I’ve always loved office supplies with a passion. Seems only appropriate I became a teacher! I’ve been known to hoard pens, markers, crayons, pencils – and especially cute notebooks. (There’s always room for one more – right?) Check out these back to school finds! (Although, in all honesty, they can really be enjoyed and used at ANY time of year!
My favorite part about going back to school is picking up new supplies for myself and my classroom. (Let’s be honest, it’s mostly for myself..) I enjoy setting up centers, arranging the markers in nice bins and I enjoy wishfully thinking that all the markers will have their caps intact when Christmas arrives.
I wanted to share with you some of my absolute favorites – but more importantly: I want to know all about yours! Tell me all about them in the comment section below, I am positive I have room for just a few more items. (Not really, but I will try my best! I can definitely make it work! ;-))
1. Crayola Broad Tip Markers
Who doesn’t love Crayola? One of my favorite marker sets is this “Ultra-Clean Washable Markers” – because they are in fact, as promised, washable. I actually drew with one of them on some cloth to see if it washed off. It did! I love that the colors are so vibrant, and with the broad tips I can write both thin and thick letters.
2. Paper Mate Flair Pens
Flair pens are being raved about from teachers all over the world. I first noticed them on Instagram, where another teacher had written the most gorgeous rubric with different colors.
Teachers use them for their own planners, for grading papers, writing quick notes and more.
I love how comfortable they are to write with, and especially the assortment of colors!
To be perfectly honest, my students aren’t allowed to borrow these amazing pens. I need to keep them neat and intact! 😉
3. Faber-Castell Jumbo Grip Pencils
It’s not always appropriate to write using markers or pens, and when it comes to coloring I definitely prefer colored pencils over markers. (Gives me less stress when I color outside the lines. Seriously. How do the kids do it?)
These Jumbo Grip Pencils from Faber-Castell are amazing for kids (and adults, mind you!). They have small rubber “dots” that gives you a great grip without having to clench the pencils between your fingers. I’ve noticed a lot of kids find it more relaxing to color with them because of it. They also have regular grey pencils (the one at the top of the photo!). I definitely prefer these to any other pencils!
4. Pilot Frixion Colors Pens
These Frixion Colors Pens from Pilot seem redudant when I have the amazing Paper Mate Flair Pens right? Wrong!
What’s amazing about these isn’t just the gorgeous colors – but the fact that applying friction will let you erase them! On their caps there is a small rubber eraser, and it easily allows you to undo whatever mistake you’ve made.
This makes them my favorite go-to pens for correcting papers and grading. I want my language to be precise when giving feedback – what’s more embarrassing than having typo’s and errors in a teacher feedback?
5. Bananagrams
Bananagrams are great for playing the crossword-game they’re created for – but also sooo much more! I use them for literacy centers, for printables with word work, literacy tasks, practicing vowels and consonants, playing word-in-word games, spelling and vocabulary. The possibilities are endless!
There are a lot of cheap knock-offs on eBay and Amazon, but I would definitely purchase the real deal. These are sturdy and well-made, the first set I bought (a cheap copy) were hollow and had crooked letters that disappeared after a short period of time. Not exactly inspiring when you’re setting up a center..
6. Post-Its & Punch
This butterfly punch is something I bought for my scrapbooking hobby, and it’s a Martha Stewart Punch. I use it to punch butterflies (doh) that we use for many different things. Some days I reward with butterflies as a currency, and let the kids collect and trade them in for extra recess.
I have printables that ask the kids to illustrate amounts, and when using those printables at math centers, I leave this punch (and others) there. The kids then punch out as many as they need and glue them on. Punching on a post-it note with extra broad sticky areas will make the butterflies self-adhesive!
7. Large Perler Beads
It doesn’t really come across on the photo, but these are extra large perler beads. Of course, they may be used for crafts, but I prefer to use them as math manipulatives!
With a board like this, the kids illustrate different amounts in a math problem. They visual support is invaluable for some kids, but definitely helpful for everyone. They can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tasks easily, and get a better grasp of what the concepts include.
The possibilities are endless with these perler beads! I just have to resist the urge to sort them according to color, because that wouldn’t even last a day – am I right? 😉
8. Die
I love playing games in the classroom, and because of that I have die in so many different shapes! Using them for math tasks is a given. Rolling numbers to either add, subtract, multiply or divide is a classic at my math centers.
We also use them with different printables where the kids roll to write a story. Each roll of the dice will determine characters, setting, items, key words etc. In essence they roll out a writing prompt, and it’s been a great hit!
Another trick is to have a die with the exact number of students in your class. Roll to divide tasks fairly – works like a dream!
9. Felt Balls
Felt balls are amazing! Not only do these ones look (and feel) amazing, but they are so practical! I use them as math manipulatives (everything that can be counted works, right?), but more importantly as a calm down strategy.
I have quite a few students that are “fidgety”. They will tap their pencils, chip away at their desks, and basically be crawling out of their own skin by the end of a lesson. When this is starting to happen I quietly slip them a felt ball. It can be pinched, squeezed, rolled — and best of all: dropped to the floor without making a sound! It calms down the student, without disturbing the others. A bonus is that they are extremely cheap!
10. Do-A-Dot Paint Sponge Dabbers
These gorgeous dabbers can definitely be used for crafts. And they would be super cool crafts, too! I like to use them for printables instead!
Tasks that ask students to find, mark, cross out, color, select, match pairs and so on are perfect for these paint dabbers. If you’ve ever played bingo you know how easy it is to keep track of a sheet where dabbers are marking the numbers out. One example are some printables I use where the students must find the odd one out, and explain why. They mark the ones that can be grouped, and write their reasoning. Super easy and fun! Anything that changes things up are usually welcome in the classroom!
11. Clothes Pins (Bonus-Tip!)
Clothes pins in gorgeous colors can be used for classroom decorations for sure! I have hung strings in different places, and we decorate by hanging up our wonderful work with these colored clothes pins. Simple and gorgeous!
Something else I use them for are centers! Clothes pins can be counted too, right? It works wonderfully! I also have task cards where the students are marking the correct answers to different tasks (yellow = 10, pink = 15 etc).
At language centers I use task cards where for instance blue clothes pins are used for verbs, red for nouns. Maybe green are vowels and yellow are consonants? Endless possibilities!
These are my top 10+1 favorite back to school finds. And let me be clear: I’m not affiliated with any of these brands or products – I’m just a teacher in love with good stuff! I hope you got some ideas and inspiration! Feel free to share the post with your teacher friends! 🙂 I know you have some great tips, too! I would love it if you shared them with me! I can’t wait to hear what I need, but don’t know exists yet! 🙂
All the best,
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