Individual Supply Kits for Distance Learning and More!

Individual supply kits are becoming an important part of many classrooms as teachers look for ways to reduce the use of shared materials and keep students safe. Whether you are teaching in a traditional classroom, a hybrid setting, or incorporating distance learning, having supplies organized for each student can make daily routines much easier.

Over the past few years, teachers have come up with incredibly creative solutions for managing supplies while maintaining safe classroom practices. As always, educators are doing what they do best, being innovative, flexible, and resourceful!

Ideally, school districts would provide teachers with everything they need to make these adjustments. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. Because of this, many teachers are finding their own ways to organize materials and replace shared classroom supplies with individual supply kits that students can use independently.

Today, I wanted to share a resource that can help make that transition easier. It’s designed to support teachers looking for ways to organize individual supply kits for students, whether you are teaching in a distance-learning environment or simply trying to reduce the amount of shared classroom materials.

Individual Supply Kits

Despite having flexible seating in my classroom, I always used individual supply boxes. For distance learning/social distancing, I would add a few more things to the box, but I like to keep it relatively simple.

Pencils (2-3)
Eraser
Scissors
Glue stick
Crayons

Here are the things I would add for distance learning or individual supply kits during this trying time.

Pencil sharpener – less walking around the classroom
Small whiteboard – a piece of laminated cardstock works
Dry-erase marker
Eraser for dry-erase marker – I like these
Dice
Paper clip
Counters – could be Target erasers, bears, unifix cubes, or red/yellow counters. Start with 10 and go up from there as needed.

If you are doing distance learning, I would have these boxes ready for the students to pick up in the office.

Individual Supply Kits Instruction Cards

To add to the box, I’ve created some language arts and math instructional cards that each child can use individually. With distance learning, you can also assign students a task: take pictures with these cards and send them to you on Seesaw.

Here is what’s included, along with some ideas for activities you could use with each card. Laminate all cards so that students can write on them with the dry-erase marker.

Language Arts

Alphabet Charts – morning meeting chants, circle the picture that begins with /o/, etc.
Letters – These can be cut up and used for alphabetical order, find the letter, or make words. You can have one sheet uncut and another sheet cut up for them to match. You could also do uppercase/lowercase matching.
Short Vowel Pictures – cut them up, select one, and write the word. You can have them match the rhyming words, sort by beginning sound, or sort by word family.
Elkonin Boxes – Use the letters to make a CVC or sight word, or just write in the boxes with a dry-erase marker.
Sight Words – Like the letters, you can cut one up and have them match the words to another sheet. You can also play bingo.
Writing Practice – These can be differentiated as needed. In the beginning, just use the card with one line to practice name writing. Later, you can move on to letter practice, writing words, and then sentences.

Individual Supply Kits Math Resources

Number Cards – Keep together and match, or cut apart and practice letter order. Pick a number and count out that number of manipulatives.
Ten Frames – Give the students a number and have them build it and write the number.
Number Bonds – Practice addition with manipulatives and then move on to numbers. Finally, use these for missing addends/subtraction.
Dice Addition – Roll the dice twice and add the numbers together.
Number line – Practice addition and subtraction skills.
Spinners – I added a blank one if you would like to add in your own numbers. Students spin a paper clip and find the 2 numbers they need to add or subtract.

I added a couple more cards for shape and color recognition as well.

Organization

You can hole-punch these cards to keep them organized in each student’s box. When it’s time to teach a concept, you can simply say – flip to your ten-frame card, for example.

Two images are duplicated on each paper to help conserve printing resources.

I also provided differentiation within the cards. You can use cards individually, providing each student with appropriately leveled cards. You can also have all students use the same card and then switch out the cards for more challenging ones as the year goes on and their skills improve.

If this is something you might feel would be useful in your classroom, you can check out the resource by clicking on the link below: