School Supplies

For me...
Confession:  I am an absolute office/school supply junkie.  Staples is my happy place.  (My brother used to work there, and he would tell me about what was on sale, when something I wanted was in stock, and he would occasionally stash things that I wanted and that they would run out of.  It was the best!)

Here are the school supplies that I absolutely must have to begin the new school year:

I am selfish about my supplies.  I do not share.  I keep a set of thin line markers and colored pencils at home to plan my notebooks.  I start each new year with new packs, and I take the old packs to school.  I will then share my old old packs with my kids.

I have two new notebooks for INBs this year.  (I couldn't get a purple notebook.  I'm sort of devastated because I always use purple.)

Post-It notes are self-explanatory.  These I do share because I'm a nice person.  :)  Sharpie highlighters are the absolute best.  I separate the pack and keep half of it in my pencil pouch that stays in my bag for on-the-go planning (because it may happen one day).  The other half stays in my desk at work.  This year I bought a pack of Ink Joy pens.  I have some packs from two years ago still, but these are the clicky ones!

I also found those adorable self-inking stamps from the Target dollar spot for $3.  It will save me from using up all of my stickers.  (As if that would ever happen.)

For them...

Every year I go on a pencil shopping spree at WalMart.  Dixon Ticonderoga are the best pencils to buy for your students.  (Aside from the Bic mechanical pencils.)  During Back To School they are only $0.97!  After BTS, they are $1.24.  Still not bad.  I bought 10 boxes, which is 200 pencils total.  (They should last until December.)  I also bought 8 packs of colored pencils.  (Crayola of course.)  Just to freshen my INB supply.

I picked up a few bottles of glue, although I should have enough already, and two pairs of scissors.  I bought two packs of pencil cap erasers.  (My students really love those.)  I bought an adorable mini-stapler.  What's awesome about the stapler is that its bottom is magnetic, and so it sticks to the filing cabinet where my student resource center is kept.

Not pictured, I purchased 34 notebooks at WalMart/Target for $0.50.  I have to have a healthy supply of notebooks ready to go for students at the beginning of the year.  Many of my students cannot afford new school supplies, and when they get to me and I tell them that they need an old school "marble" notebook it throws them for a loop, so I've learned to be prepared.  I still have 17 notebooks leftover from last year.  I hope my notebook supply is enough because this year I have two courses that are using INBs!

Lastly, I picked up a 24 pack of the sparkly mechanical pencils.  I have a non-sparkly pack that I got in my supply order.  I only hand them out in emergencies.  Like when I'm in the middle of a lesson and a student decides that it is then that they need a pencil, or it is then that their pencil breaks, is too short, or their pen died, etc.  The sparkly ones I'm going to save until my end of the year awards.  Or for special students that are routinely unprepared and need me to keep a pencil just for them in my desk. ;)

What school supplies are an absolute must for you?  Is there anything that I am missing out on?