Although you’ll be buying basically the same things you always do for school supplies, you may want to take into consideration the following suggestions:
- Backpack–Consider buying a backpack that you can throw in the washer or can easily clean with disinfectant wipes. Please also check their backpacks daily (especially the littles) as children sometimes leave food in there that may spoil and damage their school supplies and materials.
- Face masks–My district (LAUSD) is requiring students to wear masks. The easiest thing is to buy disposable masks, but you may have to weigh the cost between disposable and reusable cloth masks. Besides the mask they have on for the day, consider packing an extra mask in their backpack. Students break the loops of their disposable masks or soil them. Reusable masks need to be washed daily, so they will require more maintenance but may be more cost effective.
- Reusable water bottle–From what I heard, the water fountains will be turned on for the coming school year. However, you may want to buy plastic water bottles so they can just dispose of them when they’re done. Another possibility would be to invest in a reusable water bottle that they can sip on throughout the day. My concern with the water fountain is that some kids attach their mouths to the fixture and can contaminate and transmit germs.
- School supplies–Gone for now are the communal school supplies. Every student will be using their own supplies. You can buy a pencil box and empty out the crayons in there along with pencils, scissors and glue sticks.
- Hand sanitizer–Every student should have their own bottle of hand sanitizer. Although hand washing is preferred, there are times the sinks may be occupied or are not quickly accessible. The small travel-sized refillable bottles can be attached to the backpack for easy access.
- Disinfecting wipes–Children eat breakfast in the classroom, so having their own wipes will help keep their desk clean before they eat and throughout the day as needed. They can also disinfect their school supplies.
- Hair ties–We’re supposed to try to avoid touching our face as much as possible, so it makes sense that girls should have their hair in a pony tail, braid or styled in a way to avoid having them touching their face.
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