Teacher School Supplies Gift Bag #BagItForward #cfk

This “Back to School” season, we donated extra school supplies (for the 3rd year in a row) as part of a sponsored campaign for Collective Bias® with Champions for Kids called Elmer’s Bag It Forward! There are so many great organizations you can donate to. But, there are probably individual families and teachers who would so appreciate a donation as well! As a for­mer teacher (I taught high school biol­ogy until just after Lit­tle Brother was born), I know first hand how much many teach­ers end up spend­ing of their own money on var­i­ous class­room mate­ri­als. So, we put together a gift bag of extra school supplies to donate to the 1st grade teachers at Big Brother’s school!  The Bag It Forward campaign is such a great way to give back to others–and SO simple too! The general idea behind it is that while you’re out shopping for school supplies, you get two bags–one for your child/family and one bag for donation to a local school or charity. You can make the donation as simple or elaborate as you like. Some do supplies in a grocery sack, some in cute displays, or some in a child’s backpack. Last year we did supplies in a file crate. So, I decided to change things up this year so that his teacher could keep the bag as a cute gift. To get directions on making the bag (it’s crazy easy by the way), just click here —> chalkboard teacher tote.

For the donation itself, you just need to do some school supply shopping! We did ours while we were getting all of Big Brother’s 1st grade supplies. This time of year is the time to stock up anyway–so many awesome deals. So, we just bought extras of the items on his school supply list (for the teachers to give to students who couldn’t afford supplies) and a few things for the teachers to use themselves. You can see our whole shopping experience in this Google+ album here.Back at home we put everything together and then we took it up to school! His teacher was so excited to receive the extra supplies! So, I know the first grade teachers at his school are going to be putting this bag of supplies to very good use. Awesome, right?! It’s such a simple way to help out a school or charity! So, I encourage you to join the #BagItForward Champions for Kids Simple Service Project. It’s easy to do and a great way to get kids involved in giving to others!  For more information on the campaign, be sure to visit the Bag It Forward and Champions for Kids websites. In addition, you can also follow Elmer’s on Facebook & Twitter and Bag it Forward on Pinterest.

Will you (or have you) bagged it forward?!