Whether you’re approaching your first year of teaching kindergarten or you’re a kindergarten veteran, stocking up on essential class resources can make a big difference in your students’ success.

While this year’s return to the classroom may look a little different—with new protocols such as social distancing and book quarantining in place—having your supplies and class library organized from the start can offer peace of mind as the school year progresses.

Here are the best kindergarten teaching resources to make the school year ahead a success!

Classroom Supplies

Brynn Schaefer, a kindergarten teacher in Ohio, says a class calendar was pivotal to her first year of teaching kindergarten.

“I was able to add holidays that my students celebrate and have students decorate a cupcake to add on their birthday,” she says. “Singing a ‘months of the year’ song and a ‘days of the week’ song was the center of our morning circle time. Students loved looking for patterns on the calendar!”

Learning Activities

The items Schaefer would have loved to have on hand when she first started? “I wish I had a variety of Scholastic learning mats and learning puzzles!” she says. 

“These are easy, ready-to-use materials that can be added into literacy and math centers,” she adds. “Having these would have saved me so much time in finding and creating other center resources.”

Pocket charts are also an easy and effective way to set up learning centers for your kindergarten class!

Diverse Class Libraries

Schaefer also wished she had a more diverse class library during her first year, as it allows for more enriching conversations in her kindergarten classroom.

“Having characters that look like your students, and also look different from them, is extremely important,” she says. “Students need to see themselves in books to relate to them, and they need to see characters who are different to learn empathy, compassion, and acceptance.”

Shop all workbooks at The Teacher Store.

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