Tips For The Frugal Teacher Quentin D'souza, Editor And Grade 6/7 Teacher: The Frugal Teacher

A major concern educators have is the amount of funds that are being removed from the education sector. Teachers spend hundreds of dollars each year on classroom resources, materials, and teaching supplies. Here are a few cost saving tips and tricks that you can use.

1. Need some new ways to organize your students work or another project? Tangerine crates work well. Make some new friends at the grocery store. Those people in the produce department can be really helpful. Tell them what you are going to use the crates for and ask them to save some for you. I received 32 crates over 3 weeks from the local Loblaws store, for one class project.
2. Do you know a new mother? Ask her for baby food jars or baby wipes boxes. These are great for storing paint and other odds and ends in the classroom.
3. Looking for another way to store those odds and ends or a class project? Ask your pharmacist for empty pill bottles. They are great for buttons, erasers and small things that get easily lost in a classroom.
4. Is your classroom too noisy from chairs scratching at the floor? Make some friends at a tennis club. Ask for the old tennis balls, split them in half, and glue them to the bottom of the chairs. (A glue gun works the best.)
5. If you teach small children and your classroom has a linoleum floor, visit your local carpet store. They have square carpet samples that your students can sit on.
6. Need an inexpensive desktop organizer use paper towel rolls. Take four or five rolls and cut them into varying heights. Glue them face up onto the cardboard.
7. Spruce up your old memo pad. Glue it to a heavy piece of cardboard that is covered in wrapping paper. You can also make some really neat shapes out of the cardboard for an added effect.
8. Create pencil and pen holders to help organize your students desks. Have them cover juice tins with paper or paint. Use larger containers for bigger materials.
9. Do you want a safe place to store your scissors? Turn an egg carton upside down and cut holes in the cups. You can decorate it and then place the scissors in the cups.
10. Cans are great to store all those odds and ends in a classroom.
11. Make a note holder. Glue a paper towel roll to a piece of cardboard, face up. Slit the top of the roll. This is where you can place the note. A great tool for reminding students about classroom routines.
12. Use Styrofoam and wood pieces to make stamps. Cut out your design and simply glue it to the wood, just like a rubber stamp. Your students will have a lot of fun making stamps.

©Copyright September 2000