Markers, Tape, Folders and Erasers, Oh My! School Supply Lists Have Arrived
My kids’ three teachers have made contact with their new pupils via snail mail. Along with their pleasant letters — which attempt to psych the children up for the new school year – came the obligatory school supply lists. I know that I say this every year, but something about these very practical, but ever-growing lists bugs me.
See for yourselves:
One of our fourth grader’s supply list:
- One pair of Fiskars pointed-tip kid scissors
- Two rolls of 3/4″ Scotch tape
- One ruler, plastic
- 10 (.74 oz.) white glue sticks
- Three packages of #2 pencils with erasers
- One box of 12 count Crayola washable markers (conical tip) (fat)
- One box of 12 count Crayola washable markers (fine tip) (skinny)
- One box of 24 count Crayola crayons
- One box of 24 count Crayola colored pencils
- Three (Sanford) Sharpie markers, ultra fine point, permanent, black
- Nine twin pocket folders, one of each color, no clasps inside: tan, yellow, light blue, dark blue, orange, green, red, purple, white. (NOTE: Has anyone seen a tan pocket folder? I’m afraid this is going to be difficult to locate.)
- Two gummy erasers
- One pencil bag with zipper that has three holes to fit in your trapper
- One trapper (NOTE: I’m assuming this is like a Trapper Keeper from when I was a kid and not a trap of another sort, like a bear trapper, or cranky mother trapper.)
- Two packages 4 X 6 ruled white index cards
- Three Mead composition books, black and white firm marbled covers
- 100 sheets, wide-ruled
- “During the school year, I will be asking for additional glue sticks and pencils.”
The aforementioned list is not to be confused with the second list for my other fourth grader:
- One pair of Fiskars pointed-tip kid scissors
- Two large glue sticks
- Two packages of 12 #2 pencils with erasers
- Two boxes of 8 count Crayola washable markers (conical tip, fat)
- Two boxes of 12 count Crayola colored pencils
- Two plastic, two-pocket portfolio folders
- Six twin-pocket folders, one of each color: red, green, blue, purple, orange, yellow
- Three 100-page, wide-ruled Mead composition books, black and white firm marbled covers
- Two 70-page, wide-ruled, single subject, spiral-bound notebooks, one red, one blue
- One 4 X 6 spiral-bound memo book (at least 50 pages), solid color
- One plastic accordion style folder (string, snap or elastic closure)
- One plastic pencil box
- Three postage stamps
- Two boxes of tissues
And last, but not least, the supply list for the second grader:
- 24 count crayons
- 12 count colored pencils
- One pair Fiskars pointed scissors
- One binder, 1-inch, 3-ring View Binder (clear front to insert a cover page)
- Six glue sticks
- One bottle of Elmer’s glue
- 24 count #2 pencils (Dixon Ticonderoga are the best)
- Three block erasers
- Four pocket folders (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 green)
- One pencil case or box
- One letter-sized clipboard
One of the letters explicitly tells us not to label the supplies because “the items on the list will be used by the whole class . . . We will do any required labeling together in class.”
There’s one lingering question that has been bugging The Spouse and I for years that we keep forgetting to ask: What happens to all the scissors we buy, year after year for the classrooms? Do they disappear? Are they melted down and recycled someplace? Is there a black market for scissors? Why couldn’t we just have each kid buy one pair of scissors, be responsible for them the entire year, then take them home in June and bring them to the next classroom he or she is in the following year? Why a new pair every year? That isn’t very green, now is it?
Image credit: Fiskars.
Local mom and author Meredith O'Brien gives you a peek behind the picket fences of modern day parenting. With humor and candor, it's her take on real parenting in the real world.
Good God! I asked the kidlet, going into fifth grade this year, what she was told to bring in for fourth grade.
“A notebook.”
That’s it? Nothing else?
“Nope.”
And yet, by the end of the year, her messenger bag still managed to weigh almost as much as she did.
Comment by adamg — August 11, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
This is crazy. Where DO all the scissors go? And why does one fourth grader need 2 glue sticks and the other one needs 10?!? I suggest you purchase all white folders and with one of the purchased markers write the designated color on the folder (ie. “Tan”). That way your child will know which folder is which.
Comment by Charlie — August 11, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
@ Charlie! LOL — that is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while. “write the color on the folder” I’m wiping tears from my eyes. My kids don’t start kindergarten until next year but I’m totally dreading the decade and a half I’m going to spend putting up with bureaucratic crap like the supply lists. Hopefully my kids will learn to question authority, if only to themselves, along with whatever else they teach these days.
