Bright Idea for Storing School Supplies

The beginning of the school year is crazy! So much to do. So little time.

Meet the teacher night is always one of the busiest nights!  I've always worked in a Title I school (with the exception of 1 year) and the kids just come and go. New babies to love and care for all the time. Our school becomes a revolving door. Do you know what I mean? Do you work there? It's my favorite kind of school to work in.

And then you have school supplies. They can be so tough to keep up with when the kids move.  Who brought what? What brand did you bring? Did you bring all of the required supplies or just some of them?  If you are like me, you want to send your sweet baby away with EVERYTHING they brought.  After all, you want them to go to their new school and feel like they have everything they need for their fresh little start!

A few years ago a few genius friends shared this idea.

Store each student's supplies in their own baggie. When they move, you just grab their baggie!

It's simple to implement. Here's how we make it work.

At meet the teacher night, the kids are supposed to come with their supplies.  Most of them do just that! I place a gallon ziploc baggie at their assigned seat.  The baggie has their name on it. When the parents and students come in (both during Meet the Teacher and on the First Day), they see a list of things on the board that need to go in the ziploc baggie. They simply fill the the ziploc baggie and close it.  THey leave it on their desks. At the end of the night, or day, I put them away in tubs.

Since I do community supplies, I just pull from bags as supplies are needed.  The best part is that at the end of the year, MOST students go home with almost everything they brought.  I rarely use all that they are required to bring.  We don't use all 25 pencils for each child, nor do we use 3 large erasers per child.  They LOVE getting to take the things home at the end of the year.  It helps moms and dads save some pennies, too! :)


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