When it comes to school supplies, I've found myself reaching for certain ones over and over again. Besides my love of flair pens, I gravitate towards these four supplies on a daily basis. They make my life easier and more functional!
1. Tape Runners
These tape runners are THE BEST! I have tried so many different kinds and had some pretty big letdowns over the years, but I've found that these are one of my absolute biggest "go to" school supply. They make projects go quickly and I never have to worry about the end result like I sometimes do when I use glue sticks. The best part about them is that I find them at the 99 cent store! SCORE! I know some craft stores and other stores sell them in packs of 3 for anywhere from $7 to $9. I will go to the 99 cent store JUST to grab 10 of these things!!
2. Paper Cutter
My school has a few of those big guillotine style paper cutters which are great for construction paper, trimming down multiple pages at once, and big projects. We have a guillotine cutter in our grade level work room, but this paper cutter is my go to for smaller, more detailed projects. It's light weight, fits in my cupboard, is precise, has a guide that helps hold your project in place, and has a ruler that swings out to measure bigger projects. I use this ALL the time for prepping materials in my kindergarten classroom. I used it all the time in my 3rd grade classroom as well! It was perfect for things I needed to do super quick - like cut paper to make fraction pieces or cutting around the edge of lamination. I purchased it at either Joann's or Michaels with a coupon. The blade is also super easy and cheap to replace!
3. Baskets, baskets, baskets!
These are some "little" baskets I have in my classroom right now. I have matching baskets in a long and thin size and matching baskets in a long and wide size. They are perfect for EVERYTHING!! Today I made these two baskets to hold crayons by color. I wanted the crayons to be easy to grab for my students when they are coloring in their day at the end of the day. I used my paper cutter and cut some cardstock in half, folded it up and made "dividers" to separate the crayons. Even with this little divider, I can still stack the baskets inside of each other and put them out of the way which is super nice! I got all of these baskets for just a few bucks at Wal-mart. I grabbed a BUNCH of them in different sizes. They different sizes come in 2 packs or 3 packs. I bought a bunch of them not knowing exactly what I'd use them for at the time. I've since found so many uses! I organized my drawers and supplies with a bunch of them. I use two long thin baskets to keep my pencils in - sharpened pencils ready to be put out for the kiddos are in one, and the other had pencils needing to be sharpened! SO MANY USES!!
4. Sheet Protectors
I use these ALL THE TIME!! My two biggest uses are for centers work and for practice pages in my students' take home folder. These ABC writing pages will first be a center in class this week and then they will be going home in my children's take home folders along with a whiteboard marker to practice their stroke order at home. Right now I have a sheet protector page in their take home folder so that they can practice writing their name. These are GREAT for games at centers too - children can use whiteboard markers on them and quickly wipe them off! Last year this eliminated a lot of extra "fluff" for me! I didn't have a bunch of student papers I needed to send home, which was SO nice. I also didn't have to make a ton of copies. Since they can be easily wiped off, these helped give easy repetition to the skills my students were working on at centers time too!!
It also serves as "instant lamination" when I know I don't have time to get something laminated!
What are some of your favorite school supplies?
These are such great ideas! Must buy all of these on my next school shopping spree!
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