Handling School Supplies

What is more overwhelming than having a three hour Open House? Your brain spins as you meet 27 new students and almost double that number of parents, try to answer a gazillion questions, and collect a mountain of school supplies from each child.  My first Open House experience occurred two years ago, when I moved into a new, and very unique, school district.  I was not prepared for the onslaught of questions, nervousness, swarm of bodies, and supplies.  That year, when students and parents arrived with huge shopping bags full of school supplies, I silently panicked but simply said, "Write your name on the bag and place it in the corner."  My second year, I had a little epiphany that helped me with both the collecting of school supplies and, afterwards, the sorting..  This year, I have several more new ideas that I hope will help with the chaos that accompanies Open House.

This is what I do:

First, you need to know that I collect almost all of their supplies.  Students do not have enough space in our portables to keep their own notebooks, glue sticks, pencils, etc.  Besides, I color code all of their notebooks and journals, so our team has asked that they purchase specific colored spirals and pocket folders this year.  I collect specific items and hand them out methodically as we set up our notebooks and learn the "system" on the first day of school.

With all of that being said, last year I set up bins or just designated tables in various parts of the classroom. I had 8 1/2 x 11 card stock signs beside each bin.  They were labelled:  "Pocket folders", "Tape", "Glue Sticks", "Composition books", "Pencils", "Hand Sanitizer", "Clorox Wipes", Sticky Notes", "Kleenex" "NoteCards", etc.  You get the picture.  Some of my teammates came into my room prior to Open House and immediately returned to their rooms to do the same.  It gets so chaotic and can become quite a mess if you not have a system.

I also had a note on the board asking students to put supplies in labelled bins without writing their names on them (this year we stated this on our 6th Grade Supply List) and to put the remaining items in their desks (pencil sharpeners, colored pencils, pencil pouches, and so on).  I do this, not only to help me keep the items organized but also because some students do not follow the special requests on the supply list.  For examples, they might bring 5 red folders instead of the assigned assorted colors.  By pooling everything, when it comes time to hand out and label notebooks on the first day, it usually all balances out so that there is just enough of every color for each student.  If not, I have been able to switch out colors with teammates who do not color code or I use some from my secret stash.

Being a little OCD, color coding is a must in my classroom.  It serves not only to satisfy my OCD tendencies, but also to help as I attempt to teach my students organizational skills before they go to middle school the following year.  Organizational skills is something that I focus on all year long.  It definitely pays off.  Even the students appreciate it, some later than others!

After they leave, I find a place in my classroom to store these items, some just until the first day of school, but some (like pencils, notecards, kleenex, wipes, sanitizer, tape) are stored some place out of the way,

to be handed out throughout the school year.

This worked extremely well for me last year and I think a few little tweaks will make it run even more smoothly this year.

I hope this idea helps someone else to maintain their sanity on such a crazy day!