Please explain school supply requirements

[sam_gordon]

OK, teachers. Come on now. Someone explain why these (usually amounts) are "required" for EACH child...

3rd Grader
72(!) Pencils
6(!) Black Dry Erase Markerts

1st Grader
36(!) Pencils

I'm guessing these go into a "community" pile and those that bring what's required will support those who don't. But these just seem extreme to me.

 

[Social Worker Sue]

Sadly, some parents don't send anything in with their children

Hopefully they do make a Community Pot of supplies so that all children can have a pencil or two.

I like Ticonderoga pencils. They are probably the best. You can get 30 of them for $7 at Wal Mart. Pretty cheap.

But you can probably buy a large pack of no name pencils for The Classroom Share Pot at the Dollar Tree for much less.

 

[java]

This year we have NO LIST! The school board decided enough was enough. They would provide what was needed. Our taxes are outrageous in NJ and someone finally said asking them to pay for 25 binders is too much.

We'll see if when school starts I don't get some requests but as of now- NOTHING to buy!

 

[ilovejack02]

It is because of the parents that don't send in.

My school doesn't have this issue, parental suppport is HUGE so there may only be one or two kids who can't afford or simply WILL NOT bring in.

The amounts of what is required at our school is low compared to what I see on these boards.

The other issue is the little kiddos go through pencils like water . : )


And now let the debates of why or why not the supplies should go into the pot begin, bring on the folks that label their kids items even though teacher requests them not too ... it is coming up in the next few posts. : )

PS I hate the $ tree pencils. I hate to sharpen a pencil and then the lead falls out immediately .

 

[shortbun]

I agree that it's because many people send nothing. But, it's also because kids break and sharpen pencils over and over again. They just use them up fast. Many teachers have gone to using mechanical pencils because they last longer, no sharpening.

 

[hulagirl87]

OK, teachers. Come on now. Someone explain why these (usually amounts) are "required" for EACH child...

3rd Grader
72(!) Pencils
6(!) Black Dry Erase Markerts

1st Grader
36(!) Pencils

I'm guessing these go into a "community" pile and those that bring what's required will support those who don't. But these just seem extreme to me.

Holy cats! That's a lot of pencils!

I wonder what kind of "requirements" there will be when DD goes to school in a few years...

 

[HelenePA]

I am so glad we never get these lists!!

 

[Southernmiss]

OK, teachers. Come on now. Someone explain why these (usually amounts) are "required" for EACH child...

3rd Grader
72(!) Pencils
6(!) Black Dry Erase Markerts

1st Grader
36(!) Pencils

I'm guessing these go into a "community" pile and those that bring what's required will support those who don't. But these just seem extreme to me.

Could this be an estimation of what will be needed for the entire year? When I see things like 24 glue sticks that's what I think.

I send in 2 of each now and wait for the teacher to ask for more later.

 

[disney1990]

It sounds like your teacher does what our teachers do. One child is responsible for bring in tissues, another child brings in hand sanitizer, other children bring in crayons, etc.

 

[happygirl]

I can understand pencils. Kids that age do lots and lots of writing I know my do.


The thing that gets me. Is why dry erase markers? That is silly to me.

Why do I also have to send cotton balls and zip lock bags?

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

72 doesn't seem like a huge number to me. It is a pencil every 3 days. Between lost pencils, broken pencils, pencils left in the locker and replaced it is easy to go through a couple of pencils a week.

As far as combining supplies we do it in my school but not because of kids who don't bring them. If you are doing slate math on the carpet, for example, and one child's dry erase marker runs out it is way more efficient to hand then one from your stash and be back to teaching than to send that kid back to his desk, distracting the whole class.

 

[NHdisneylover]

We supply all of our own and the kids (older) refill themselves at home--except notebooks which the school supplies.
My son will use a pencil down to a nub yet still goes through about one a week, so 36 pencils seems about right to me for a year

as far as why are parents asked to bring send in cotton balls, dry erase markers, etc? Because the districts do not supply them and the teachers use them to teach If you don't like it, complain to the district for not supplying what the teachers need to do their jobs well. I love it when the kids use dry erase markers for things like math--it saves paper and gets them in a good habit of doing the same at home when they are figuring out how to do the problem--my kids use the dry erase markers on the glass table and on the windows when helping each other learn math or grammar.

 

[jmpooh]

My DD 12 going into 7th grade doesn't have any supply list. This is the first year. My DS 9 going into 4th still has one. We live in NJ. I do believe that many of the items are to be shared like tissues, and wipes but I think the rest is to prepare for the rest of the year. Being friends with some teachers I do know that they usually have plenty of items left over at the end of the year that they can keep for themselves or to use the next year. I also know if they run out of things they will send a letter home asking for more.

 

[torinsmom]

180 days of school here, so 36 weeks. That is 2 pencils per week, which doesn't seem like a lot. 36 pencils would be 1 pencil per week.

As far as the 6 dry erase markers, that does seem excessive. As a teacher, I go through maybe 1 every 2-3 weeks, so maybe 12-15 in a year max. 1 per child would be plenty, if we we asking for them. Now, maybe the kids are using dry erase markers? That would be one every 6 weeks.

