Glue, Markers, Paper, Paint, Pencils, Crayons..Are You Thinking School Supplies Yet?

Supplies seem to be popping up everywhere for me today.  Last year I was so blessed with an abundance of supply donations from parents! Look at this...

This doesn't even include the writing table that was also filled with supplies by the end of day 1!  Parents really do rock!

This morning, I was notified about a new 'Reward A Classroom' program at Staples.

If you don't have one already, you can sign up HERE for a free Staples Teacher Rewards card.  You will earn 5% back on most of your purchases...and we all know how quickly that could add up with all the supplies we often purchase.  As a bonus, the new reward program allows you to set up an account in which parents can earn another 2% back on their purchases (5% for Copy & Print purchases), which will go directly to your Teacher Rewards card for you to use to purchase supplies for your classroom.  How cool is that?!  If we're all buying supplies, why not try to earn a bit extra for free!?!  It literally took me about 2 minutes to set up the parent link.  You then get a letter to send home to parents explaining how it works and how they can link to your rewards account in order for you to receive credit.  It's definitely work taking a peek at!

Then, I was notified that day 4 of 'Melanie's Favorite Places Contest' is a chance at winning a $100 gift card to Staples!  Woowee, Staples is where it's at today!

Click on the picture to see how you can enter her contest, too!

I have also been working on supply posters for my classroom to use when teaching my students the procedures for classroom supplies.  

I made these supply posters with six different background options.  The yellow one above, plus these five.

These posters will later serve as a reminder all year long of the procedures for classroom supplies

Kindergarten Social Studies standard, E9.K.1, states that students must 'show that resources are scarce, such as a limited number of crayons'.  I spend time at the beginning of every year teaching my students the expectations and procedures for using our classroom supplies (of course I don't teach the procedure for every supply at once and some aren't taught until later in the year when that specific supply is needed).  We then practice, and practice, and practice each of the procedures!  Once we have practiced the procedures several times, it is then expected they follow them to ensure we are not wasting or wrecking the resources we have.  

For example, I model how to open and close the glue, then students practice doing exactly that.  I then show them how we use 'one dot, not a lot,' and they practice that on a simple project.  We do this part together and they must hold up the paper the glue is on for me to check before sticking it down.  This avoids gobs of glue being placed on their papers all year long, tears from their papers getting stuck together with overflow glue and ripping, and running out of glue two months before the end of the year.  We follow this same procedure the first few times we use glue at school.

I plan to pick up a few more frames at the dollar store (I found some simple black frames there last year for my school map, motto, etc.) to display these in our classroom, once we have practiced using each, near the storage area for each of the supplies.  I hung my frames with ribbon last year and they turned out super cute. 

If you like them, here's how you get them for your classroom!  Click the links on the side of my blog to follow me on BlogLovin' and Teachers Pay Teachers.  Send me an email at foreverinkinder@gmail.com stating you've done so and I'll send the posters your way for FREE!

Have I now got YOU thinking about supplies, too?!