Why does my first grader need 20 LARGE glue sticks?

[agnes!]

Definitely not - less than 20% of that 80% ever makes it to the classrooms in most districts.

I have to bring it my own tissues, chalk, paper, pens, pencils, etc.

I get one pack of paper and 4 boxes of chalk, plus a classroom set of folders every year. Beyond that, it's all me.

One huge problem is that many things are funded by grants, so money cannot be used for what's needed but only for what the grant allows. To illustrate the stupidity of this let me tell you that there are fresh seasonal flowers outside my school, state of the art athletic equipment and beautifully carpeted and airconditioned admin offices. My classroom has a broken heater, broken outlet and we've already been told that not all freshmen will be able to have an English textbook next year since there's nothing left in the textbook budget. What?!

Yeah, isn't it amazing? Somehow, grants for things like spiffed-up administrators offices are gotten and funding for reeeeeeeeeally nice School Board Offices and Central HQ Buildings comes through...I have yet to hear a School Supervisor complain that the ceiling in their office leaked or that mold was growing on the walls all year long...
I'll think it's fair when the School Superintendent has to have their office in a 10 or 15 year old "modular unit" and the kids & teachers get the fancy new digs instead.

Don't feel bad. You get more than I do. The school doesn't give us any supplies and we're not allowed to ask parents to send anything. In fact, we're not even allowed to require kids to bring a pen or pencil to class. Guess who gets to buy enough supplies for 200+ eighth graders each year. You would be amazed at how quickly some kids can lose pencils especially if it wasn't theirs to begin with.

20 glue sticks sounds like a lot but I've seen my eighth graders use an entire glue stick on one paper so I can only imagine what the younger kids might do.

Not allowed to even ask? God forbid that the PARENTS should know how poorly the actual teachers are being supported. Again, I bet the school system supplies all the supplies that the Admins & School Board needs.
Unbullievable.

agnes!

 

[wehavesix]

Okay. First of all, those lists are excessive, imo. I'm a teacher and I'm wondering where in the heck they are STORING all that stuff. I have 4 kids still in school and I buy a gross of pencils every August to keep at home. I dole them out as the kids ask for them, usually 2 at a time, and they last all year.

The other thing I want to comment on is the hand sanitizer. Y'all please be careful with that stuff and warn your kids' teachers to be careful too. Hand sanitizer is full of alcohol and if a kid takes a notion to eat it there can be some serious health effects. I know it makes no sense for a kid to eat hand sanitizer but if a kid will eat glue, play do, or crayons, then he'll eat hand sanitizer too. I only use it on my own hands now. I just don't want to take the chance of some child licking the stuff off his hands and getting sick. We use soap and water or baby wipes on the kids hands.

 

[IwasatWDWforamonth]

I just read through this thread and im totally suprised that kids have to bring so much stuff now days,

sure I always had a ton of school suplies, but they were mine, I loved getting cool pens and pencils and folders, I really miss back to school shopping.

all things like crayons, rulers, glue, tissues,scissors etc, were all provided by the teacher and or school.

 

[aprilgail2]

wait until Walmart or Kmart or Target has the end of season clearnace on school supplies -- you know the sale -- where you can buy things for a nickel or a dime.

Then, spend $10. You can get A BUNCH OF STUFF for $10 at a sale like this.

Then, take it to the least financially stable school in your town and leave it with the receptionist. Pick a grade......any grade......and ask for it to be delivered to the first grade teacher. Put a note inside to ask her/him to share as they wish.

MAKE A TEACHER'S DAY!

My daughter is running a school supply drive in our town the first week of August. She is having it put in the local paper that on August 4th she will be collecting school supplies to donate to needy kids. She will give them all to a local organization we work with that has a back to school program-we supply the kids with a full set of clothes- underwear, socks, pans, shirts and new nike sneakers-and a new backpack full of school supplies. Hopefully she will have a good turnout. She also does a lemonade stand and uses the money to buy supplies to donate. This school year in May she is going to try to do it through her school and save half the supplies for her school and donate the rest.

 

[MushyMushy]

We've never gotten supply lists for our schools. I just buy the basics -- a bunch of pencils, notebooks, folders (which they were never allowed to use in elementary school ), glue sticks, etc. Those were always kept at home, and then the school supplied everything else.

And it's not like we live in a wealthy district.

 

[fan_of_small_world]

On the last day of school, the kids get to go to their new classroom and meet their teacher for the next year, and they come home with a supply list. DS was so excited he wanted to get his supplies that day, lol!

I always buy extra supplies (along with things I know the teacher will use herself), and send them to her on the first day in a bag labeled "extras for your classroom." I love when Target and Walmart have their sales - you can pick up 24-packs of Crayola for $.10! I stock up for the kids' craft projects and homework supply baskets at home, too.

