sensei ha siryou wo hottikisu de matomete, gakusei ni kubarimasita.

は marks 先生 as the topic of the sentence.

So 先生は means something like:

• As for the teacher, ...
• The teacher ...

It does not always mean grammatical subject in a strict English sense, but here it functions very naturally as the teacher doing the actions.

を marks the direct object, the thing being acted on.

Here, 資料を means the teacher did something to the materials/documents:

• まとめて = put them together / compiled them / stapled them into a set
• 配りました = handed them out / distributed them

So 資料 is the thing affected by the action.

ホッチキス means stapler in Japanese.

It is written in katakana because it is a loanword. Many tools, foreign-origin words, and brand-based words are written this way.

A useful cultural note: ホッチキス originally comes from Hotchkiss, a brand name, but in Japanese it became the normal everyday word for stapler.

Here, で marks the means or tool used to do something.

So:

• ホッチキスで = with a stapler

This is a very common use of で:

• はしで食べる = eat with chopsticks
• ペンで書く = write with a pen
• バスで行く = go by bus

In this sentence, the teacher used a stapler as the tool for putting the materials together.

まとめて is the て-form of まとめる.

まとめる can mean:

• to gather together
• to put in order
• to compile
• to bundle
• to bring together into one set

In this sentence, because it is used with ホッチキスで, the meaning is something like:

• stapled together
• put together into packets
• organized into one set with a stapler

So it is not just a vague gathered here; the stapler makes the action more specific.

The て-form connects actions.

Here it shows that one action happened before the next:

1. the teacher put the materials together with a stapler
2. the teacher distributed them to the students

So まとめて、配りました means:

• put them together and distributed them
• after stapling them together, handed them out

This is one of the most common uses of the て-form in Japanese.

Yes, it can.

For example, まとめて買う can mean buy all at once or buy in bulk.

But in this sentence, まとめて is clearly the て-form of the verb まとめる, not the adverbial meaning. You can tell because:

• it follows the object 資料を
• it is followed by another verb, 配りました
• the context is physical handling of documents with a stapler

So here it means putting the materials together, not all at once.

に marks the recipient of the action.

So:

• 学生に配りました = distributed them to the students

This is similar to how に is used with verbs of giving and sending:

• 友だちにあげる = give to a friend
• 先生に見せる = show to the teacher
• 会社に送る = send to a company

Here, the students are the people who received the materials.

配る means to distribute or hand out, usually to multiple people.

That makes it a very natural choice here, because the teacher is giving materials to students, likely to a whole class.

Compare:

• 配る = hand out / distribute broadly
• 渡す = hand over / give to someone

If the teacher were giving one paper to one student, 渡しました might sound more natural. But for class handouts, 配りました is an excellent fit.

配りました is the polite past form of 配る.

Breakdown:

• dictionary form: 配る
• polite non-past: 配ります
• polite past: 配りました

So it means distributed or handed out in a polite style.

The whole sentence is written in polite Japanese because of the -ました ending.

Japanese nouns usually do not show singular/plural the way English nouns do.

So 資料 can mean:

• a document
• documents
• materials
• handouts

In this sentence, it most naturally refers to materials/handouts as a set, but Japanese does not force you to mark that explicitly.

The listener understands the number from context.

Yes, in a way.

The sentence explicitly says 資料を before まとめて, and that same 資料 is understood as the thing that was also distributed.

So Japanese does not need to repeat it:

• 資料をまとめて、学生に資料を配りました would be grammatical
• but repeating 資料 would sound less natural here

Japanese often avoids repeating information that is already clear.

Because the て-form already does that job.

まとめて、配りました naturally means:

• put together and distributed
• after putting together, distributed

Japanese often uses the て-form instead of separate words like and, then, or after that.

The sentence follows a very common Japanese pattern:

• topic: 先生は
• object: 資料を
• tool/means: ホッチキスで
• first action in て-form: まとめて
• recipient: 学生に
• main verb: 配りました

So the structure is roughly:

As for the teacher, [the materials] [with a stapler] put together, [to the students] distributed.

Japanese often places details before the final main verb.

No, that is not the natural reading.

ホッチキスで attaches most naturally to まとめて, because a stapler is a tool for putting papers together, not for distributing them.

So the meaning is:

• the teacher used a stapler to put the materials together
• and then handed them out to the students

The order and real-world logic make this interpretation clear.