So, not that these are big huge deals that I ever complained to the teacher
about. But sometimes I don't think teachers and the like realize what a parent
has to do to scramble up some specified supply even if they've made an effort to
require some common thing. Indeed, it would be the worst impacts because those
would be things required that very evening or the next day.

LOL, I remember a time when I was asked to bring a cereal box into
school, it just so happened we'd just finished a box and it had already
been taken by the binmen and we were starting on a large box that no way
would be finished in time. My mum never used plastic containers for
cereal and it was such a big box there was no obvious big container to
decant it in to. So providing something as simple as a cereal box turned
out to be rather more difficult than expected, it's back to if you know
it's coming, you can plan and when my sister had the same class two
years later they were ready for the cereal box - there was added
amusement as the teacher, who was notorious for her craziness, didn't
simply say bring in a cereal box from home, actually said something like
"on the way home tonight, buy a box of cereal, then sit down and eat all
the contents and save the empty box"!

Cheers
Anne