In every middle school that I have been in, there has always been a writing utensil crisis! The kiddos lose their writing utensils faster than they can run! I love them but geeezzz... I used to keep a stock of pencils until I bought two boxes for $30 and they were gone before 1st quarter... Then, I decided to have them write their name on the board when they took a pencil... thinking that I would have a waaay slower rate of the pencil disappearances... As scatterbrain as I am, I was forgetting their names on the board at the end of the hour more than kids were forgetting pencils! So, I decided to create my own no-disruption, easy peasy fix to this crazy mess... which how crazy is it anyway that we can get so disturbed by PENCILS!... Anyways, here's what I have done for 2 years, and I looooveee it... more than I love chocolate, which is a WHOLE LOT!
I first buy the most obnoxious bouquet of flowers that I can from the dollar tree, as well as flower tape and pens! After all, you want to deter kids from using these unless they have no other alternative. I already had the pens. I bought the flower tape 2 years ago when I started this, and its still going strong!
I then cut the flowers so that they had about three to four inches of stem. You can do this with a handy scissors, but a wire cutter works best!
I then secured the flower to the pen with floral tape.
Like magic, I had created my flower pens for 2 dollars!
I have a little clay pot in the back of the room where they stay. If a student needs a writing utensil, without asking me (because I never want to hear that question again), they go and get a writing utensil from the back of the room... No loans for pencil boxes + no classroom disruptions over pencils = happy teacher!
Like everything, they will be accidentally taken out of the room, stolen, lost, or damaged... However, I had ten at the beginning of the year, and I am just replacing them now in four quarter! Ten pens for $1 + One bouquet for $1 + Flower Tape for $1 = a Priceless peaceful three quarters! I tell everyone about my flower pens because they have made my life so much easier!! What kinds of things do you do in your classroom to solve the pencil crisis?
love the flower pencil idea! I've seen it in retail craft stores but never thought of using it in my classroom! I'm on it this afternoon . . . I, too, go thru pens (I require blue or black ink for lab work) like hundreds of $. Thanks so much for the idea!
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