Dollar Store Gems!

OK, you're not a teacher if you don't stalk the Dollar Stores on a regular basis for stuff to use in your classroom!

Here are my finds from the past week:

We'll start at WalMart, because this purchase set off my latest frenzy of classroom shopping! I was casually walking down the seasonal aisle when I found these gems:

Now, I have to provide a little background for you. My classroom theme is frogs. Since I teach in a public school, I cannot teach about God or Jesus, but the frog theme is a reminder to me to "F.R.O.G. - fully rely on God" when it comes to my students and my teaching. I have a wire that stretches across my wall of windows where I display the charts and artwork we make in class. These clips will be absolutely adorable holding our work!

Well, I had been bitten by the lastest outbreak of the "thrill of the hunt" bargain bug. So I made a trip to my local Dollar Tree, and this is what I found:

Plastic dinosaur skeletons for our dinosaur unit

Color books for our book baskets

Inflatable and jointed "Chicka" trees (that will probably stay up the whole year!)

HUGE coloring pads. For the kids, you ask? Nope, for me to trace while making charts and graphs (I can't draw worth a lick!)

animal hats to add to my already large collection - I bought 5 of the monkey one for "Five Little Monkeys"

Oh, but my urge wasn't satisfied yet. No, I had to visit the Dollar Tree stores in the next two towns down the road!

At the first one, I found these cool divided plates. Since I have tables, I considered using them for communal supplies in the center of the tables. I looked for green (to go with the frog theme), but they didn't have any.

Then I found these beauties at the next store! Perfect! I think I will use the red ones for painting now. The Snowman book will go in a book basket, the coloring book is another for me to use to trace on charts, and the non-fiction books will help when we study those units.

two reading pointers (the long one is extendable to almost twice this length for reading words on the walls!), and three board books for book baskets.

And over the weekend, while visiting family, I made them stop at their local Dollar General for a few minutes, as well!

two books on cd, three concept rhyming books, and a leveled reader! SCORE!

This year was my second year implementing the Daily 5 Model, and I like to start my students' book baskets out with books that are either wordless or have simple one-word labels so that my students experience reading success right from the start. So I am always on the look-out for these types of books.

I hope you've enjoyed my ideas - check back soon for more!