Must Have Classroom Supplies

I'm excited to bring you a list of must have classroom supplies! These are some of my favorite teacher tools that I think every classroom should have. I often get asked, "Where'd you get that??" on items people see in pictures on my blog, IG, FB, etc. so I decided to make a list where you can find all my favorite things in one place!

Can I first just say that I am obsessed with shopping on Amazon?! It's just way too easy to click order - the hard part is making sure I bring the boxes inside before Mr. Giraffe sees :)

I provided links in this post to all my favorite things so you can find them easy and wanted to give you all a heads up that they are Amazon affiliate links. What that basically means is that it's no extra cost to you but I get commission for purchases made through links in this post. These are all favorite things of mine that I personally use and love that I'm excited to share with you and provide links to make it easy for you to check them out!

Teacher Tools
(Some of these links are Amazon affiliate links - see above)

One thing I'm totally obsessed with are my rainbow drawers!
I'm a little roygbiv obsessed and these are great for organizing math and literacy centers! I also use the 3rd one (yes, I have 3!) for my colored copy paper. Each drawer is a different color paper. I always put everything in color order hence the #teacherproblems hashtag I used when I shared this on Instagram.

One of my other absolute FAVORITE things is my personal laminator! 

Laminate. the. world.
Seriously, though, I love it. How did I ever not have one? It's so nice to be able to laminate things while sitting on my couch :) There's no line, no one else can jam it, and - best of all - I love how the lamination is so much thicker than the big lounge style laminator I was using before. The centers I laminate are SO durable.

I get all my lamination pouches on Amazon too!


If you don't have a MAGNETIC pocket chart, you need one... yesterday!
I can't believe I even deliberated over a few dollars between the magnetic and regular pocket chart when I bought mine.

It is AWESOME to be able to just grab it from the pocket chart center and put it on the whiteboard instantly without clips or magnets or hooks.

I use my pocket chart for a ton of different word sorts, math sorts, graphing, all kinds of stuff!

For word sorts like this, I have them for all of the different phonics sounds to spell out the words, sort them by word family, etc. Check out my Phonics Pocket Chart Centers Bundle to see all my phonics pocket chart centers.


Okay so you want to use your pocket chart centers but now you have to cut them out!
I secretly love cutting out lamination but I'm horrible about waiting until I have a million things to laminate and try to do it all at once.

Tools to do this are a must or you will have sore hands... and possibly grumpy family members with sore hands if not :)

My husband claims he cannot help cut anymore because his thumb goes numb. I call shenanigans but I suppose I should be thankful he helped me cut for as long as he did. :)

My first go-to item for cutting out centers is my paper cutter. It's great for pocket chart cards and all the things with straight edges and simple cuts.

BUT: For cutting out smaller pieces and when I want better precision, my handy dandy rotary cutter works wonders!

I've had so many people ask me about it when I showed this picture in my telling time post! I bought the rotary cutter (yellow thing in picture above), the green mat you see with it, and the ruler because, well, I'm a perfectionist and the ruler helps me have perfectly straight lines.

It's also the only thing my husband will use to help me cut things out so it was worth every penny to me :)

Another hand saving tool I think every teacher needs is a wall staple remover!
You simply slide it under the staple on the wall and it pulls out. Sooo necessary for bulletin board changing!

I know a lot of people aren't allowed to staple into their wall so removable hooks are awesome for this because they come off without damaging the wall when you're done with them. You can get them pretty much anywhere and they're not very expensive!

Here, you can see them holding up buckets in my pocket chart center but you can use them for so many different things!


I also love magnetic hooks! I use them constantly!

I use them to hang things on my whiteboard all the time.

What are those cards hanging on you ask? Colorful binder rings!
I use binder rings for so many things!

You can punch a hole through anything (word cards like above, center cards, etc.) and put it on a binder ring for an awesome flip-able resource.

One of my favorite things I use them for is making grab and go center packs!

Get heavy duty sheet protectors and put double sided worksheets for any concept in them then simply put a binder ring through the top hole to connect them all and viola!

Kids can just grab the ring of activities and a dry erase marker to have a ton of activities to practice a concept. They're great for fast finishers as a grab and go center OR if a student is struggling with a certain concept like the EW sound above, they can grab that set and take it to their seats for extra practice. For some reason, a dry erase marker makes a worksheet seem like the best thing ever to kids, right?! A kiddo who normally stares into space to complete a worksheet with a pencil all of a sudden can do a whole ring of sheets with a dry erase marker.

Ready for another awesome secret teacher tip? Velcro tape!!

You can use it for SO many things but my favorite thing to do with this is make cut and paste activities into hands-on, reusable centers. It comes on a roll so you just cut the strip to the size you need, peel off the back, and stick it on. So easy and you can use these over and over!

Check out my fact fluency post if you want to check out this activity and a lot more ideas for teaching addition fact fluency!


I also use magnetic letters for pretty much everything.
I love THESE magnetic alphabet letters because they're such a perfectly primary font and the perfect size for word work. I also have the giant versions of these for the regular whiteboard which are fun for spelling words together where everyone can see.

Other Stuff

Okay so I know this isn't a teaching thing but I constantly get asked where my cats get their cute nails. NO, I don't paint their nails. :) They're nail caps and I LOVE them. You just slip them on over their nails and then they can't scratch anything, anyone, or each other... and they come in all sorts of fun colors and even glitter!

I use Soft Claws CLS Nail Caps Size Medium  (Amazon affiliate link) on them. They are so fun because they come in a ton of different colors. Don't judge me but I might change them for different holidays :) Usually though I just do green for our boy cat, blue for the other boy cat, and pink or glittery pink for the girl cat.

It can take a cat awhile to get used to them and not try to bite them off but mine don't mind them at all anymore (the girl cat used to bite them off but she's over it now) and they stop our kitties from scratching each other, us, and all the furniture!

I also get asked where THIS pirate costume came from... there it is for you!
Amazon actually has a lot of funny dog and cat costumes if you want them. For anyone questioning my sanity, my cat got this as a gift, I didn't buy it... although I probably would have. :)

I hope you loved all the recommendations! I will add more things and try to get links for all of the things I talked about so you can find them easier. What are your must have teacher tools??