We don't have a lot of control over the if and when we are going back to in person learning in the Fall, but you do have control over how you will use best practices to set up procedures and organization that will limit the spread of germs within your classroom.
I have put together some suggestions I have from amazon that you may want to add to your wishlist for the new normal for school while social distancing. I know the idea of social distancing within school is quite unimaginable, but that's not the point of the post. I am merely making suggestions that may make your life easier if and when we go back to in person learning. My district is in Metro Atlanta with extremely high and rising cases and we are supposed to go back Aug. 3rd, but again, not the point of this post.
One thing I would definitely do is have separate materials for each child instead of having shared materials like crayons, pencils, etc.
To do this I'd use pencil pouches.
I used this exact set in first grade before and absolutely loved how it was colorful and fun for students.
I would also put a label maker on your wish list so you can label these pencil pouches as well as other things like earbuds.
Here is how I label the earbuds for each student. I had students keep these earbuds in their pencil pouches as well.
I've used book pouches in the past for students to get 3-5 books from my leveled classroom library. I have them get books on their level and then they keep these books in their book pouch for the week and get new books the following week. This is the perfect solution for students that early finishers. One of the procedures in my class was for students to read a book from their book pouch if they finish an assignment early and the rest of the class is still working on that assignment. I also made it one of my station or literacy centers. Students that were at the read independently station would read books from their pouch during that allotted time.
I also would suggest each student having their own pencil sharpener. This way they keep their own pencils, but also there is not a line for sharpening pencils. I really like the Maped Pencil Sharpeners. Some pencil sharpeners are cheaper, but I'm telling you these are my favorite.
If you are in a classroom with tables instead of desks I would suggest using chairbacks or seat sacks for students to store their pencil pouches and other items.
If you are planning to wear a mask and you also have glasses I would suggest this spray to help reduce fog.
These are just a few items that I've used in the past and had success with that may help with discouraging the use of shared items while trying to social distance and reduce the spread of germs during COVID 19.
Like I said, you can make a wish list with these items on amazon. Also, consider created a donorschoose project to help fund these items. Check out my donorschoose blog post about it where I shared the information I used when presented about this topic at a conference.
