Don’t waste your money on bad school supplies by purchasing the wrong items, cheapo brands, or overpriced stuff. Here are a few tips:

1. Ticonderoga. When it comes to pencils, it’s the only name you need to know. Don’t be one of those kids who spends all your time re-sharpening your Chinese-made pencil until it’s just a nub. Also, don’t buy pencils with “wraps.”

2. Stay out of Dollar Tree and Wal-mart, or at least avoid their generic brands and store labels. They’re junk and you’ll have to replace them later. Office Depot brand is also junk, especially when it comes to glue sticks. Imagine sitting down at lunch this December, looking up at your wonderful Cafeteria Elf on the wall above Verna’s window, and then watching in horror as all the pieces start falling off. First a mitten. Then a leg. Ugh! Save your elf the trauma of losing a leg or an eye; buy a good brand like RoseArt, Elmer’s, or Avery. There’s nothing wrong with shopping at Office Depot (check out the great deals from their ad this week); just don’t buy their store brand.

3. Get the right calculator: TI-30XIIS. It’s the required calculator at all D6 schools through the 8th grade, so buy it once and use it for four or five years.

4. Buy three spiral notebooks. These are critical. The picture at right (from Fred Meyer) shows you what to buy. And look how cheap they are!

5. Make sure your ruler has inches and centimeters. Make sure it’s actually the right size. Last year one of our students discovered her Chinese-made ruler was inaccurate by 5%. That meant her “foot” was really only 11.4″. She flunked a few math assignments before we figured it out.

The official CPE supply list can be found here (I’ll update it soon), while a supply list specific to Room 15 can be found here (use this one). Have fun collecting all your supplies and try to have them with you on the first day of school. See you then!