Supplies

The list of supplies below includes

Tools

Supplies for Teacher Use

Supplies for Student Use

Tools:

My favorite tool (after my computer and printer) is my paper cutter. I use it every week to cut pictures, mounting paper, flashcard terms, card stock mounting material, “trading” cards, and more.

More recently, I purchased a laminator at Wal-Mart that seals 9 x 11 ½ inch pages. Whereas construction paper tears easily and often fades, laminating preserves. It costs about 15 cents or more per page to laminate.

Other tools to have on hand are good scissors, a hole punch, double-sided tape, regular transparent tape, a ruler, a stapler, school glue, packaging tape.

Supplies for Teacher Use:

Envelopes: 9×12” is a great size envelope for storing lesson components, and this size fits nicely into a file cabinet drawer. If you do not want to purchase envelopes, they are abundantly available, coming frequently in the mail. Ask your church secretary to save you some from the church’s mail.

Smaller envelopes, about half the size of the above, are useful as well, and sometimes note-sized envelopes come in handy for small items to be kept together. Regular business envelopes (size 10) are perfect for storing flashcard terms.

Plastic bags: Snack-size to huge bags are great for storing items from coins to large visuals.

Card Stock: Get to know the greeting-card merchandisers at your local retail stores, including the dollar stores. Although some companies are getting more strict about taking out of the store the display background posters (which are discarded anyway), a polite request that the merchandiser give you these backer posters might yield colorful, sturdy platforms for visualized songs, verses, flashcards, and many other uses. Each season a different bold color becomes available.

You might also find uses for the small backer cards that go behind greeting cards. These, too, are in vivid colors and spruce up smaller items. The backs make a nice, white, small card stock on which you might hand print flashcard terms.

Cardboard displays: Again, greeting-card and DVD merchandisers are good contacts for obtaining cardboard storage containers, shelves, or displays.

Wallpaper: Sample books of wallpaper are sometimes available at paint stores. Southwestern designs are great for making pots in student handwork. I used wallpaper and a sample book itself for my collection of songs on the life of Christ.

Supplies for Student Use:

If you are blessed with storage space, your teaching room should be supplied with the following:

For coloring: colored pencils; “lead” pencils; colored washable markers (used sparingly)

For cutting: child-sized good scissors with rounded points, enough for each student to use one (The first example is not a good choice because it is not comfortable for a child and usually does not cut well.)

For attaching: washable white school glue; glue sticks (they are more user-friendly than school glue); sewing snaps (enlarged below) for moving parts (in my opinion, they are safer and work better on paper than brass fasteners); brass fasteners for attaching moving parts to thick card stock; transparent tape (applied by the teacher)

For extras: sand to glue on a handwork picture for the ground; sheep’s wool, cotton, or fiberfill for clouds or sheep

Tools:

Supplies for Teacher Use:

Supplies for Student Use: