You do not need to provide any materials for your child for school. The constitution of the state of California guarantees a free education for your child. You've already paid plenty of taxes. I am given a budget each year for classroom supplies. If you do not purchase any school supplies for your child, she/he will have access to free materials at school. In order to encourage responsibility, I charge the students tickets for their supplies. Otherwise, students could just lose or abuse their supplies without any thought.
IF you wish to purchase school supplies for your child, here is what I recommend:
1. 1/2" or 1" plain binder (no velcro or zippers please.)
2. Lined paper
3. Pencils
4. Personal pencil sharpener with catch
5. A few dark blue ball point pens.
6. Binder dividers (set of 5)
7. Ruler
8. Protractor
9. Clipboard for doing work away from desk.
Additional supplies, not as crucial:
1. Binder dictionary and thesaurus
2. Set of colored pencils
3. Hole reinforcements
4. Pencil bag for binder
5. Franklin Spell Checker
Please DO NOT send the following with your child to school:
1. Toys
2. Folders (like Pee Chee folders)
3. Calculator
4. Fancy binders
5. Distracting pens, pencils, and other school supplies not listed above.
6. Lip gloss, jewlery, etc. The kids tend to play with this rather than complete school work.
Do you wish to donate items to our classroom to benefit your child's education? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Fun toys to use as incentives. Each day, the students who score 100% on their daily math assignment get to shoot at a nerf basket. If they make a basket, they win a prize. We can always use more prizes for this fun incentive. We can also use the prizes for auctions. The student who bids the most number of tickets wins the prize.
2. Kleenex
3. Quality literature for our classroom library. Perhaps the next time you go to Barnes and Noble you could pick up an extra book or two for our classroom.
4. Instrumental smooth jazz CD's. I like to play music while the kids work. The kids like it, too!
5. Clipboards.