The Pencil War

Last year my very expensive electric pencil sharpener died. It wasn't old age or a terminal illness. My sharpener was a victim of involuntary manslaughter. One of my lovelies thought it would be good to sharpen the eraser end of a pencil. Hmm... that didn't quite work out.

So, this year I decided no more sharpening for the kids. I would handle it myself. Well, you probably know how that has turned out. I never realized how often these children break their pencils. You just don't know until it's brought to your attention every single time it happens. And then there's the issue of losing them, leaving them all over the room during centers, chewing the erasers off, smashing the metal end into a deadly weapon. Pencils are a real problem! {I'm not dramatic, am I?} There has got to be a solution to this.

Enter the best idea for teachers EVER...

 

First of all, it's FREE, so keep reading. Mrs. Hazelton of The Wise Owl came up with this idea and it's brilliant. The idea is that you give each student 8 sharpened pencils and an eraser on Monday and they have to be responsible for them all week. There's more to it than that, of course, but it's pretty simple to implement and it works. I started using it right after Christmas and I have not heard one peep, not one, about someone's pencil in over a month! 

Now I don't know Mrs. Hazelton. This is not a biased review or recommendation. It's something I found, tried, and love. So, go check out this freebie for yourself. I'd love to hear if it works for you too.