Teacher Shopping Finds w/Tickled Pink in Primary

This monthly blog post theme is right up may alley because I LOVE TO SHOP! I love scouring The Dollar Tree or the Target dollar spot for deals! Sometimes while I’m walking up and down the aisles, I see something that sparks my creativity and gives me ideas to take back to the classroom. I’ll provide direct affiliate  links to these products when possible to make your shopping a breeze!

The Target dollar spot is the BEST! Look at these drink stirrers that I found this week. These would be perfect for reading pointers!

I also came across these wipe off board games in the Target dollar spot. They have a number sense version so you can work on addition and subtraction. The other versions are for building 3-4 letter words. They come with little square tiles and a wipe off marker! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen something similar to this on Lakeshore, but for way more money!

Ikea is another great place to find good deals. We have decorated a lot of our house from there, but they have great teacher finds as well!  They are actually building an Ikea about 2 miles from my house….this is going to be bad news! I recently found this giant dice at Ikea. How fun would this be to throw in a center or use for a whole group game? If you don't have an Ikea near you, you can buy it online here. 

I found this Leaping Letters game at Kohls over Christmas and knew I had to get it for my nephew. I have seen this at Target and Amazon as well. If you love Amazon like I do, you can find the game here. This game reminds me of Perfection because you only have a certain amount of time to put all of the letters in place before they POP off. It also comes with a list of words so students can build words with these letters as well. We had fun playing this over Christmas!

This next shopping find is actually something I made while student teaching because my mentor teacher had one. All you really need is a glove, some stuffing or cotton balls, and a dowel rod. You can then make a big reading pointer! I decorated mine a bit further with a ring and a watch. J Simply, stuff the glove with cotton, put the dowel rod in the pointer finger, and then hot glue it all shut. I use this for when I read big books and it makes it easier to touch read and reach all of the words. So while you’re out and about, make sure to pick up a pair of cheap gloves.

If you’re like me, I go to school looking all cute, but then halfway through the day, I’m ready to tie my hair up. I ALWAYS have a hair tie on my wrist. I’m so used to wearing one, I forgot to take it off in my wedding! You can see it in my wedding photos. 🙈 Anyway, I have seen these hair tie bracelets on Pinterest and thought they were a great idea. I actually found them a few days ago at Charming Charlie. I LOVE that store! It has a ton of cheap accessories and better yet,  it’s all colored  coded. This is much trendier to wear than just a boring old hair tie. 😉

Finally, one of my favorite things I’ve bought is my personal laminator. I keep this at home to do small projects like this blends/digraphs chart or last minute things I make. I know many people have the Scotch laminator and I’m sure it’s amazing too, but I of course wanted to get a cute, pink one. I found this Swingline laminator and these laminating sheets on Amazon. It also comes in blue, gray, and red. 
Swingline laminator - $21.00
Swingline thermal laminating sheets (100) -$16

If you don’t have Amazon Prime yet, you may consider getting it.  I’m not much of an online shopper, but have really used Amazon Prime alot! It’s only $99 and you get FREE 2 day shipping, so this laminator came speedy quick! They have really good deals too. I’ve gotten to the point where if we are at a store, I check Amazon to see if we can get it cheaper or if the store doesn’t have our size in something. I still prefer to shop in stores, but Amazon is a great alternative. 

Whew, this was a long post! Can you tell that I love to shop? J Hopefully you’ve found some useful ideas.

Teacher Shopping Finds...and Why I LOVE Amazon Prime

I've always liked shopping online for things but since having my second child, I have grown to appreciate shopping online so much more.  Not having to bundle up 2 kids, put them in the car, stress about keeping them happy and timing around nap times is why I do 90% of my shopping on Amazon Prime. The other 10% is of course Target because scoping out the dollar spot on a regular basis is a must and is thankfully made possible by bribing my 3 year old with popcorn to keep everyone smiling ;)

So how do I use Amazon Prime for teaching supplies?

