Clever idea submitted by a reader (Diane, 2nd grade teacher):

I teach at a Title 1 school where students don’t have writing supplies available in their homes. I decided this year to divvy up all the used crayons, pencils, and erasers into used pencil boxes I had. I am also going to give them a spiral notebook so that they can have a summer writing kit. I am putting on the pencil box and a journal a label that says “Summer Writing Kit, Love, Mrs. W.” I’ve told the kids that if they come to our school next year, I’d love to see their writing from the summer. The kids are very excited about this, and it will hopefully promote summer writing! Worst case scenario, they’ll have a few more crayons at home to use over the summer.

Click here for the editable Word doc:

September 2024 Note: As you may have noticed, I took a break from this blog for a while. I’m trying to get back into it. Thanks for your patience as I relearn how to do it all! – Mindy