“Miss Monica! I can’t find my pencil!”
“Miss Monica, I don’t have any pencils.”
“Miss Monica, someone stole my pencil.”
I’m sure you have heard these phrases (or some form of them!!) in your classroom. I used to hear it on an hourly basis in my classroom. It would drive me nuts because I would have to take time out of my teaching to deal with pencil problems. I read a lot of blog posts from teachers who had really great tips – but a lot of those tips placed a lot of preparation and extra work on my shoulders. I knew I had to do something to get my students to keep their pencils and I knew that it had to be something quick and easy that would teach responsibility at the same time.
I came up with the idea to have my students learn how to “budget” their pencil use. At the beginning of the year, my students were required to provide their own school supplies. I asked for 24 pencils for the year. I took 22 out of their 24 pencils and placed them in Ziploc bags to keep safe for the remainder of the school year. That left my students with 2 pencils for the month of September.
I explained to my students that they had 2 pencils for the month and a the beginning of each new month, they would receive 2 new pencils. I got weird looks and sounds of shock from my students when I told them about my pencil plan … but I backed up my reasoning with some cool pencil facts which made it easier for them to wrap their heads around my methods!
Pencil Fact #1.
The average pencil holds enough graphite to write roughly 45,000 words.
I tell my students that this statement hasn’t been proved… yet!
Pencil Fact #2.
More than half of all pencils come from China. In 2004, factories there turned out 10 billion pencils, enough to circle the earth more than 40 times.
That is a lot of pencils and a lot of trees. We have to do our part to protect the environment by using only the pencils we need and taking care of the ones we already have.
Pencil Fact #3.
Get Your Pencil on the Pencil Wall of Fame
This one excites my students (and former students!). My students do their best to try and keep their pencils for as long as possible so that they will be able to hang their pencil on my wall of fame. Once their pencil is shorter than their pinky finger, they are allowed to hang it up on my Pencil Wall of Fame.
Here are somethings you, the teacher, can must do in order to make this work for your students.
1. Have an electric pencil sharpener in the class to control sharpening.
Having this tool allows me to control those overzealous pencil sharpeners who really want to get their pencils on the Pencil Wall of Fame.
2. Be consistent.
Make sure to give out your new pencils only at the beginning of each month and DON’T CHEAT! By providing your students with 2 pencils at the beginning of each month, you are teaching them to be responsible for the tools that they need to be successful in class. DO NOT GIVE your students a pencil if he or she has lost 2 in the middle of the month. Instead, teach them #3.
3. Teach your students to problem solve.
When you start this technique in your class, it will take time for your students to learn how to be responsible for their pencils over the long term – especially when they cannot just go and get a new one whenever they cannot find one. You will need to work with your students to learn how to solve their “I don’t have/ can’t find/ someone stole my pencil” problem. With your guidance, students will learn to look for their pencils, ask others to borrow one, or bring some from home. This will save you and your students a lot of time in the long run. In no time, you will see that missing, lost, or stolen pencils will no longer be a problem you will have to deal with.
Do you have any tips for winning the pencil war? Please let me know in the comments section below.
Have a great day!
TH says
How do you attach the pencils to the wall?
I Heart Grade 3 says
With plain old Blu-Tac or gommette as we call it here!!!