Resource Bags: Ensuring that Students are Always Prepared

How do you make sure that your students are prepared for class every day? After my first year of teaching, I decided to create resource bags that contain everything that my students need. I know that this is not the choice for every teacher, but here is why I create resource bags for my students. 

1. You never know what resources students do or don’t have access to. I would never want a student to be unprepared because their families cannot afford the materials. I am fortunate enough to work at a school that orders supplies for students based on the teachers’ recommendations. If this is not the case for you, you can send a supply list home to parents and then collect the supplies when they come in. If some supplies are missing, see if you can requisition certain items or if you can enroll in any of the numerous programs available for classrooms in need. Creating supply bags allows me to identify this need and fill in the gaps. 

2. Creating supply bags also alleviates waste. Rather than replacing dozens of lost resources, students house all of their items in the bags which are kept in my classroom. In the past three years, I haven’t had to replace any items after stocking the bags at the beginning of the year!

3. Supply bags also save a ton of time! I never have to worry about sending students to retrieve missing or forgotten items. Forget spending thirty minutes to gather project supplies in the classroom. They are always ready-to-go in my classroom which has made us extremely productive! 

4. Thanks to COVID-19, teachers are hyper-conscious of areas that breed germs. Rather than sharing classroom sets, supply bags provide each individual student with materials. This inevitably reduces the spread of germs!

These are the reasons why I LOVE supply bags. Now, here is how I create and manage my supply bags:

1. Supplies: 5 pencils, 3 erasers, 1 highlighter, 1 box of crayons, 1 glue stick, 1 black pen, 1 blue pen, 1 dry-erase marker, fidget toys (for select students)

2. Storage: I keep all of the resource bags in small bins that are organized by class on my back counter. 

3. Management: Students are welcome to grab their bags whenever they want them! They are THEIR supply bags. I want them to use them whenever they need them! The only rule is that all bags MUST be sealed and returned by the end of class. Students may not take any of the resources out of the classroom. If they do, I will not replace the items. Students are not permitted to leave the classroom to replace items that they removed from the classroom. This might sound harsh, but because I set concrete expectations my students rose to the occasion. I remind students of these expectations frequently and I always promise to gift students with everything in their bag at the end of the school year!