First, I scope out the Today's Deals section.  There are always some amazing discounts that I can't pass up. As I'm writing this I just had to check out today's offers and here is what I found:

Next, I buy most of the office and art supplies I need too. I love that I can plan a project find what I need and have it at my door within 2 days.  Here are some of my most recent purchases:

Finally, books. Yes, I admit I have a problem with buying WAY too many picture books, but I just can't help myself when shipping is free and so fast!

Also if Amazon wasn't so great at suggesting other books I'd like I probably wouldn't buy so many, but I find a ton of great titles this way! I recently purchased a new copy of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and just look at these suggestions:

That first book, A Poem for Peter is absolutely beautiful and a great biography for the primary grades and I never would have found it without Amazon and their suggested book magic.

So if you aren't an Amazon Prime member yet, you really should check it out. It's a small price to pay for free 2 day shipping, tons of great deals and shopping in your jammies at 2AM.

Thrifty Teacher Finds & a Giveaway (with Tickled Pink in Primary)

I LOVE going to the Dollar Tree and down the Dollar Spot aisle at Target as I know many of you do too. As teachers, we spend so much money on our classrooms that finding a good deal is important. Recently, I found these HUGE dice in the Target Dollar Spot aisle which are even bigger than the ones you can find at the Dollar Tree. They came in a lot of colors and were only $1!!!! I had to snatch some up for all my games at math centers. 

I found these HUGE fly swatters at the Dollar Tree last spring and knew exactly what I would use them for. We play a game called "SPLAT" where I have 2 kids compete to see who can smack the sight word I say. We had some boring fly swatters and the students still LOVED the game, but these fly swatters make it SO much more fun!

I actually did a whole blog post about a month ago on my blog, Tickled Pink in Primary, for some more thrifty finds. I love shopping at the Dollar Tree and know many others teachers like good deals too, so I put together a list of 20 things that most teachers could use. 

I am SUPER excited that our EE family is growing! We have such a fun group of bloggers already, but these at these amazing and talented 8 new ladies and gentlemen we have joining us! I met many of them at the TPT Vegas Conference last year, so I'm super excited to be collaborating with them now. We are having a HUGE giveaway to celebrate our the new additions to our family, so make sure you enter below.

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Thrifty Teacher Finds & a Giveaway { with Mrs. D's Corner }

Let me start today off by introducing myself. Hi, my name is Stephanie and I brake for yard sales. Phew! Admitting you have a problem is the first step, but seriously. Let me know you what the current situation is in my home office.

 Besides my Target stash from this weekend, which included those 4 gray bins, the purple cardboard mailbox setup, some pointers, and other random school supplies, everything else is from yard sales. 

You're probably saying "what!?" or "I need to go yard saling with you!" ...and you for real do because I feel like I've hit the jackpot this summer.

This is a picture of my total book collection from 2 Saturdays of yard saling. Not only has this pile now doubled tripled, but summer isn't over yet! My goal this summer was to organize my classroom library... which turned in to leveling my entire library... which led me to already leveled books... which has been the majority of my yard sale finds.

Since I found all these books, I needed something to store them in. I wrote a blog post about using Post Office boxes for book bins, and while I felt like it was super time consuming (and I may have purchased Ikea book boxes afterwards), I did end up having my husband help me make some more.

But my scores don't stop there with just books! Katie (Mrs. Decatur's Little Gators) and I went yard saling together one Friday and hit up a retiring teacher's sale. Best. Yard Sale. Ever! Together we spent $30 and got all of the stuff you see above. Brand new scholastic games, books on tape with the books, and so much more. 

So how do I plan where to yard sale?!
Besides driving around aimlessly turning at every garage sale sign on the road, I use an app called Yard Sale Treasure Map (FREE and available on Apple/Android). You put in your zip code and it pulls Craigslist Yard Sale ads and puts them on a map for you. You can click on the dots to read the ad and even get directions through Google Maps directly to the sale. #perfection

What is your best #ThriftyTeacherFind at a garage sale?