Oh, and our supply lists:

For third grade:
3 pocket folders
1 10-page notebook
1 pencil pouch with pencils, highlighter, gluestick, colored pencils, scissors, markers or crayons, and a green or purple ink pen - amounts not specified
1 sock to use as an eraser (for individual white-board work)
1 box of gallon ziplocks

for Kindergarten:
6 large glue sticks
4 black dry erase markers

 

[freckles and boo]

About those pencils...

My daughter's first grade teacher requested two dozen plain, sharpened pencils. She had two pencil pails - one with sharpened pencils and one with pencils that need to be sharpened. When it was time for the children to do their classroom "jobs" one or two children sharpened the unsharpened pencils. The kids just exchanged their pencils that needed to be sharpened for a sharp pencil. That way no lesson time was lost to dull pencils. Anyone with a "special" pencil (embossed with their names or something) had to wait for an appropriate time to sharpen it. We just learned early on that the teacher had better things to do than keep track of 18 kids personal property.

 

[mickeyboat]

Our school supplies all school supplies. Hannah's teacher mentioned the kids might want to get a special homework folder if they want to, but nothing more is required other than a backpack and a snack every day.

Denae

 

[lulu71]

My daughter is running a school supply drive in our town the first week of August. She is having it put in the local paper that on August 4th she will be collecting school supplies to donate to needy kids. She will give them all to a local organization we work with that has a back to school program-we supply the kids with a full set of clothes- underwear, socks, pans, shirts and new nike sneakers-and a new backpack full of school supplies. Hopefully she will have a good turnout. She also does a lemonade stand and uses the money to buy supplies to donate. This school year in May she is going to try to do it through her school and save half the supplies for her school and donate the rest.

That is so awesome! Your daughter sounds like a great kid! You should be very proud of her!!

 

[Becky2005]

OkayThe other thing I want to comment on is the hand sanitizer. Y'all please be careful with that stuff and warn your kids' teachers to be careful too. Hand sanitizer is full of alcohol and if a kid takes a notion to eat it there can be some serious health effects.

Our school requires it to be non-alchol for anything (soft soap, hand sanitzers -- they don't ask for that though now as they just installed dispensers everywhere in the school, wet wipes, etc...). On our list any thing of that nature says "alcohol free" on it in bold.

 

[Becky2005]

I sure I always had a ton of school suplies, but they were mine, I loved getting cool pens and pencils and folders, I really miss back to school shopping.

I know, it's sad...my kids have to wait until they are older before they can get the cool stuff. In grade school (up to 4th & 5th grade), they not only tell you what type of folder but they tell you the COLOR you need. My 2nd grader will need "2-pocket folder: 1 red, blue, green, yellow", so they get the cheap .05 ones. I do know why they do this though as our school is basically color coded but makes shopping for school supplies a whole lot less fun. The pencils say "12 standard yellow, Wooden, no plastic".
4th grade is just 5 different color folders & 5th grade is 5 of each "2 pocket clip folders & 2 pocket folders" but don't tell you the colors or anything, so then you can get the cool stuff. I know folders are not shared here.

By the way -- what ARE plastic pencils anyway???? I've never heard of that unless they are thinking mechanical pencils. Any #2 pencil, even the sparkly ones aren't they wood?

 

[5Slays]

My children's school asks for specific brands along with a quantity. Like 4 elmers 8 oz glue, 4 24 count Crayola Crayons, etc.... To top that off, we can't write their names on anything. Just on the bag that you send everything to school in.

I don't know why it matters the brand, I guess so taht someone won't go to the Dollar store and buy the cheapos. But, someone always does and at the end of the school year we get the left over supplies, but it is never the brand that was supposed to be sent.

 

[Disney Doll]

Snack time?

Good one "e"!!!!!!!!!!

I would guess that the lists are large to compensate for those children that the teacher knows will not be able to afford school supplies, so he/she is going to have enough to share.

 

[luvdzne]

So that's why I can never find glue sticks just before school starts. I will say after all my years volunteering in the classroom I do see the kids go through it like crazy. They roll it up too far and it breaks off, they don't put caps on tight so it dries up, and then there are some that like to make sure their projects stick, so they use lots and lots of glue on one piece of paper. So I can see why they want/need so many glue stick, however I would not supply 20 all at the same time.

ETA: You can get a big pack of them at Costco for about $6.

 

[Katnmouse]

By the way -- what ARE plastic pencils anyway???? I've never heard of that unless they are thinking mechanical pencils. Any #2 pencil, even the sparkly ones aren't they wood?

These are the pencils that are covered with a plastic sleeve of decoration rather than having the decorations actually painted on the wood. These pencils are also usually made of glued sawdust rather than a solid core of wood. They simply will not sharpen well...they also clog up the pencil sharpeners and will actually melt around the blades of electric pencil sharpeners. (Many classrooms rely on the electric models and with 20+ kids sharpening throughout the day the need to be as "clean" as possible.)

