School Supplies Bonanza!

School Supplies Bonanza!! I love school supplies! Back-to-school aisles at all the stores enchant me!

I love the crafting supplies at the holidays, and the journaling supplies everywhere these days! Michaels, Target and Hobby Lobby are my favorite for this. I am drawn to new writing instruments, journals, folders, notebooks, and the list goes on and on.

Once I became a teacher this addiction expanded to teacher and school supplies. All of a sudden I found myself searching the aisles for things to use in my classroom. My favorite stores list expanded to Teacher Supply stores, Lakeshore, Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, WalMart, Ross and Marshalls. Anywhere that I could find items to use to either set up my room, or to help me stay organized, or items for the students.

This addiction can get quite costly. Those of you that also have this trait, can relate, RIGHT??

There is something magical about looking through the areas that have been created to show all the choices available. It can be overwhelming at times. LOL!

If you’d like a FREE Classroom Checklist, click on the box below and I will send directly to you in your email.

Don’t you just love when someone appreciates teachers?

I have a sweet story to share, one year I was in Target with my son getting 24 packs of colored pencils, 24 spiral notebooks, 24 folders, etc. As I was unloading my items, a customer with his son (who was behind me) asked if I was a teacher, I smiled and said: “Yes, I’m just getting some supplies for my class.”

A few minutes later as I was loading the purchases into my cart his son walked up to me and handed me a Target Gift Card.

He said that his father wanted to give it to me to help me with the costs for the items I was getting. I was flabbergasted! What an awesome gift, especially when it’s unexpected.

Isn’t this a great picture with the book, journals, phone, flower? I’m drawn to these types of photos when I am browsing through Pinterest.

I LOVE PINTEREST – ESPECIALLY THE TEACHER BOARDS!

Often, I search through an entire scroll of “teacher” ideas. And of course, because of this addiction, I have for writing and organizational supplies, I find myself drawn to the pins about classroom decor and set up.

Various Office Supplies

Teachers today have such a wide variety of choice in themes for their room set-up; from farmhouse, or pirate, or owls, or birds, or cactus… I imagine the list can go on as far as your imagination can take you.

Then you can also decorate according to a specific color scheme: black and white, bright colors, pastels, chevron stripes, polka dots.

I tend to be drawn to the brightly colored rooms. And that is how I chose to decorate my classroom (even back then).

I have a FREE step-by-step guide for setting up an Elementary classroom (and Middle School too). Check it out here:

DON’T YOU LOVE PINTEREST!

Anyway, Pinterest has only made my addiction worse LOL! But at least this addiction doesn’t affect my health, only my pocketbook. HAHA!

Teachers have a passion for their students and their room!

In every classroom set-up and every little school supply we purchase or create for our students we are ALWAYS thinking of the students.

How will they interact with each other?
What system do I want to set up for them to use the restroom?
How can I incorporate breaks into the learning?

I wrote anther article about when students need breaks, here:

Do Students Need Breaks to Increase Focus on Content?

And this concern for our class and students begins at the beginning of August. It looks like the stores have figured it out since many are starting to tempt teachers with a variety of products out already. I saw three different displays that seemed to be set up just to tempt teachers when I was on a recent trip to my local Michaels Store. My photo at the beginning of the article was one, and here is another. Don’t you just love all the bright colors?