What do you label for school?

[ha98ed14]

What items are you labeling for your elementary school kids, specifically K? Unlike daycare, they won't be taking extra changes of clothes, so do you label shirts and pants? Do you find that labeled things really find their way back to you?

[egoldber]

Jackets and sweatshirts
Hats and mittens
Lunchboxes
Backpacks
Umbrellas

Pretty much just things that can easily be taken off or laid down and left behind. But the first 3 items in my list make up 99% of the items in our school's lost and found.

Actually, I don't even label mittens and gloves any more. It doesn't get that cold here and I just buy 3-4 pair from the $1 bin at Target per kid each season.

[brgnmom]

What items are you labeling for your elementary school kids, specifically K? Unlike daycare, they won't be taking extra changes of clothes, so do you label shirts and pants? Do you find that labeled things really find their way back to you?

Lunch bag
Backpack
Jackets

Yes, I've found labeling to be helpful for us. There was another boy in dc1's class with the same name & I was glad to have added our last name onto the labels.

[elliput]

Jackets
Backpacks
Hats
Gloves/Mittens
Lunchboxes

At my DD's school, the K teachers did ask that a change of clothes be kept in the child's backpack for emergencies.

[Kindra178]

Same list as above, as well as water bottles, sweatshirts and sneakers.

[PZMommy]

Jackets, sweatshirts, sweaters, backpacks, lunch boxes, and water bottles. Also speaking as a teacher, I always suggest that an extra pair of clothes be kept in the backpack (or I'm willing to store in a closet in my room). Rarely, do students have bathroom accidents, but there are times milk/water gets spilled or they slip in a puddle on the yard, stuff like that. When that happens the kids always want clean/dry clothes.

Dawn

[ha98ed14]

Jackets, sweatshirts, sweaters, backpacks, lunch boxes, and water bottles. Also speaking as a teacher, I always suggest that an extra pair of clothes be kept in the backpack (or I'm willing to store in a closet in my room). Rarely, do students have bathroom accidents, but there are times milk/water gets spilled or they slip in a puddle on the yard, stuff like that. When that happens the kids always want clean/dry clothes.

Dawn

I hope DD's K teacher is as nice as you!

The thing that really *freaks* me out about the schools is our district is that the emergency plans for the schools do not include any kind of emergency provisions. DD's preschool collected $5 from every child to buy 3+ days worth of food for the kids in case of an emergency. We were also to send clothes and other information necessary if they had to care for DC at the school overnight. The elementary school classrooms have their classroom emergency backpack but all it has is a first aid kit and a roster of kids and parents' contact info. No food. There are 600 to 800 kids in each school. I think this is insane. I guess they are banking on the fact that kids live close to home.

[TwinFoxes]

I hope DD's K teacher is as nice as you!

The thing that really *freaks* me out about the schools is our district is that the emergency plans for the schools do not include any kind of emergency provisions. DD's preschool collected $5 from every child to buy 3+ days worth of food for the kids in case of an emergency. We were also to send clothes and other information necessary if they had to care for DC at the school overnight. The elementary school classrooms have their classroom emergency backpack but all it has is a first aid kit and a roster of kids and parents' contact info. No food. There are 600 to 800 kids in each school. I think this is insane. I guess they are banking on the fact that kids live close to home.

I have never heard of this practice (I can imagine in California it's probably more common than elsewhere...earthquakes and all). Interesting. What do they do with the food at the end of the school year?

[ha98ed14]

I have never heard of this practice (I can imagine in California it's probably more common than elsewhere...earthquakes and all). Interesting. What do they do with the food at the end of the school year?

It's only her pre-school that does it. They donate it to the food pantry at the end of the year.

[PZMommy]

At my school (in Los Angeles), the school does have some provisions for food and water. However we send home a gallon size ziplock bag and ask that it be filled with snack items that will be used in case of emergencies and we keep those in our classroom. That could be a lock down where we can't leave the room for hours or it could be an earthquake. I believe the school has enough supplies to last for 72 hours, but we are talking things like crackers and peanut butter, not full meals. At the end of the year we send the emergency bag home. Thankfully we've never had to use them.

Dawn

[Beth24]

At my school (in Los Angeles), the school does have some provisions for food and water. However we send home a gallon size ziplock bag and ask that it be filled with snack items that will be used in case of emergencies and we keep those in our classroom. That could be a lock down where we can't leave the room for hours or it could be an earthquake. I believe the school has enough supplies to last for 72 hours, but we are talking things like crackers and peanut butter, not full meals. At the end of the year we send the emergency bag home. Thankfully we've never had to use them.

Dawn

I am also in Los Angeles and that's what we do as well. If I'm lucky the shelf life of the stuff I pack in the bag lasts long enough for 2 school years!

[ha98ed14]

At my school (in Los Angeles), the school does have some provisions for food and water. However we send home a gallon size ziplock bag and ask that it be filled with snack items that will be used in case of emergencies and we keep those in our classroom. That could be a lock down where we can't leave the room for hours or it could be an earthquake. I believe the school has enough supplies to last for 72 hours, but we are talking things like crackers and peanut butter, not full meals. At the end of the year we send the emergency bag home. Thankfully we've never had to use them.

Dawn

I *wish* we were this prepared! Do you have anything, a pdf for parents or information on your school/district website? I would love to forward it to our principal!

