Michael's . . . the new Dollar Spot???

Well, maybe not, but I had no idea it had so many things for $1! Here was my score yesterday (while baby slept in her car seat for like 20 minutes - even better!). Sorry for the dark/blurry picture. Trying to write my blogs @ night while baby sleeps. We don't have the best lighting.

The sticks were $4.99 but 300 should last me a couple of years. I heard so much about Mod Podge that I finally bought some. Can't wait to use it. The BIG mistakes eraser and passes were $1 each!

 I don't provide my students with erasers @ the beginning of the year so that they won't dwell on perfection and will write, but once we start focusing on neat printing I pop out "mi amigo" (my friend) who goes around looking for "ugly" printing. The kids love it! And they try their best to print neatly.

They have other really cute big erasers but for $2.

The wood figures were 59 cents each! I plan on using them as a sorting game. After we begin learning about syllables they will be able to sort the figures by initial sounds because we will have gone through the entire alphabet by then. I'll post it when I create the activity sheet to go with it.

I also couldn't help but buy the bubble gum scented lip balm after hearing about the smellies idea. $1 was a bit much for me but I have to give it a try in September :). I think the owner of Michael's went to that conference in Las Vegas!

More Target Finds

The Target bug bit me big time this summer and I have a few more things to share. I'll try and post the pic of the containers I bought (they're in the garage at the moment), but I love the magazine file types because I use them to store the students' writing journals.

My partner and I place students in 3 groups for centers: red, yellow, and green. Thankfully I found the red and yellow, but still missing the green. Since I teach only SLA to all 50 students (we switch classes) I bought 2 of each container. It worked out great last year.

I will use the flat containers for students to turn in their work after each center. My system last year (NO SYSTEM) didn't work so well and I was always frustrated.

I use the compartment containers to store community materials for each group. In one small compartment I place a tall cup with the pencils. In the larger one I plan on finding shorter cups and placing 2 with the crayons. If that's not enough I'll use 3.

The new purchase is the puzzles from the Dollar Spot. One is of presidents and the other of community workers. Peace, Love, and Kindergarten posted a great idea about using a 100 piece puzzle to celebrate the 100th day so I thought I could use these puzzles to build up the themes of presidents in Feb. and community workers in Mar. in the same manner, placing a few pieces per day.

The cups are to hold pencils, the baskets, boxes, and bags to house reading activities (still to come up with or "borrow" from other teachers :), some very needed labels, and the glue gun, which was about $5, but I reeeeeallly needed it, round out the rest.

I looooove Target! 

Target!Target!Target!

Here is my beautiful 9 month old buried in all of my great Target stuff! She wasn't so happy by the end of our shopping spree because she was actually asleep when we arrived but as soon as we walked in (after mommy spent like 10 minutes trying to place the car seat on the top part of the cart) she woke up. Inspired by all of the great finds on other blogs I decided to drop my local Target (actually 2-3 by the end of the week). Here is the great stuff that I bought:

The blue composition books were in the baaaack of the store with the back to school stuff. I will use them as the take home journals for part of my behavior management system using Bono el Mono. If you don't know about Bono he's been a great addition to our class. I'll talk about him at a later time. The great writing strips will be used for small group writing lessons. These hall and restroom passes are so cute, I just have to figure out a way to not ruin the cuteness when I translate them. EVERYTHING I use must be in Spanish which makes things a lot harder for me but I love it. The small cubes will be used when we begin sound segmentation and I'm planning on changing the letter coasters so that I have 2 sets of all the letters and turning it into an independent letter matching activity where students can place them on top of matching letters on a plain bedsheet. When I make it I'll post it.

Sorry, don't know how to flip it around. Trust me I tried. I'm so happy I found these alphabet stamps. I'm pretty sure I found the last 5 in the store. I'll use them with the baskets and ink stamps probably on some type of matching worksheet at the beginning of the year and to create HFWs and 2 syllable words later on in the year. The crayon accents I'll use as nametags on bulletin boards.

And finally, I couldn't resist the Dr. Seuss stuff since I know it won't be there in March. I'm not sure how to use the bags yet but by March I will. The trays will be used for rhyming games, the erasers for writing during that week and the stickers and sillybands for incentives. Actually, I got the silly bands because baby wanted them and started throwing a fit when I took them away. So because she sucked on the bag throughout Target I had to buy them :).