[Bell]

At the beginning of the year, I get my kids to put all their extra supplies (i.e. pencils) in a manilla envelope with their name on it. I've read that many of you get a helper to sharpen pencils at the start of each morning. However, how do kids know what pencil is theres? I can see students getting mad because they didn't get the pencil they wanted or "so and so" has their pencil. Just wondering what strategies others use.

[Miller]

Last year I put all of their extra supplies in ziploc bags. Every Monday they got 3 pencils for the week. If they lost a pencil through the week they had to borrow...not from me. Every morning I would sharpen their pencils. I didn't worry about whose pencils they were.

This year I'll do the same routine, but the kids will get their own pencils. I will separate all their supplies from their pencils and keep those in cubbies.

[traci.k]

the plain jane pencils, so it's no big deal if they don't get "their" pencil. I let them keep their cutesy pencils. My pencil sharpener sharpens at the END of the day, so the pencils are ready in the morning. It is supposed to be a pencil exchange ~ you know put in a dull one take a sharp one, but my kids had trouble w/the whole exchange thing! Overall, it worked pretty well though.

[AngelaL]

Each student must have two sharp pencils a day. They are assigned a day of the week in which they are required to come in at recess to sharpen their pencils. I also have a container with plain pencils in which they can borrow. They must leave their pencil in order to take a pencil. If they have the cute pencils, it's more reason to keep them sharp.

[dlynneteacher]

My district encourages students to bring yellow pencils only. I have a community box of yellow pencils. I have two pencil baskets set out, one for sharpened and one not sharpened. Students turn in yellow pencils at end of day. One student is assigned pencil sharpening at the end of the day. He/she will sharpen two pencils per student. All students get two yellow pencils out of sharpened basket in the morning. If I give students a pencil with design (I do for great work, etc.) I will put their initials on it with a black sharpie. Otherwise, if they do bring a pencil with designs, it does not get sharpened in my classroom, they must do that at home.

[KcK]

My poor kids always have trouble when they come up to me. The 2nd Grade teacher is very strict about sharpening pencils and I am not. So they are always afraid to sharpen them and stress out over it. I had a student who continually was bugging other students for the first month of school because he was used to not being able to sharpen his pencil. Then he moved on to using this little tiny piece of lead left in his desk to try and write!

I have 4 electric pencil sharpeners spread out over the room. I have the kids sharpen two if necessary each morning. If they need to sharpen during the day, they are allowed, as long as no one is speaking to the class. My class seems to always be bustling and a few seconds of pencil sharpening has never bothered anyone.

If they run out of pencils, or need a sharp one during a lesson, they can borrow one of mine. I keep a can by one of the sharpeners and put neon computer labels around the top to identify them as mine. I don't really stress out over getting them back, I gave up fighting that battle a few years ago. Since I stopped stressing over it, the kids have been really good about it. I buy one pack of 24 pencils at the beginning of the year and it lasts the whole year. One of my more strict rules though is if a student leaves their pencil around the room somewhere at the end of the day, it gets a stickers and goes in my can.

I keep all their extra supplies in big ziploc bags on a shelf. Every Friday afternoon during our free time, I take the bags out and kids can come and refill anything they need. We ask for 24 pencils on our list, so the kids always have a bunch left over at the end of the year. We never seem to go through all of them.

[isellabrate]

All pencils in my classroom are a common supply. My kids must sharpen 2 pencils each morning. If they break a point or need another during the day, they put the dull/broken pencil into a basket and take another sharpened one from our pencil pot.

The students battle for the privilege of coming in early to sharpen pencils for our pencil pot. Of course, I have two electric sharpeners to make it a bit more appealing. This policy has worked well for many years.

[kyteacher]

I simply cannot stand the sound of grinding pencil sharpeners so each of my students have a hand-held pencil sharpener in a baggie and it is part of their homework/responsibility each night to sharpen two pencils for the next day. If they happen to break both of them, they can borrow one from another student or one from my can of pencils.

[shermie000]

I also hate the grinding of the pencil sharpener while I'm teaching. I buy 4 "professional" drafters pencil shapeners at Staples and place them on a shelf near the wastebasket. (They are the metal version of those little rectangular plastic ones). I convince my fourth graders that these are much easier to use and make a much nicer point.

I have also kept a small supply of new pencils. The students could trade 3 old pencils for a new one. Then, when someone didn't have a pencil, I would lend an old one from my collection.