Then I remembered this trick that a colleague showed me a few years back. She taught in Grade 8. Whenever she would hand out a protractor to a student, they would give her one of their shoes. She stored them under her desk. When they returned the protractor, they got their shoe back. GENIUS!
I tried it with my 9 and 10 year olds this year and it worked like magic! No more lost (or stolen) rulers and protractors! And Manda Panda loves guarding the shoes while the kids work.
I only had one little girl who was concerned about the fact that she was taking off her shoe. She was worried about having a fire drill and not wearing both her shoes. I simply told her that she could avoid this all together by having her own supplies and taking care of them! Problem solved!
Do you have a fun way of keeping track of your class supplies?