At the beginning of the school year, we know it’s all about herding cats and teaching procedures. Those back-to-school procedures must include how to use our school supplies. Those school supply procedures are the idea behind our School Supply Research Project!
School Supplies Anchor Charts
For each of our school supplies, we create an anchor chart. Before our first time using each school supply, we create an anchor about what the supply can and cannot do!
The students share the do’s and don’ts of each of the supplies so they have ownership of the procedures! This is key to a successful classroom: students must be allowed to take ownership of their classroom! They must have a voice in setting procedures and expectations. I tell my students that it is not MY classroom but OUR classroom. And it’s not MY stuff but OUR stuff! This ownership means we have more respect for our stuff! And we have less damage to our supplies!
Note: we’ve had people ask why we don’t use “should” and “should not” on the anchor charts. Here’s why: can and can not set very explicit definite boundaries. Setting these boundaries is key to success. We don’t want to suggest our students do a procedure or routine, we want them to know that is an expectation. So we use can and can not to set high expectations.
How it works:
We typically do one supply a day, but this is organic. We introduce the supply as we need it for the first time. So there might be a day when we do two supplies, but typically, just one a day.
I show the supply and ask students to identify the school supply.
Then I get silly and pretend to use the supply for ridiculous things. Cue the squeals and chaos.
Next, I ask for help because I don’t know how to use the supply.
Students share how to use the supply. I record their rules/procedures on the graphic organizer.
Finally, I ask them to help me find ways to avoid using our supplies. As they share their procedures, I record them.If they miss a rule or procedure that we need on the list, I will hint about it, ask about it or act it out so we can put it on our list.
Students can also write or draw about how to use the school supplies! (This is optional!)
School Supplies In Action
After we make our anchor chart, our next back-to-school activity is designed to meet several objectives: fine motor skills, cutting, gluing, coloring, number recognition, and number order! Plus, we’re getting to put those school supplies to use! And they’re fun! These are our school supply puzzles! We do the first few of these together so I can model how to do them. After we have done the first few, students do these independently, which means I can have some time in the first weeks of school to pull small groups or pull kids one-on-one for assessment!
Not only are we learning how to safely use our supplies, but fine motor practice, coloring, cutting, and gluing practice are a must. These next two pictures show you how much students grow. The top picture was taken during the first two days of school. The bottom picture was the next week. Both pictures are from the same student. These necessary skills improved because we spent time each day working on these puzzles.
Back To School Center Activities
And of course, we have back-to-school supply math and literacy centers for letters, sounds, numbers, and counting!
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