Comment by Liz — August 12, 2008 @ 6:56 am
I think these lists are absurd. What happened to the taxes we pay that go to the schools?? The parents should not have to pay for school supplies–the school should supply them (thats why they are called school supplies).
I sent my children to school with a pencil, a notebook. and lunch money. PERIOD.
Comment by Judy — August 12, 2008 @ 9:08 am
We lucked out with our 4th grader. His school supply list consisted of: a box of sharpened pencils, a large glue stick, one notebook, eraser caps, a black sharpie and a box of tissues. Not that bad really.
You’ll love this: his teacher told him to reuse stuff from last year like his scissors.
Comment by Kris Spazz — August 12, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
Ok. Most of the HIGH SCHOOL kids I will be teaching this year will not have 10 subjects. So why the 10 pocket folders? Let’s see — reading, math, social studies and science. (That’s 4) Art, music. (That’s 2 more). What other course work will they need a pocket folder for. I think the white folder with the subject written on it is perfect.
My three kids get their supply lists after school begins. Most ask for pencils, erasers, crayons and yes, SCISSORS. I have decided that this year, I stop buying scissors. My third grader is in the same class with the same teacher the fifth-grader had last year. He can just use the pair the first kid never got back!
Comment by Gayle — August 13, 2008 @ 10:27 am
My son is heading to full-day kindergarten and I received a letter from the teacher asking him to just bring a smile!!
Comment by Heather — August 14, 2008 @ 6:23 am
[...] to what fellow P&K blogger Meredith O’Brien received in her mail. You have to check out her blog re: required back to school supplies shopping. I’m simply blown away. She has three children [...]
Pingback by P&K Insider » Back to school mania — August 14, 2008 @ 6:38 am
My oldest is going into kindergarten this year, so this is brand new territory for us, but we haven’t gotten a list at all. My question is this: what is the point of specifying a particular brand of product, like Crayola? In my experience, other brands do just as well with fourth-graders who are supposed to be encouraged to get creative, for goodness’ sakes! I realize that kids today are perhaps more brand-conscious than when we were growing up, but is it right for the school to mandate that the products be a certain brand? And why does one kid need fat AND skinny markers but the other only fat markers?
Comment by Ursula Furi-Perry — August 14, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Alright I have three children so this is just to much to ask by the time I finish buying everything they need 18 folders, 3 crayons, 3 color pencils, 3 markers, 3 High lighters, 3 rulers, 3 eraser pens, 3 binders, 18 notebooks, 3 erasers, 3 paper towls,3 scissors, 3 glue sticks, 3 backpacks, and 2 diffrent sizes zip lock bags, hand cleaner, wipes for the desks, tissues not to mention we have yet to get the kids new shoe and clothes which run about $300 if i only spend $100 per kid oh wait what about sneakers for gym and a bike lock if they want to ride thier bike to school oh dont forget a lock for the gym locker and if you are in the middle school better stock up on water bottles cause it is so hot in the building that the kids sit and sweat every bit of it out. dont forget to buy the small size lunches that will get you a few bucks every day per child if they don’t brown bag it. awful alot when you really think about it come the middle of the year you have to purchase more supplies by the middle of the year because some how everything you purchased just did not last the year. when i was in school i could buy a pencil for .10 and a note book for .25 from the school because a lady would come around with a cart full of supplies in the morning and the money you had left over from paying for lunch wash always enough to get yourself what you need. guess i am just getting old lol
Comment by lynnd — August 14, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
My son’s letter came from his first grade teacher and it said she’d supply the pencil box with all necessary supplies. My neighbor (in the same school) said she received a school supply list with 20+ items on it, everything from kleenex to glue sticks. How can the same school vary so much from room to room?
Comment by Erin — August 18, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
Okay. I’m a school teacher in Boston, and I can say from my few years of experience that this is NOT the norm. If I ask for anything it is a “wishlist” for the whole class, such as Puffs tissues so the children don’t have to use the school-supplied tissues that are similar to paper towel (ouch!). Do your children go to a private school? If so, sometimes in a private school setting, teachers are not allowed to place a supply order at the beginning of the year. This requires them to ask for supplies from you, the parents. However, I can NOT accept the fact that these teachers have asked for specific brand and type of marker, crayon, folder, etc. I think that is extreme!
Hopefully this doesn’t give us teachers a bad rep!
Comment by Sharon — August 22, 2008 @ 6:19 am
Sharon,
The lists I posted are for PUBLIC schools.
I’m just wondering if this is unique to my kids’ school system, or whether it’s more widespread.
Comment by Meredith O'Brien — August 22, 2008 @ 3:09 pm