To make a long story short, I don't want to buy 20 pencil boxes for the kids to keep their stuff in (crayons, pencils, scissors...). I planned to just have them keep that stuff in tubs in center of each table group.
But every other teacher has boxes. :-(
Is this something I should feel bad about? Do the kids really need boxes for some crazy reason that I'm just failing to see?
One person already commented about me not having pencil boxes ready... I just found it odd that this would be something that someone would notice about my classroom.
Answers:
No you do not need for your students to have pencil boxes and in fact it is typically better for them not to have one. They just take up a lot of room and are another possible distraction for students. It is much easier to have the supplies in designated areas and allow the children to pick things up as they need them. Appoint a helper, a child who is responsible, to pass out the items to the students when they are needed and pick them up when the activity is done.
Many teachers believe that their way is the only way things can/should be done. If you do something different, it brings up the possibility that there might be a better way to do things than the way they are doing it. They don't like that too much too often.
Just do things the way you want to do them. If someone makes an issue of something that you are doing, just say that you are not going to do things that way in your room.
I'm a parent of a 1st grader, and the pencil case was on our teachers list of school supplies to buy. So, if you cant afford it, have the parents provide it.
If you don't want to make parents buy, and still want to provide then get creative. You can make pencil boxes out of everyday materials- or buy cheap ziploc plastic snap and seal containers that fit your use.
When I was in school my parents bought my pencil boxes for me
Sure
Thats what they hide their blades in
I'm not a teacher but they should if you have desks that you can open up or put stuff in, because normally those are meant students leave there stuff at school, but if you have desks that don't have that feature, where the student would have to use a locker or a backpack to store everything, it's their option and not necessary.
There is no reason for you to buy pencil boxes. I used tubs like the ones you're describing when I taught 2nd grade. You can have table captains get them at the start of an activity.
In any case, don't waste your time worrying about this right now. You can always get pencil boxes later if you decide they'd work better than the tubs. You don't need all your stuff to be ready the first day of school, and kids easily adjust to minor changes in procedures.
One of the worst systems I've ever seen in a classroom was where a teacher had kindergarteners keep their pencil boxes in cubbies in a corner of the room. At the start of the day, every child had to get up and go get them. Noise, chaos, and time-wasting ensued, of course. Unless your kids can keep their boxes in their desks, don't get them at all.
When I taught kindergarten in a private school whee we had to buy everything except paper. I bought plastic pencil boxes that I was able to keep from year to year. I personally like the students having their own pencil boxes. But it is a personal thing. If you can find a way to do it without, go for it.
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