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I am so excited that our EE family is growing! We already have a fabulous group of teachers who blog here, but now we're going to be even better! Let's all welcome...

And with our new members comes a giveaway! This has to be one of my most favorite giveaways on this blog because I absolutely love everything we are giving away. I discovered Smencils in college and LOVE them. My favorite is the grape one, mmmm! And hello quiet pencil sharpener to sharpen up your new Smencils. #bestinventionever Plus if you still have not heard of Tallahassee Sunday and ordered yourself a custom mini pencil, you need to! I have a pencil and a huge anchor that was custom made for me :)

Thrifty Teacher Finds & a Giveaway {with The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

What teacher doesn't love chalkboard? I know it is old school, but there is just something about chalkboard that screams...Oh Teach With Me! With my three kiddos gone for the summer with Grandma, I decided it was project time. What better project than an outdoor art center? This is something that can easily be done for your classroom...or better yet outside your classroom.

When you have a handy husband like I do, you always have extra pieces of wood lying around. His latest project, building a television stand for our living room nook, left me with just enough pieces to play with. I had six pieces of wood, two different lengths and two different widths. I began looking at our fence and decided they would like mighty nice hanging outside as an outdoor art center. See the first set below:

I put these ones close together for my three kiddos, but I had handy husband cut them just so that the sweet nephews could play at their level too! {Yes the boards were even longer than what you see here} I think the kiddos approve! We staggered the second set since they were different lengths, and I think it displays creativity even more! Next step is to add an outdoor music center next to the boards. Oooooo I sense more dollar tree finds to bang on!

In addition to this cheap and easy outdoor project, I also scored some school supplies on the cheap from good 'ole Wal Mart! I just love these little mini bins for classroom supplies and manipulatives. I was happy to see they had the colors I needed from last year. I cannot wait to see my classroom all put together this year. And by this year, I mean next week since I get a new set of students on the 20th! :)

Bins $1 and Composition Books $.50....SCORE!

Don't forget to enter our Giveaway!! Since our family is growing, it only seems fitting we give away a little something to say thank you for your support and Happy Beginning of School!

First, say hello to our new family members:

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Thrifty Teacher Finds & A Giveaway {with The Kindergarten Connection}

Everyone loves a good deal, especially teachers! We often spend so much money on our classrooms that when we can find good deals and freebies it is exciting!

For my very first post with The Elementary Entourage, I am sharing with you a few of my favorite thrifty finds! 

I have learned that the dollar store can really be a teacher's best friend! There are so many ways to turn their goodies into fun learning games! 

I purchased these cutout sets that pair together - I knew I could turn them into matching games!

I teach Kindergarten, so my matching games may look different than yours, but with these sets, you could create words, math equations, and more! 

For the peanut butter and jelly cutouts I created a letter match for upper and lowercase letters. 

The lock and key I used to create math equations! The lock has the equation, and the key has the answer! You could even mark the answer on the back of the lock and have them be self-correcting if you wish!

I also found bags of foam cubes at the dollar store. They were called counting cubes, but I saw quiet dice! They are just about the right size, so out came my Sharpie and I got to work! They are great for math games and don't make a ton of racket!

The dollar store often has a lot of flashcards. I like to purchase them and not necessarily use them as flashcards, but in bins for games and such. For example, a bin with addition cards and counters could be used for my students to practice using manipulatives to solve equations in a hands on way!

This last thrifty find is actually my favorite - and it is simply recycling! 

Crayon cups are my absolute favorite way to repurpose and recycle in the classroom. In my classroom we use playdough quite often. Sometimes I make it, but often the parents send it in the cups. 

I discovered that a little playdough cup holds a pack of crayons perfectly! So now when my kids need crayons, they just grab and go! 

Don't use playdough? Recycle frosting cups or yogurt containers - they get the job done too! 

What are your favorite thrifty finds? We teachers are always on the lookout for more, so let us know!

Have you met the rest of our newest members? Don't forget to enter our huge giveaway below! 

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