[crl]

Our K teacher explicitly said no changes of clothes to be left at school. She said to put them in a ziplock bag at the bottom of the kid's backpack if the parent thought the kid might need them. (DS hadn't had an accident in well over a year by then so I didn't bother).

I labeled jackets (not cold enough here for mittens), backpack and lunch bag and lunch box. Just used a sharpie on all of those.

Catherine

[PZMommy]

I *wish* we were this prepared! Do you have anything, a pdf for parents or information on your school/district website? I would love to forward it to our principal!

We send home a letter the first week of school. We start back on Tuesdy, so I should have a copy of the letter by the end of the week. We attach the ziplock bag with the childs name label on it. That way we have a better chance of parents sending stuff in. I can private message you the letter once I get it.

Dawn

[vonfirmath]

What items are you labeling for your elementary school kids, specifically K? Unlike daycare, they won't be taking extra changes of clothes, so do you label shirts and pants? Do you find that labeled things really find their way back to you?

Our school requested we send an extra change of clothes for our K students.
At registration they also let us know the supplies will be communal. YAY!

[MontrealMum]

DS' school list included an extra change of clothes so I'll be labelling all his clothes.

In addition, I am required (according to that list) to label all the school supplies; including each marker, not just the box.

I will also label his backpack, lunch bag/bottle/inserts, and outerwear.

[crl]

DS' school list included an extra change of clothes so I'll be labelling all his clothes.

In addition, I am required (according to that list) to label all the school supplies; including each marker, not just the box.

I will also label his backpack, lunch bag/bottle/inserts, and outerwear.

How the heck do you label a marker?

Catherine

[megs4413]

backpacks, lunchboxes, books, and outerwear. We're not supposed to label anything else because they're community supplies for the most part. Mine are in 2nd and K.

[hillview]

backpack (a dog tag with phone number on it)
spare clothes labeled and in a zip loc bag left at school
shoes and boots!
coats/sweatshirts (sweatshirt gets left at school)
gloves and hat
water bottle
lunch box

[o_mom]

I hope DD's K teacher is as nice as you!

The thing that really *freaks* me out about the schools is our district is that the emergency plans for the schools do not include any kind of emergency provisions. DD's preschool collected $5 from every child to buy 3+ days worth of food for the kids in case of an emergency. We were also to send clothes and other information necessary if they had to care for DC at the school overnight. The elementary school classrooms have their classroom emergency backpack but all it has is a first aid kit and a roster of kids and parents' contact info. No food. There are 600 to 800 kids in each school. I think this is insane. I guess they are banking on the fact that kids live close to home.

Do they not have food service at the school?

Ours does not do anything like that, but I would have to guess that the cafeteria would probably have enough non-perishable food at any time to feed the whole school for three days.

[AnnieW625]

Our school requires that all uniform pieces be labeled. Not sure why in regards to pants or shirts because the k-3s never take them off (a specific PE uniform doesn't show up until 4th grade).

So we do:
sweatshirts
cardigan sweater
jacket
pants
shirts
lunch box+containers
water bottle
backpack

I didn't label shoes either. For DD1's backpack I put a largish size label underneath the rubber coated handle, and DH found one of those keychains that looks like a CA license plate with her name on it and I put a label on the back of that as well.

[MontrealMum]

How the heck do you label a marker?

Catherine

I've been wondering the same thing, LOL! I think I'm going to have to sacrifice some of my Mabel's skinnies for this purpose because I can't fit DS' name on the white space of the markers.

[ett]

backpack
lunch box
water bottle
shoes/boots
snowpants, mittens, hats
jacket

[kozachka]

We have not labeled anything for school, and so far so good. Hope I did not just ruin our luck.

[swrc00]

I have had parents in the past label their kid's pencils before. Talk about a small space.

[o_mom]

I've been wondering the same thing, LOL! I think I'm going to have to sacrifice some of my Mabel's skinnies for this purpose because I can't fit DS' name on the white space of the markers.

A friend had to label individual crayons! She did say she only put initials on them, so maybe for markers you could do that.

[MontrealMum]

A friend had to label individual crayons! She did say she only put initials on them, so maybe for markers you could do that.

Good idea, I'll ask. This is our first year doing this so I'm very much ruled by not screwing this up! But honestly some of this stuff seems ridiculous.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

We have not labeled anything for school, and so far so good. Hope I did not just ruin our luck.

I don't label anything either. No one looks at name labels when they throw the 8 million jackets in the lost & found. It just helps identify the jacket when you are going through them. :)

We had school sweatshirts and at first, I put my son's name in it. But then he would come home without it and the ones left on the playground didn't have his name... I ended up taking another. hahaha And then I'm sure they got switcheda few more times over the year. We've finally lost the darn thing. Now I just get him a jacket no one else has.

We have a good track record of finding his jacket. If he doesn't have it when I pick him up, I make him go around the school and find it. It's usually on the playground or under a tree in the yard because he will take it off when he gets hot playing and abandon it. If he forgets his lunch box, it's usually outside his classroom.

Now for my younger son, they have requested labelled school supplies. :eek: He's at a different school for JrK. I haven't labelled most of his other stuff, though. Only his backpack has his name on it. Not even his most favorite batman Klean Kanteen.