Every August I put together a new planner, and every August I remember that the planner itself is only half of it. The other half is the stuff that holds it together.
So here is my whole teacher planner accessories list. Paper, binding, tabs, pens, and the printer that saves me the most headache, plus what I would skip if money was tight.
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Teacher Planner Accessories: The Short List
Want to just grab everything and go? Here is every single thing I mention in this post, all in one place. I explain the why behind all of it further down!
Printing your planner
- 28 lb printer paper
- 32 lb printer paper
- Bright white cardstock
- HP Smart Tank 7001, my pick, prints both sides by itself
- Epson EcoTank ET-4950, the upgrade
- Epson EcoTank ET-4800
- Canon MegaTank G3270
- HP Smart Tank 5003
Binding your planner
- Craftelier disc punch
- Levenger disc punch
- Metal planner discs
- A binder
- Fellowes comb binding machine
- Binder rings
Making it last
- 13 inch thermal laminator
- Laminating pouches
- Fiskars 12 inch paper trimmer
- Kadomaru Pro corner rounder
Organizing your planner
Writing in your planner
- Felt tip marker pens
- Colored fine point pens
- No bleed gel highlighters
- Pen and marker pouch
- Adhesive pen holder
Just for fun
What Paper to Use for Printing a Teacher Planner
Paper sounds like the most boring thing on this list. It is also the thing that decides whether your planner survives until May.
Here is what goes wrong. Regular copy paper is 20 lb. You print on it, you write on it with a good pen, and the ink shows through to the other side. Then the pages start tearing out at the punch holes around the same time report cards are due. Ask me how I know!
Go heavier:
- 28 lb printer paper is what I use for the everyday pages. Thick enough that most pens behave, thin enough that the planner still closes.
- 32 lb printer paper if you press hard or write with markers. It feels so much nicer. Just know your planner will be chunkier, so size your discs accordingly.
- Bright white cardstock for section dividers. Cardstock holds up to a punch way better than paper does, and those divider pages take the most abuse.
Before you buy a whole ream, go look up your printer’s paper weight. A lot of home printers only handle plain paper up to 24 or 28 lb. Heavier stock will usually still feed if you switch the paper type setting over to cardstock, but test a few pages first ๐
Print your cover on regular paper and laminate it instead. More on that in a minute!
The Best Printer for Printing at Home
If you print your own planner, the printer is the biggest decision on this page. Skip anything that takes regular ink cartridges. Between a full planner, center cards, parent letters, and everything else we print in a year, cartridges will quietly cost you more than the printer did.
You want an ink tank printer. You pour ink in from bottles instead of buying cartridges, and most of them ship with a year or two of ink already included.
And then there is the thing nobody mentions in these roundups: automatic two sided printing. Plenty of planner pages are meant to print front and back. If your printer will not flip the page for you, guess who is standing at the printer flipping four hundred pages by hand. It is you. It is me. Do not do it ๐
Here is how the five I would consider stack up. I pulled every one of these off the manufacturer and Amazon spec sheets, because the product descriptions bury this stuff:
| Printer | Prints both sides by itself | Takes cardstock | Ink in the box |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Smart Tank 7001 | Yes | Yes | 2 years |
| Epson EcoTank ET-4950 | Yes | Plain paper only | 6,600 black / 5,500 color pages |
| Epson EcoTank ET-4800 | No, manual | Plain paper only | Not listed |
| Canon MegaTank G3270 | No, single sided | Yes | About 2 years |
| HP Smart Tank 5003 | No, manual | Yes, up to 200 gsm | Up to 3 years |
Look at that middle column. The HP 7001 is the only one on the list that will both flip your pages for you and take heavier paper, which is exactly what a printable planner needs. That is why it is my pick.
Two notes so you are not surprised. The cardstock column comes from what each company actually lists as supported media, and the Epsons only claim plain paper, so heavier stock may still feed but you would be off spec. And I left prices out on purpose. I checked the ET-4800 twice while writing this and it moved thirty dollars in between, so click through for whatever it costs today.
My Pick: HP Smart Tank 7001
This is the one I would buy for planner printing. It flips pages by itself, it handles cardstock and not just plain paper, and it comes with 2 years of ink in the box.
The Upgrade: Epson EcoTank ET-4950
Also prints both sides automatically, has an auto document feeder, and better reviews than the HP. It is quite a bit more money, so this is the one I would sit on until it goes on sale.
Cheaper Ink Tank Printers (These Do Not Flip Pages)
All three of these print beautifully and cost less. Every single one of them is manual or single sided only, so go in with your eyes open:
- Epson EcoTank ET-4800. Manual two sided, cheapest of the three, thousands of reviews behind it.
- Canon MegaTank G3270. Single sided only. Up to 2 years of ink included, around 6,000 black and white pages and 7,700 color.
- HP Smart Tank 5003. Manual two sided. Comes with four ink bottles, roughly 6,300 black pages and 6,500 color.
