I always saw a ton of different pencil challenges for the classroom, and they always looked like they would take a lot of work on my part. So I set out to develop a different way of encouraging students to keep track of their supplies.
Where to Find Inexpensive Pencils
The premise of this pencil challenge is that each student gets a new pencil on the first of each month. I make sure that each pencil looks different than the month before it. Dollar Tree is a great place to find cheap sets of themed pencils.
I also would get sets from Walmart in neon colors or pastel colors. during my last visit, I found several 12-packs of pencils priced under $2. Even mechanical pencils could be a fun an option at under $6 for 50 of them! And when I completely ran out of ideas, I just took a Sharpie and either made dots or stripes on the pencils.
Amazon also has some great options that you can check out as well! I always feel like Amazon is more expensive, but there is a convenience factor to it that is really nice. Some packs of pencils are larger so they may last you 2 years.
You can see the 9 pencils I used this past year in the picture below!
At the end of the month I would ask students to hold up the pencil, and whoever could do it got a piece of candy. But this really wasn’t the challenge…
Here’s the Real Pencil Challenge
The challenge was to keep every pencil from every month until the end of the year. This means that the students would have a total of 10 pencils that they had to keep track of by the end of the year. They all had different strategies as to how they would do this. There were some who decided they wouldn’t use the monthly pencils at all and instead just store them right away. Some of them used it until it got to a certain size and then decided to put it away. But I will say that most of them were unable to complete the challenge for a whole year.
By offering a little something at the end of each month, it kept everybody who had lost previous pencils still engaged in the challenge. For the students who kept track of all 10 pencils and were able to display them for me at the end of the year, I had a bigger prize for them. Throughout the year I watched clearance items and collected a bin of things that could be used for this purpose. but I always know that I don’t need many!
What’s the Point?
This pencil challenge was easy for me to keep track of. I wasn’t checking things weekly and I didn’t have to mark each pencil with a different number or flag. But the students really loved getting a new pencil at the beginning of a new month- in a way representing a fresh start. And I enjoyed watching all of their different strategies to try and keep track of it. I’ve had some students tie it to their desk so that it can’t get lost! The point of this challenge is just to keep them mindful of tracking their supplies. Overall I went through a lot less pencils in a year because the students were developing that attentiveness to keeping track of their pencil and supplies in general.
If you’re looking for more classroom management systems, this blog post about my classroom economy has several free downloads to get started in your classroom!
