Tips for Back-to-School Shopping for Classroom Supplies – The Gifted Gabber

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #GoBackBig #CollectiveBias
I wrote this classroom supplies post in collaboration with Walmart’s #GoBackBig back-to-school campaign.

Educator friends, here we are in back-to-school season! It seems just yesterday, I was packing up my old classroom and moving into the new one, leaving a tornado of a mess to deal with in July. Well, it’s July already! In fact, I’ve already made my first Walmart run for classroom supplies.

Teachers’ Appreciation Event at Walmart

Did you know Walmart has a big teachers’ appreciation event coming up on July 13? Only 1,000 Walmart stores will be participating from 12:30 – 4:30 CST as a way to thank teachers for their service to the local communities. Find a participating store near you by visiting: walmart.com/backtoschoolevents. There will be cake, ice cream, beverages, and a photo station set up for teachers. Teachers, remember to take your school ID with you! The first 300 teachers at each store will receive a swag bag with some fun and innovative teacher supplies included. I sure hope to be one of the first 300 teachers at my local store! I am all about a teacher appreciation event! Just click the image below to get in on the back-to-school excitement!

Who Pays for School Supplies for Teachers?

I feel fortunate to work for a district that gives the teachers an allowance for classroom supplies. Many teachers are not so lucky. My mom during her teacher years never received a dime from her school district toward teacher supplies. All classroom supplies were purchased with her own money – usually around $300-500 a year. Several friends who currently teach in other districts are in the same situation. Whether you are shopping for educational supplies with district money or with your own money, it is super important to be organized about it. You must be careful to buy what you actually need and not make useless purchases. Admittedly, I have made plenty of wasteful purchases when classroom shopping in the past. I can remember running into the store with no set items in mind and just grabbing things on the fly. This did not go well as I wound up with teacher supplies I never actually used. Also, I wound up not buying what I did eventually need. I can’t tell you how many surplus boxes of staples I wound up with over the years and how many times I have run out of paper clips.

Tips for Staying Organized While Shopping for Classroom Supplies

Make an Inventory List of Your Teacher Supplies

This may sound super obvious, but make a list. And I don’t mean just a list you scramble together before you head to the store. Take an inventory of your classroom during the last week of school. Yes, this involves some ahead-of-time thinking, and it may be too late for you this summer. But keep this in mind for next year, if so. On the last week of school, do a thorough inventory of all student supplies and teacher supplies in your classroom.

• What did you run completely out of (or almost out of)?
• What classroom supplies did you barely touch?
• Were there any teacher supplies that would have worked better if in a different version?

You can make your inventory list on your phone, on a piece of paper, or in the Walmart app (more on that below). If using paper, tuck the paper into your wallet, if it is on paper. Not in a notebook in your classroom. Not in your junk drawer at home. Put it in your wallet so it will actually be with you when you get home. This way, the list will be accessible any time you need it over the summer. One idea from a teacher friend at school is to keep a Google Doc of the standard supplies she purchases from year to year. Before she does her shopping, she does an inventory and checks it against her Google Doc to see what she has leftover and what she needs to replace. This inventory time is also a great opportunity to get rid of classroom supplies you have had a while that have not been used. If you haven’t used the items in years, chances are you won’t ever use them. Share them with some other teacher friends!

Prepare for Your Shopping Trip for Classroom Supplies

Where to Get Classroom Supplies

Guys and girls, I have been around the school block a few years now (15, exactly). Truly, I do not think any store is a better bang for your buck than Walmart when it comes to classroom supplies. I have shopped at other stores over the years, but Walmart has always been my primary place. I am pretty convinced when I say Walmart is where to get classroom supplies at the most fair pricing.

Use the Walmart Website and the Walmart App

If you don’t already have the Walmart app, download it before you go because you can access the classroom supply lists for your schools. Teachers are uploading their school supply lists through the Teacher Lists website for their students and parents to access directly on the app! You can create a list for your personal classroom supplies list through the app as well. Then, the app will let you know exactly where in the store you can find those items and at what price.
Also, you can visit the Walmart.com back-to-school page for information and featured deals. You can upload your classroom supplies list for families to access on the Walmart website and app as well.

Set up Walmart Pay

Did you know you can actually set up Walmart Pay on your app so that you can shop and check out all through your phone? You can store your banking information within the app so you can check out without your card.

Use Walmart Online Grocery Pickup

As much as I enjoy the adrenaline of classroom supply shopping within the store, there are some occasions where it might be easier to use the Walmart online grocery service. Try out Walmart Online Grocery Pickup where you can order non-grocery school supplies during the back-to-school season. The last few summers, when I had no choice but to take my young girls with me for the hour-long school shopping marathon (which was due to my not being organized), I would have loved the online grocery service option!

What Do Teachers Buy for Their Classrooms?

For me, I typically find myself restocking sticky notes, page markers and page tabs, good quality pens (for me), a new stapler (because kids are rough on things), pencils, colored pencils, bright colored card stock, and small handheld pencil sharpeners for student use.
I polled a group of middle school teacher friends for their must-have supplies for the classroom. Collectively, here is what six of them said:

• pencils
• cap erasers
• glue sticks
• sliding pencil box (to hold glue sticks and pencils at student stations)
• colored pencils
• mechanical pencils
• notebook paper
• dry erase markers
• white board cleaner
• binders (for students who don’t have them)
• dividers with pockets (for students)
• cleaning supplies

I hope you found my tips for back-to-school shopping for classroom supplies helpful! Be sure to also check out my post on how to keep your own children busy during classroom set up!