Made4Math August 6th

I thought I would share the way I distribute supplies in my classroom.  Hold on a second, let me first tell you about how I use to distribute supplies in my classroom.

Students would come into my classroom, grab the calculator assigned to them, and have a seat.

If we needed anything else for the lesson it was a huge disruption.  I might tell the students to go get a ruler, a pair of scissors, and colored pencils.  Students would forget what I told them and have to get up out of their seats while I'm giving instructions.  Whatever, it was a huge hassle.



Then I tried this:

Instead of just telling them what supplies to get, I wrote it on the board as well.
I still had too many students walking around wasting time.



Then I changed to this:

I handed out the supplies at the time it was needed in the lesson and the students stayed in their seats.  This solve my problem of students walking around the room, but it didn't solve my problem of a lot of wasted time.



I have finally found the solution and it's been working for me for the last 2 years....

Plastic Pencil Cases:

Right inside the classroom door is this bookcase with a pencil case for each student.  As they walk in the door they take the case that's been assigned to them and immediately check its contents.  If something is missing, they tell me and I figure out the previous student to use it and take appropriate action.  

Inside each pencil case:

A calculator, colored pencils, scissors, compass, protractor, earbuds, and the compass and protractor both double as rulers.  

Rarely do the students need supplies other than these.  Except pencils.  That's a post for another day.