One more thing, since I get asked: there is no ink subscription to buy with any of these. That is the entire point of a tank printer. HP does sell a monthly plan for the Smart Tank line called the All In Plan, which bundles the printer and ink delivery together, and that is a different thing from the Instant Ink cartridge plans you have probably seen advertised. If you print a planner once a year plus classroom stuff, the ink in the box will carry you a long time.
How to Bind a Teacher Planner With Discs
This is my favorite part of the whole process. There are lots of ways to bind a planner, and I have tried most of them, but discs win. You can pull a page out, move it somewhere else, and pop it back in without taking the entire planner apart. Try doing that with a spiral!
Two punches, two very different prices:
- Craftelier punch is the cheap one and it genuinely works. The catch is you can only punch a few sheets at a time, so a full planner will take you a while.
- Levenger punch costs more and is built much better. It punches a real stack at once. This is the one I keep using year after year.
For the discs themselves, get metal. Plastic discs crack, and the second one goes, your pages start sliding off the ring. For a full year planner, 1 to 1.5 inches is the sweet spot.
How to Bind a Planner Without a Disc Punch
Discs are not the cheapest way in, and you may not want to commit to a punch before you know you like the system. Totally fair. Other options:
- A binder and sheet protectors. Cheapest thing going, and you can write right on the protectors with a dry erase marker.
- A comb binding machine. Comes out looking the most like a planner you bought in a store. Downside is the pages are locked in once you bind them.
- Binder rings with the 3 hole punch you already own. Not cute. Works anyway, and costs almost nothing.
How to Laminate a Planner Cover So It Lasts All Year
I laminate the front and back covers every single year. An unlaminated cover looks fine in August. By March the corners have gone soft and the whole thing curls up at the edges.
- 13 inch thermal laminator. Get the wider one. You will end up using it for anchor charts and center cards too.
- Laminating pouches. 3 mil is plenty for a cover. Go 5 mil for anything students will be handling.
Covers only, though! Laminate every page and it gets too thick to bind, plus you cannot write on it.
Planner Tabs and Dividers That Actually Stay Put
Who has time to flip through a whole planner looking for one page? Not me. Tabs would be the last thing I gave up on this entire list.
- Sticky index tabs for months. Write on them, stick them down, move on with your life.
- Monthly planner tabs when you want it to look a little more put together.
- Post-it page flags for whatever week you are actually living in.
If you plan to print your tabs, put them on cardstock dividers, not regular paper. On thin paper, they peel off and take half the page with them.
The Best Pens for Teacher Planners
If you have not noticed by now, I love color. My classroom theme year after year was COLOR. I wanted as much of it in that room as I could get away with, and my planners were no different!
- Felt tip marker pens are my favorites for planner pages. Test one on your paper before you go all in, because felt tips are the most likely to bleed through thinner stock.
- Colored fine point pens for the little boxes. A felt tip is way too fat for a lesson plan square.
- No bleed gel highlighters. Regular highlighters go straight through planner paper. These do not.
- A pen and marker pouch so they quit rolling around loose in your bag.
Sticky Notes, Washi Tape, and Planner Stickers
None of this is necessary. All of it makes me want to open my planner, which honestly is the whole battle ๐
- Sticky notes for the stuff that keeps moving from day to day.
- Washi tape to block off breaks, testing weeks, and field trips.
- An adhesive pen holder stuck inside the front cover. Cheapest thing on this page and I use it constantly.
- Planner stickers
Paper Trimmers and Corner Rounders
These two are what separate a planner that looks homemade from one that looks like you bought it.
- Fiskars 12 inch paper trimmer. Straighter than scissors and about ten times faster when you are cutting a year of pages.
- Kadomaru Pro corner rounder. Rounded corners do not curl or fray the way square ones do.
If You Only Buy Three Teacher Planner Accessories
That was a long list, I know! Starting from zero? These three:
- 28 lb paper. Everything else sits on top of this one.
- A disc punch. Start cheap with the Craftelier until you know you love the system.
- Sticky index tabs. Least expensive thing here and the one you will touch every day.
Teacher Planner Accessories FAQ
What weight paper is best for a printable teacher planner?
28 lb for your everyday pages, 32 lb if you write with markers or press hard. Standard 20 lb copy paper is too thin. It bleeds through and tears at the punch holes. Check your printer’s rated paper weight first, because a lot of home printers stop at 24 lb for plain paper.
Do I need a special punch for disc binding?
Yes. A disc punch cuts a little mushroom shaped hole that a regular 3 hole punch cannot make. If you would rather not buy one, use a binder with sheet protectors instead.
What size discs should I use for a teacher planner?
1 to 1.5 inches for a full year. Anything smaller will not hold all your pages, and anything bigger gets awkward to write around.
Should I laminate the whole planner?
Just the covers. Laminating every page makes it too thick to bind and you lose the ability to write on it.
What printer should I use to print a planner at home?
An ink tank printer, and ideally one that prints both sides by itself. The HP Smart Tank 7001 is what I would pick. It refills from ink bottles instead of cartridges and comes with 2 years of ink, which costs far less than replacing cartridges all year.
Need the Planner Itself?
Everything up there is for putting together a printable planner. If you still need the actual planner, you can grab mine right here!
