What is the strangest thing on your kids' school supply list?

[ilfaith]

What is the strangest thing on your kids' school supply list?

Our brand spanking new public school (just had the ribbon cutting yesterday) has gone high tech, and instead of traditional textbooks, everything will be done with iPads

Each of my boys needs a 4GB USB Flash Drive and a pair of earbuds.

In addition, we are a "green" school, so it was requested that we provide only eco-friendly wipes, such as Method brand.

An article about the new school.
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2012-08-16/palencia-elementary-loaded-new-technology-debuts#.UDFNnY7rVUQ

We also need to provide a new 24-count box of Crayola crayons each quarter. I really should buy them all now while they are on sale...I will just have to hide them so they don't get used and then remember that I hid them when it comes time to send the next box to school.

[maestramommy]

1 brand new pair of mens tube socks. Of course I can't find a single pair anywhere.

[mom2binsd]

Melinda,

I bet it's to wipe off dry erase from Smartboards/wipe boards. Our school has each kid use they own, washed but used socks.

[MontrealMum]

Zip lock bags. Now, I get why they may need them. But I find it odd that boys are supposed to supply 15 large bags and girls need to supply 10 medium bags. I'm dying to know the rationale behind that one!

[n2ou]

Or, a tube sock for a water bottle (with ice), so it doesn't sweat onto papers.

[mommylamb]

Zip lock bags. Now, I get why they may need them. But I find it odd that boys are supposed to supply 15 large bags and girls need to supply 10 medium bags. I'm dying to know the rationale behind that one!

We had to get an insane number of ziplock bags! a box of quart, a box of gallon, and a box of sandwich size.

Most of the stuff on DS1's list was pretty typical though. But, a lot of it.

[azazela]

Zip lock bags. Now, I get why they may need them. But I find it odd that boys are supposed to supply 15 large bags and girls need to supply 10 medium bags. I'm dying to know the rationale behind that one!

I think they just want some of each size and boy/girl is how they split the class. Our school supply list is the same - boys bring gallon size bags and girls bring quart size bags.

[icunurse]

One blue erasable pen. One. Because you know that they never dry out or get lost. But don't worry, I have the other four from the pack here, sitting unused, hopefully not drying out.

[MontrealMum]

One blue erasable pen. One. Because you know that they never dry out or get lost. But don't worry, I have the other four from the pack here, sitting unused, hopefully not drying out.
:hysterical:

[Corie]

One green pen (for my 2nd grader)

[elliput]

One yellow highlighter for my 2nd grader. I bought a 3 pack.

[lalasmama]

One yellow highlighter for my 2nd grader. I bought a 3 pack.

LOL, we needed the other 2 from your 3-pack! We got a 3-pack as well, so she's going with more than needed.

[KDsMommy]

"fat" crayons and 2 "fat" pencils...he's been using regular crayons and pencils for at least a couple years now!

[maestramommy]

Melinda,

I bet it's to wipe off dry erase from Smartboards/wipe boards. Our school has each kid use they own, washed but used socks.

Oh that makes sense! Well, we had to buy 3 pairs of socks at a McDonalds play place on our road trip, because of course I packed no socks for the kids! Dh thinks I should send those. Do you think they'd be too small? They're large for kids.

[queenmama]

Nothing out of the ordinary for my middle schooler but my friend's kindy has to bring 24 glue sticks. TWENTY-FOUR. And this is per child. That class must do a lot of crafts!

[liz]

One red pen. As others have mentioned, I have the other 9 pens sitting at home and they will never get used. At least I got them for free with my target coupon!

[Green_Tea]

One red pen. As others have mentioned, I have the other 9 pens sitting at home and they will never get used. At least I got them for free with my target coupon!

You could give them to your child's teacher. Kids lose their stuff all the time, and she could probably use them for grading.

Lots of things my kids need typically come in multi-packs. I usually hold onto one or two extras (because when that dry erase marker runs out mid-year, then I have a replacement) but give the balance to the teacher to keep on hand. They always seem to appreciate it :).

[lalasmama]

You could give them to your child's teacher. Kids lose their stuff all the time, and she could probably use them for grading.

Lots of things my kids need typically come in multi-packs. I usually hold onto one or two extras (because when that dry erase marker runs out mid-year, then I have a replacement) but give the balance to the teacher to keep on hand. They always seem to appreciate it :).

Thanks much for doing this! SO is a newish teacher (became a teacher while we've been dating), and it's shocked me how much he still buys, no matter what's placed on the supply list!

[TwinFoxes]

Oh that makes sense! Well, we had to buy 3 pairs of socks at a McDonalds play place on our road trip, because of course I packed no socks for the kids! Dh thinks I should send those. Do you think they'd be too small? They're large for kids.

I think that would be fine. If its not, they'll just ask for bigger ones, what's to lose?

[kristenk]

I ordered the supply pack through DD's school so I hadn't looked at it before checking it for this thread. Nothing that looks too weird.