I wish my current school would let us collect a school supply fee instead of everyone bringing in supplies. It is much cheaper to buy supplies in bulk and we could get exactly what we needed when we needed it. At my old school, we gave parents that option, and I believe it was $25 per child. We didn't have to store 50 boxes of kleenex or 150 dozen pencils(6 dozen per child x 25 kids). We just bought as we needed and the school cut a check to whatever vendor we were buying from. If we had money left at the end of the year, we had an ice cream party or something like that.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Ziplocs, dry erase, and cotton balls are all items we use a lot at our school. We do a lot of "slate" type activities where the teacher calls out a problem and thr kids write it in dry erase and hold up their answers. They also play a lot of board games and use dry erase for reusable games like tic tac toe with math facts. So they need markers and cotton balls for erasers.

As for ziplocs its sn efficient way to get sets of materials to kids. The ziploc might contain an individual portion of playdough for Kindetgarteners to make letters or set of word cards for a second grader to sort by prefixes and suffixes.

Sometimes teachers do share these. They.might ask 3rd graders for ziplocs and 4th graders fot cotton balls and trade.

 

[happygirl]

Ziplocs, dry erase, and cotton balls are all items we use a lot at our school. We do a lot of "slate" type activities where the teacher calls out a problem and thr kids write it in dry erase and hold up their answers. They also play a lot of board games and use dry erase for reusable games like tic tac toe with math facts. So they need markers and cotton balls for erasers.

As for ziplocs its sn efficient way to get sets of materials to kids. The ziploc might contain an individual portion of playdough for Kindetgarteners to make letters or set of word cards for a second grader to sort by prefixes and suffixes.

Sometimes teachers do share these. They.might ask 3rd graders for ziplocs and 4th graders fot cotton balls and trade.

that makes sense

 

[sam_gordon]

180 days of school here, so 36 weeks. That is 2 pencils per week, which doesn't seem like a lot. 36 pencils would be 1 pencil per week.

To me, it does seem like a lot though. 2 pencils a week (per CHILD)? Even allowing for broken, forgotten, sharpening, kids who don't have any, etc. I think that's a lot.

As far as the 6 dry erase markers, that does seem excessive. As a teacher, I go through maybe 1 every 2-3 weeks, so maybe 12-15 in a year max. 1 per child would be plenty, if we we asking for them. Now, maybe the kids are using dry erase markers? That would be one every 6 weeks.

The first grader needed 2 dry erase markers which seemed more reasonable. I hope the 3rd grade kids are using them... 6 markers * 20 kids = 120. That's almost a marker every day. Even allowing for a couple of kids not to bring them in, you're still looking at going through 2-3 markers per day.

 

[Danauk]

I guess the children will be using the dry erase markers. In my class we use these in almost every lesson on individual whiteboards so we go through a lot of these each year. To me 6 would be too few, I would say we would go through at least double that amount per child during the year. As a teacher I actually go through very few of these as I use an interactive whiteboard in my classroom so I use an electronic pen or type straight onto my whiteboard from my laptop.

 

[mikkiwikki]

AGREE with the OP...

The lists where we live are extensive.

Asking parents to subsidize those who won't/can't is not fair. Sorry.

My daughters Elementary school asks for quite a bit ...a HUGE list.

What we purchase is what we believe she will reasonably use.
two boxes of pencils, a box of markers, a binder,
a stack of loose leaf paper...What gets me is these THEN goes to school and dissapear
We never ever see any of the supplies for her schoolwork/homework being used.
In addition, they ask EVERY parent to supply KLEENEX...HAND GEL, TOWELS...MONTHLY
Im surprised they dont ask for toilet paper too..
(I'm sure that will be next year

MY SON's school is even worse.
I was floored at the list that was sent home when he started middle school.
TWO 8 1/2 pages...FILLED with supply requests. I can tell you the homework that was sent home did not reflect a fraction of the supplies that were requested.

In sum - If I felt he would use it I purchased it. If I knew he would not use the item - and I was subsidizing a lacking school budget...I did not. I contribute in many many ways - more than most parents.... but I refuse to subsidize the schools supplies budget when so many parents are taking advantage of the system. I'm tired of the takers -

Furthermore, I'm QUITE sure the teachers are.tired of the takers as well.

What happened to RULES...and just making everyone do their FAIR SHARE. WHY can't the schools just require each student bring enough supplies for themselves...and expect EVERY parent to do just that...instead of asking for a ridiculous amount knowing that 50% of the parents wont contribute.

The schools are so afraid of getting sued...they can't have any rules...and then the parents pick up the slack when they can.
That's not right...not fair to the parents...that are struggling as well to make ends meet. Ok done VENTING

 

[lmbcdb]

From my personal experience from teaching elementary school for the past 12 years:

-EXPO markers: The office MAY supply you with 4. These may last two weeks. (they are used extensively - lessons on the board, small group lessons on small whiteboards, and tops get left off.)

-pencils: kids take one in their backpack for homework, they leave it at home. 3rd grade boys use them as swords and break them. Purposefully. They do a lot of pencil writing in elementary - math, reading work, writing, science, social studies, it's all done in pencil.

Also, first graders eat pencils.