I always request basic yellow pencils to prevent the above problems but also to eliminate a problem with pencil envy and theft. The beautifully decorated pencils usually become a sticky finger problem.

 

[torinsmom]

All our stuff goes into a pool. We use the crayola markers first and then the off brands are used more for coloring. Same for the colored pencils. As far as pencils, we have the same system someone mentioned. We have a container of sharpened pencils and then a container where they put the pencils when they need sharpening. Either one of the teachers or a student sharpens all the pencils at the end of the day. If someone brings in fancy pencils, they are just told to use them at home. The kids will fight over those(or cry because they don't have one) and nothing gets done. And when a young child keeps everything in his cubby, many of their scissors disappear and then they have none to use. Or someone cuts their hair(and who do you think the parent blames?) With them all pooled into a basket, they are always there and we pull them out when scissors are required. Same for glue sticks. We use those 2 kids at a time, so I can watch how much they are using, because they WILL use a whole stick!

Marsha

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

Wow, I'm sorta shocked to hear about all this pooling of supplies. I'm only 24, so I haven't been out of grade school for very long, but I never had to buy supplies for other students to use. Everything we bought was ours and kept in our desk/cubby or locker. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just kind of crazy to see how much even school supplies lists have changed in a few years.

I never had to buy crazy amounts of anything. Just crazy items. A remember buying a protractor one year and never using it. One thing they always wanted were colored dividers. At the time these were impossible to find. Even the ones with the colored tabs were very hard to come by. It was always a quest to find those elusive colored dividers.

I also loaned pencils to my students when they didn't have pencils each day...I went through 50 pencils WITH my name on them in the first 6 weeks of school. After that they had to leave me a shoe if they were going to borrow a pencil and they were not allowed to take them out of the classroom for any reason....I still lost pencils but it was probably 50 for the remainder of the year versus in the next 6 weeks!!

I had a few teachers that did this! They would collect just about anything of value from you: a necklace, shoes, disc mans, car keys in your senior year, etc.

(Red-Math, Blue-Social Studies,Green-Science, and Yellow-Reading.

I had the same colors when I was in elementary and middle school! I'm shocked to see someone still does this. It was always hard to find a yellow notebook though, especially since I like the five star notebooks. I think I used to glue some yellow construction paper on the front. The funny thing is this color coding has followed me through all these years. Even in college I divided up my notebooks and folders into those colors.

I bet the supply lists that want each student to bring in like 6 notebooks is trying to do something like that. Divide up each subject into its own notebook. You do usually have half a notebook left for each at the end of the year, but I find it much easier to stay organized that way. I hated those composition notebooks though. They always fell apart on me. And...well...I would get bored and start coloring in the white spots during class. I'd have very rainbow-fied notebooks by the end of the year.

 

[Becky2005]

These are the pencils that are covered with a plastic sleeve of decoration rather than having the decorations actually painted on the wood.

Oh, OK, thanks...I never could figure that out but that's because I'm sitting here thinking they would be some sort of plastic looking pencil & was since I had never seen such a thing & it's not like it's advertised on the pencil as a "plastic pencil".

So, basically the "Happy Birthday" pencils or any of the holiday pencils that my kids get FROM the teachers are the kind they don't want them to have at school. OK then. My kids are always getting tons of goody bags since they get extra services, they get the one from the main teacher but then 1 from the specialists too. Usually with the pencils.

 

[tigerdragon]

My daughter is running a school supply drive in our town the first week of August. She is having it put in the local paper that on August 4th she will be collecting school supplies to donate to needy kids. She will give them all to a local organization we work with that has a back to school program-we supply the kids with a full set of clothes- underwear, socks, pans, shirts and new nike sneakers-and a new backpack full of school supplies. Hopefully she will have a good turnout. She also does a lemonade stand and uses the money to buy supplies to donate. This school year in May she is going to try to do it through her school and save half the supplies for her school and donate the rest.

That's wonderful that your daughter is doing that. I'm sure you are very proud of her.

As far as supplies go, my DS just finished kindergarten and all of their supplies were pooled. I was in the classroom several times and I couldn't imagine if each child had to keep track of their own supplies. It would have been very chaotic. I don't know if they will do that in the upper grades but I'm glad they did it in his class.

 

[Katnmouse]

So, basically the "Happy Birthday" pencils or any of the holiday pencils that my kids get FROM the teachers are the kind they don't want them to have at school. OK then. My kids are always getting tons of goody bags since they get extra services, they get the one from the main teacher but then 1 from the specialists too. Usually with the pencils.

Ummmm... yeah

I often give my kiddos pencils but I always make sure they are the real wood kind.