The boxes work out great and it gives kids a sense of ownership so they do take care of their supplies better. I do not allow them to keep pencils in their box, unless it is a special pencil that they got as a prize or something. If a pencil breaks, they put it in the "needs sharpening" can, and grab a new pencil out of the "sharpened" can. I also have a can of pencils at each table so the kids share the pencils. I store their paints, colored pencils, glue/glue sticks in small plastic tubs on a shelf and we just pull out the tubs when needed. I allow them to only have 1 box of crayons, 1 box of markers, an eraser, scissors, and a hand held pencil sharpener in their box. My kids store them on a book shelf, and pull them out when needed and it works out great! I got them at the dollar store 4 years ago, and they are still in great shape.
I think either option of a basket or individual boxes is fine and can work well. Then they often put in other things like a bookmark, or a sticky note with words they want to have handy. Their pencil boxes contain one pencil (I think I might put in two this year after reading so many posts!), a fat glue stick, a highlighter, pair of scissors, a pack of twistable crayons (highly recommend those!), a "bathroom stick," and a fat eraser. I still label everything even though they have their own box b/c 1st graders are notorious for dropping thier pencils, etc. So I never really had a problem with them fighting over whose supplies they were. I put one on their pencil, their glue stick, their highlighter, and their crayon pack (not scissors). I have always labeled all their individual supplies with a small name label. While I didn't HATE the community baskets, I find that I like the separate pencil boxes better. Last year I switched to individual pencil boxes and am sticking with those again this year. I used to use one community basket per table for their pencils, crayons, etc. I am always looking for ways to become better organized. The way I am doing it now makes the kids responsible for their pencil(s) and if they are not taking care of it, I can speak to them about it. Some kids would purposely break off the eraser, pick at the lead or snap it in half and then go put it back in the community pencil cup when no one was looking and then take a new one. (I keep a cup on my desk with newly sharpened pencils.) I have had a lot of headaches with pencils in the past. If something breaks during the day, I take care of it right then and there by sharpening it or by giving them a new one. They can come to me right away in the morning to have it sharpened, if needed. Each student gets 2 pencils to be kept at their desk. It's kind of a "less is more" line of thinking for me. We use the colored pencils when we are publishing a piece of writing and markers are for projects. We rarely use markers or colored pencils but they are also kept in caddies and passed out on an "as needed" basis. The students keep their own crayons in a pencil box, I have found that they take better care of them this way. We almost always do scissors or glue activities as a whole group. Each time we need to use them, I have a student pass them out. I keep all the glue sticks and scissors in their own caddies on one of my tables. I decided to have some community supplies and some personal. I have now had the desks for about 10 years. When I had tables, I did it like you did this past year. This year will be my 14th year teaching first grade. What are your thoughts? Would love to hear your experience Thanks in advance for helping me with this decision! So I say all this to say that I am considering using individual pencil boxes this year for supplies- that way each child would be responsible for their own materials! NOW, I know this will not solve the messy problem and I know potentially that the kids will lose stuff anyways.
5X8 PENCIL BOX HOW TO
And yes, we practiced and practiced and I modeled and modeled how to use/care for the supplies!!!
no matter how much I "reminded" them or praised through who did keep their buckets clean, they stayed messy majority of the time and not to metion, kids would waste time "digging" for things or they would (occassionally) fight over things. HOWEVER, this past year I found that the community buckets were HORRIBLY messy. My tables would share glue, scissors, crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc. SO for the past 4 years, I have always used community supply buckets (table caddies) for each one of my tables in my classroom.
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