Keeping track of those pencils

What do you do to keep track of pencils in your classroom!?  For me this year, it has been a struggle! I had the cups that were for sharpened and unsharpened pencils.  I had pencil punches for each kid and each kid had their own pencils.  I would fill the cups every few weeks with new pencils, brand new pencils, but they would never be returned to the pencil pouch!!  It was DRIVING ME CRAZY!!

Is your pencil cup full, or empty!?  I would fill mine every other week and then all of the pencils would disappear!!  I couldn't figure out where they were going! I found a way to survive the last two weeks with only giving each student TWO pencils!

That is why I brought out the magic pencils!!  I gave each student ONE pencil!  This pencil had their number on it.  Since we have two classes we also put our teacher initials on the pencils so that way we could tell them apart.  We told them they had to keep track of this pencil, and that we would be doing random checks to make sure that they still had their pencil!

Numbering pencils with a permanent marker is a great way for students to know which pencil is there and for you to keep track of which ones you find!

This has worked like a charm!  I no longer have students asking for a pencil every five minutes!  They all have a pencil when it is time to get to work!  I LOVE it!!  We rewarded them randomly with erasers, fun pencils or other little candies!  I plan on starting the school year like this next year!  What a great way to keep students accountable for their pencils!  You could give them a pencil every month, and then by the end of the year they won't ever lose their pencil!


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