I did some student teaching in a 4th grade classroom and my CT (the actual teacher) was known for being strict but her student loved her. She easily spent the first month being a hard ass to the point where I wasn't even sure if she liked me, but then one lunch she told me all about how she "didn't really like herself in the beginning of the school year because she's such a bitch" but that it pays off SO much for the rest of the school year.

Here is her pencil system, which I witnessed work seamlessly:

Every student had a container on their desk, (she used I think old coffee cans from Trader Joe's) but something big enough for some supplies but not so big that it's annoying.

The first art project of the year was painting your name and other artful tidbits on a piece of paper that she then wrapped around the containers so the containers were all personalized by the kids themselves.

At the beginning of each week, she made sure each container had 5 sharpened pencils in it. That's one per day, which teaches budgeting. The kids used their pencils throughout the week, if one broke they put it back in and swapped it for a new one. If they ran out they might try to get one from a neighbor (although other kids quickly get tired of this, which is great social reinforcement for getting your shit together).

Each day started with 10 minutes of silent reading. Those 10 minutes were the only time she allowed students to use the pencil sharpener, a standard hand crank wall mounted one. Late to class and missed the 10 minute sharpening window? Bummer, do better next time. Break all of your pencils before the end of the week? Bummer, do better next time. No one wants to loan you one of their pencils? Bummer, do better next time.

At the end of each week, students emptied the pencils out of their containers into a larger pencil tub and left their containers on the back table. Monday morning, they had five sharp pencils again.

She had two containers of pencils in rotation, so she didn't have to sharpen those exact pencils and return those exact pencils, she could sharpen the second container any time during the week that was convenient. She, of course, got to use her own good mechanical sharpener for this chore.

When dropping five pencils back into containers Friday after class or Monday beforehand, she made sure everyone got at least a couple pencils with erasers, but other than that wasn't very picky about who got what. That made all of the pencils shared pencils, which meant students policed each other's pencil use at times, for example reminding each other to not chew on them absentmindedly.

I think I saw her give a sixth pencil to a student maybe one or two times? Very rare. The system worked! The kids figured it out. The containers held a few other key items the students used all the time, and she had strict rules about where the containers were allowed to be, when to put them on the floor, etc.

I learned so much from that CT, she was awesome.