What School Supplies Do You Actually Need To Buy? A Third Grade Teacher Explains
Last Tuesday, I was squeezed into the back-to-school aisle at Target, still wearing my school lanyard from meet-the-teacher night, when a woman with a crumpled 2nd grade supply list pushed her cart next to me. Her 7-year-old was sitting on the bottom of the cart, screaming that he needed the blue Minecraft binder stacked on the end cap. She leaned in, half embarrassed, and asked, “Look, I know this is weird, but you’re a teacher, right? What should I actually get for supplies? This list says 12 glue sticks and four packs of notebook paper. Do we really need all that?” My cart already held an unplanned pack of holographic erasers my 1st grader had begged for, and a too-big dinosaur backpack I’d already decided I’d return later, so I got it. I’d been asking myself the same question for years, as a teacher and a parent.
I was 22 my first year teaching 3rd grade, and I copied the supply list the teacher before me had used for 10 years, never stopping to question if any of it was actually needed. That first week, I watched kids haul in rolling backpacks too big for our tiny classroom cubbies, fancy leather pencil boxes that held 20 pencils each, and 12 packs of glue sticks that got stuffed into the back of desk drawers and forgotten. By October, half those extra glue sticks were dried out, because a kid only uses one glue stick at a time, and we share extra anyway. I remember Mia, that year, who brought a $30 quilted binder her grandma had embroidered her name on for her birthday. She cried for 15 minutes on the third day when another kid accidentally spilled apple juice on it at morning meeting. We all sit at shared tables. Things get spilled. Fancy expensive supplies just mean more heartbreak when they get ruined, which they will.
After that first year, I trimmed my supply list way down, and I tell parents the same thing I told that woman in Target: most generic school supply lists are just copied year after year, no one’s actually checked if they need all that stuff. Let’s break it down: the stuff that matters, and the stuff you can leave on the shelf.
First, the only thing worth spending a little extra on, if you can swing it, is a backpack that fits your kid. That’s it. Look for a backpack with a solid zipper that doesn’t stick when you tug it, and one that’s small enough for their back. My 1st grader has a tiny frame, and those huge full-size backpacks with side water bottle holders pull his shoulders down and leave him sore by the end of the day. You don’t need a $50 designer one—my kid’s last one was $22 from Target, and it lasted two full school years. Just test the zipper before you buy it.
Next, folders and notebooks: buy the cheapest ones you can find. I’ve had parents spend $5 a folder for licensed character ones, and 9 times out of 10, we ask kids to label them by reading, math, and homework, and half get messy or crumpled by the end of the first month. If you paid 25 cents for it, you don’t care when it gets ruined. If you paid $6, you and your kid are both upset. The only exception: if your kid really loves a certain character, and it makes them excited to go to school, get one. Just don’t buy all of them fancy.
Pencils and erasers: 10 regular wooden pencils are more than enough for a semester. Skip the mechanical pencils for elementary kids—they break lead every 10 minutes, kids spend more time digging lead out of their desk than writing, and you end up refilling them constantly. Get the basic pink erasers, a pack of 10 is $1, that’s all you need. Glue sticks: 3, not 12. I keep a big jar of extra glue sticks in my classroom closet for any kid who runs out, so there’s no need to stock up for the whole year at once.
What about the extra community supplies that a lot of lists ask for, like extra tissues or hand sanitizer? If you have room in your budget, one box of tissues is great, we go through a lot during cold and flu season. If you’re tight on money that month, don’t stress it. Most PTOs keep a stash of extra supplies for teachers, and I always have extra tissues in my room anyway. You don’t need to buy four boxes just because it’s on the list.
What can you skip entirely? Fancy hard pencil boxes. A $1 zip bag works just as well, and takes up less space in a cramped desk. Personal art kits—99% of elementary schools already have all the crayons, markers, and colored pencils your kid will need in the classroom. Index cards, unless your teacher specifically says you need them for a class project, you don’t need a 100 pack just because it’s on a generic list. Rolling backpacks, unless your kid has a bad back—they don’t fit in most classroom cubbies, and they block the hallways when kids are switching classes.
That woman in Target had a tight budget that month. She said her older son needed new soccer cleats, so she was trying to cut corners where she could. She put back two packs of notebook paper and the set of fancy markers she’d thrown in the cart, and checked out with just the basics. I saw her at drop off last week, and she waved and said everything worked out fine, her kid hasn’t run out of anything yet.
I still overbuy every year, honestly. My kid always begs for a new pack of silly erasers shaped like fast food, and I usually cave. Last year, I bought him a new backpack when his old one still worked fine, just because it had dinosaurs on it. That’s okay. The point isn’t to never buy anything fun. It’s just that you don’t have to buy everything the list says, or everything the back-to-school ads tell you you need.
Most years, kids do just fine with the basics. Some pencils, a good backpack that fits, three glue sticks, and that’s it. There’s still always something that gets lost by October, and there’s always extra at school if you need it. No kid has ever gotten a bad grade because their parent didn’t buy four packs of notebook paper at the start of the year. I still get this question every August, from parents and new teachers alike. There’s no perfect list, but this one works for me, most of the time.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » What School Supplies Do You Actually Need To Buy