I was surprised to see that she needs to bring in 36 #2 pencils. That's one for each week of school. That seems like a lot to me!

She also needs earbuds. This year is the first year that she's needed those. Not a very unusual item these days, but a bit of a surprise to me.

[KDsMommy]

Well I just looked through DS' orientation packet and found the TEACHER's supply list...previously we just had the generic Kinder supply list. Many of the "wierd" things are on it, including earbuds, gallon ziploc bags, colored paper bags, thin paper plates, cotton balls, pipecleaners, LARGE glue sticks, Fiskars blunt-tip scissors, glitter, Post Alpha Bits cereal, Cocoa Puffs cereal, etc. :ROTFLMAO:

[MontrealMum]

That makes sense about needing 2 different sized ziplocks. I was scratching my head trying to figure out why girls and boys would need different sized bags.

I see that a lot of kids need earbuds. My DS' school has specified "walkman style headphones" not earbuds and it's been explained to me by some current teachers that it's for group computer instruction. Who knew? IDK if that's what earbuds are being used for as well, but I thought I'd put that out there.

[rlu]

1 brand new pair of mens tube socks. Of course I can't find a single pair anywhere.

For a winter sock drive I find mens (and womens and kids) tube socks at Burlington Coat. Not sure if you'd find them there in summer. Good luck!

eta: our list specifies AstroBright color paper, not the store brand that goes on sale, but the super expensive AstroBright paper. Not "strange" per se, but really, does the brand of paper really matter (pencils and crayons yes, but paper?)

[liz]

You could give them to your child's teacher. Kids lose their stuff all the time, and she could probably use them for grading.
.

That's my plan once school starts, though I may keep one red pen just in case someone else needs one next year ;)

[hellokitty]

The boys bring this and girls bring that are for supplies that they only need some items of, so they figure if the class is roughly 50/50 they can get enough of what they need of certain items w/o getting too much.

DS3 needs 4 dozen pencils, SHARPENED, and my poor pencil sharpener can only do about 2 dozen before overheating. I think that is the most annoying thing on our list. I am surprised that they have to be pre-sharpened, I always thought it was so much fun to sharpen pencils at school. Oh and I am surprised how most supplies are communal. When I was in school, you kept your own supplies in your own art box, now most everything, except for a pr of scissors and crayons get dumped into a big communal box.

[wendibird22]

Ziplocks here too. DD has to bring sandwich size and the boys, gallon size. I asked DH (at teacher) what all the baggies are for...cause for the life of my I can't see how 14 kids will go through 350 sandwich bags (7 girls x 50 pack). DH said the gallons are usually for the kids taking the little "readers" books to/from school and the sandwich size for pattern blocks and other small items in the classroom.

We too need headphones, and yes, like PP, no earbuds. We had to buy a pair because DDs head is too small for any of the old school walkman style headphones that DH and I still have around the house.

What I can't figure out from DDs list is why the 24pack crayons are to be labeled with her name but the pencils and markers are not. So crayons are hers but markers are communal? Odd.

Overall though her list was pretty small. Pencil box, scissors, folders, 1 binder, crayons, markers, glue sticks (also communal), pencils, kleenex, ziplocks, headphones, old tshirt for painting, change of clothes to keep in cubby, backpack w/out wheels. And though the list was specific as to folder style, material, and color, we were able to find what we needed (green pocket, red 3 whole w/ pocket plastic, etc).

[vonfirmath]

What I can't figure out from DDs list is why the 24pack crayons are to be labeled with her name but the pencils and markers are not. So crayons are hers but markers are communal? Odd.


Crayons have caused a problem in the past, -- who has the broken crayons, etc. But no one cries or raises a fuss on markers or pencils?

[vonfirmath]

One blue erasable pen. One. Because you know that they never dry out or get lost. But don't worry, I have the other four from the pack here, sitting unused, hopefully not drying out.

They may be expecting to ask for more through the school year.
Or maybe its for the teacher.

[mikeys_mom]

There aren't really any unusual items, but quantities of some stuff seems absurd.

Just put together all the lists for all 4 kids. All will be at the same school. Two in nursery, one in SK and one in grade 3.

Between my 4 kids I am supposed to supply 14 boxes of tissues!!!! That just seems like an unusually high number of runny noses.

[jammytoast]

ziplocks were the oddest this year. And I think last year I NEVER saw one come back home with anything in it so no clue what they're used for.......

[BabbyO]

Oh boy, I'm up for a shocker next year when DS starts 4K. I didn't even know that 5K was full day (which, at least in part, is why 4K is more important) until last month. Now I have to send supplies that will be communal. Hmm...I'm not sure how I feel about that. We always had to bring and keep our own supplies.

OTOH....with communal supplies my kids will never be jealous because Sally has her name printed in pretty rainbow colors on her pencil and we can't find their names because they are too "unique". Ok, my kids don't have to worry about that...it was just me with the wacky name! :)