anyone do community supplies in 5th grade? i've thought about it every year and i just wonder how the kids in this age group will respond to it. would love to hear your thoughts. thanks!
I have mixed views on community supplies, but realize that's not exactly what you're asking for. My daughter is going into 5th and her supply list specifically states do not label folders and spirals with student's name, so I'm assuming these will become community supplies. I teach 6th grade and the only items I will be taking up for community supplies is paper, graph paper, tissue, construction/manila paper and ziplocs. All else, pencils, pens, markers etc. the student will keep. I teach in a low income school so I have purchased some of these supplies for classroom use. I have noticed in the past those students that actually bring the markers etc, don't really feel the obligation to share with the class.
I do something similar to tb71. I collect ziplocs, tissues, clorox wipes, and sanitizer. The rest stays with the kids. We do ask that everything comes in unlabeled, that way we can label it together, and when I ask for them to get a certian thing out, it is easy to find.
I use some community supplies in the classroom. Instead of collecting all pencils from the kids, I take up 5 pencils from each kid (we ask for 24) as an emergency stash for later in the year. I also take up paper, tissue, note cards, pencil top erasers (they do not such fun things when they have boxes full), paper towels, post-its, and highlighters (2 per kid and they buy 5 I think). The rest of the supplies I expect them to keep. I do offer to hold onto some math supplies that we won't need often (calculator, ruler, protractor, etc). But I expect these to be labeled and each student gets back their own.
I made community supply boxes for each table this year. I plan on only using them when we are doing a community project, or during math lessons when I need them to grab supplies without searching for that perfect shade of green from their *not teacher endorsed* box of 96 crayons...
I pick up the kleenex, towels, baby wipes, and baggies, as well as folders and spirals. Everything else they keep, but some things I tell them to put extra in a baggie and place it in their locker. I pick up the folders and spirals because I try to color-code them for subjects, so it's quicker for them to pull them out and be ready. Instead of saying pull out your writing folder, I'll ask them to pull out their purple writing folder. I always have some extras in case someone bought all black folders, and if they bought an expensive one I try to return that to them.
I collect loose-leaf paper, tissues, clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, glue sticks, white board markers, paper towels, and band-aids. Kids keep their own binders, folders, notebooks, pencils, and one pack of loose-leaf. It works just fine.
I did something similar to many other posters. The only community supplies I collected besides "household items" (sanitizer, ziplocs etc) was lined paper and 1 dry erase marker. Students were expected to have and carry their own crayons or colored pencils, pencils, handheld sharpener etc. I also spend about $50 dollars or so on glue, highlighters, golf pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, and other misc supplies but many of the students who kept up with their stuff prefered to use their own, but they never felt pressure to lend it to those who forgot. With students switching classes, I don't think its necessary to make responsible students buy colored pencils, pencils, scissors, etc for all their classes when they can keep up with them on their own.
Last year I taught 5th and I took their pencils because they have a hard time managing them (some of them anyway) and we had community pencils. I also took one of their glue sticks for our glue stick bin and they kept one. My co-worker takes everything colored pencils, glue, scissors, rulers...everything and they are put into bins for everyone to use. She seems to like it that way, I would do that, but I'm not sure about everything being community items, plus you have to take time to get everything passed out instead of them just grabbing it from their desks.
