piles, I want you to ask an adult to come and check for you and see if you have got that right. Okay. And you might make mistakes the first few times, but the more you do it, the better you're going to be and become at sorting out the piles for the lessons that you need. Okay. pause the video now to prepare your bag for tomorrow. Restart once you've finished. Again now you're going to pack your bag. Remember I said, we going to pack our bags in order of our lessons. And this might mean that everything is not in height order, but what it will mean is that you can find the piles you need really easily and really quickly.Okay. So, now you can see you've got all the books that you've sorted and let's go through the list. So, to register in the morning, you need your diary or your planner and any homework that you may have. So you might have a plastic folder for your homework, to just hold your homework while you do your home work full time. You're going to go down the list. Next, you have math, so you need your maths workbook or your math folder. You then going to go down, So English and your workbook, your writing book. For break time, you need your water bottle in your snack, Science, you going to need your homework and some coloured pencils and a book, lunchtime, you going to need a game because you're allowed to take in a game at lunchtime, a small game and water bottle and pack lunch. Okay. Now, just to go back about the game, it just depends on your school. You might not be able to bring a game in every day. Sometimes you can bring a game. For PE, you're going to need your PE bag, and that's already going to have your tshirt, your shorts, your socks, and your trainers, or your pants already in that big bag. History, you're going to need your workbook and your writing book, and then reading, you going to need your reading book.Okay. And I want you now to pause the video to pack your bag for tomorrow in order and resume once you're finished. Okay, So you've got your bag, now you've put an order books that you need for tomorrow according to your planner, but there are also some things that we need to have with us every day. Okay. These are just everyday essentials. So I want you to look at your bag now and have a look and see where are the zips? are there any other sections or their pouches within those sections and think about how you're going to organise your bag. Okay. Do they have zips? Do they have Velcro? What do you struggle with? If you struggle with zips, then you might not want to use those patches. And then have a think about what you need every day. So every day you need a pencil case.okay. You need your pens, your pencils, the short ruler a long ruler , eraser or sharpener or a fidget toy. I really like clear pencil cases. And I always recommend that you have clear pencil cases. Okay. Because it makes it so much easier to find exactly what you need. You're not going to be spending hours and hours looking for something. Okay. So if I've got my pencil case there and I'm thinking I really wanted to find my little yoga curing. Cause that's what I figured with. Can you see it? I can't see it on this side. Let me have a look, oh, there it is. Did you see that already? Fantastic. Okay. So it just means you can find everything you need very easily and you're not going to be wasting time looking for something. So ,I can immediately see that there is a sharpener, my glue stick is over there, my cable to charge my phone or my device, my communication devices over there, so you can see that's a really clear easy way to do it. Okay. You can then have a separate part for your colour pens or pencils, and again, you can have a clear pouch where you can have it like that. And in there adjust my coloured pens and pencils, so that if I'm looking for a specific colour, it will be in that patch. You could also try using a larger zip wallet for your planner. So, over here, you can see av got a big pouch, and it's got to see my timetable in there, and then it's got some other essentials on the other side. And that just means that you're much more organised. And you've been going to have a section for your snack and your water bottle.Okay. Pause the video now, to pack your everyday essentials regime once you're finished. So remember, empty your bag every day.Okay. Clear all the rubbish out, sort your books into piles and pack it in order of your lessons and pack your everyday essentials. If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share pictures of your fantastically organised bookbag on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. Bye.

Packing your bags for the next school day: why and how?

Packing your bags for the next school day: why and how?

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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