Thrifty Thursday: The CASE of the Missing Creativity

Another short post on this Thrifty Thursday...

This week at Staples they have sliding pencil cases like the picture below for only a penny (limit of 4) with a $5 minimum purchase!  

I've been looking for creative ways to use mine, and I seem to have a creative block at the moment...my brain's probably still fried from the last three days of professional development.  I have 12 pencil cases (thanks to some I got on this sale last year plus my mom hooking me up with her 4!).  So far, I've seen some neat centers for sight words and phonics like THIS one and THIS one. I may go with those ideas, but I haven't committed to them, just in case one of YOU have a brilliant idea on how to use them, so share away!  (Seriously, please!?)


And my last thrifty find is genius, and I'm honestly quite disappointed in myself for not having thought of this before.  I found this picture on Pinterest.   Use bulletin board border (that we have SOO much of and don't know what to do with) as crowns!  Duh! The possibilities are endless...birthday, 100th day, behavior reward, etc. etc. ETC.!  I love it, and I can't wait to put my poor neglected border to good use!  

Isn't this a great idea!?

I hope you all are having a wonderful Thursday! And for those of you who are sitting through meetings, trainings, and conferences right now, this one's for you! 

You're welcome.

Thrifty Thursday: I Need a Life

Because it's summer and I have no life, I have TOO many things to share in one "Thrifty Thursday" post!  I've been a regular at the local Dollar Stores.  Yesterday I even got the, "You're back again!?" from the Dollar Tree cashier.  Embarrassing?  To most people.  Not me.  I think I should get an award.  But that's neither here nor there.  Today I'm going to post my most recent purchases from dollar stores and how I intend to use them.  But please read to the end today because I need your help coming up with creative ideas on some precious finds that I just don't know what to do with. So, here we go...

These plates and bowls not only go with my Seuss theme, but they're currently at the Target Dollar Spot!  Woo hoo!  I decided to make a little phonics center activity.  This is one I am calling "Horton Here's an 'oo'"  Get it!?  I'm pretty proud of that one ;)  It's really simple.  Basically, I printed a bunch of pictures.  They go in the bowl.  The ones that have "oo" in them go on the plate.  The ones that don't, get discarded.  Then they can record the oo words on the recording sheet I made.  (Really simple, I made a table in Microsoft Word and added a Horton clipart from Google Images).  Done.  I also got a Yertle the Turtle set, One Fish Two Fish set, and Cat in the Hat set.  I think I'll make the exact same game only using bossy r (Yertle the Turtle), sh/th/ch/wh (One Fish, Two Fish), and CVC words (Cat in the Hat).  So simple.  But these cute little pieces make the center activity seem that much more fun!

I'm in LOVE with this one.  I also found these cardboard coasters in the Dollar Spot at Target, leftover from the summer BBQ themed stuff.  I created a math game for the sums 7, 8, 9, and 10.  I put each of those numbers on a piece of bread/bun.  Then I put a bunch of equations on the toppings.  They have to make a complete sandwich by finding all of the toppings that add up to the correct sum.  I tested it on a girl I'm tutoring this summer and she loved it.  She asked to play it twice!  That's a good sign.  I'm HOPING that some of you can find these little cuties in your Target Dollar Spot!  The possibilities are endless!  And now I want a hamburger.

As if it could even get any cuter, I remembered that LAST year, the Target Dollar Spot had these Dr. Seuss sandwich containers.  I bought them and didn't really use them for anything.  But how PERFECT is it for my sandwich math game!?  I think I was entirely TOO excited when I remembered I had it AND when everything fit just right.  It may or may not have been the best thing that happened to me that day. 

But wait, there's more!!  These cardboard squares were placed in between each sandwich topping in the package they came in.  So...I decided to turn them into little hundreds chart puzzles.  I like these puzzles because not every piece is there.  They have to use their number sense and problem solving to place the numbers in the correct position.  I was able to make two of these puzzles.  And boom a perfect "Early Bird Work" idea!  AND I found some cute teeny tiny red containers at Dollar Tree for them to be stored in! 

This is by NO MEANS my original idea.  I got the idea from Pinterest and just Seussed it up/came up with a cute title.  It's so easy.  Take some envelopes and seal them (bleh!).  Cut off the left side.  Write a bunch of CVC words on index cards with the letters slightly spaced  out.  Now they can pull the index card out slowly and blend the word to figure it out!  Easy cheesy.  I noticed I could see the letters through the thin white envelope so I decided to find some Dr. Seuss clip art.  I found the cute Thing 1 and Thing 2 graphic so I decided to call it "Blend With a Friend" and it fit together perfectly.  Now I just have to (read: want to) laminate the envelopes and re-slice them open so they look nicer and last a little longer. :)

And last...I got these puppies yesterday at Dollar Tree!  These tiny little trash cans have been around for years, but for $1 each, I decided to get one for each of my desk clusters.  When we're working on cut and paste activities, we'll put these trash cans out and they can put their trash directly in here instead of getting up to throw stuff away constantly.  I got the idea originally from Pinterest.  The teacher used "trash buckets."  But if anything is in miniature size I can't resist, so these cute little trash cans didn't have a chance!

 Now, here's where I want your help...Dollar Tree has these precious little cutouts of two things that go together.  I've already purchased ones that look like bread with peanut butter and jelly and bees with honey.  I numbered each with a number 1-12.  I'll use them to partner my kiddos.  The person with the #4 bee is going to be partners with the person with the #4 honey pot, etc.  

Then, the store got a new stash of these sets.  I realized I didn't need to use them all for partnering, but I'm trying to think of a creative use for them! I used some of the milk/cookies to match a main idea with some supporting details.  But I am just stuck with any other good ideas. Help! 

Are there any other good buys out there? Share your thoughts and great finds!

Thrifty Thursday: A Serendipitous Discovery

I love dollar stores.  If you’re a teacher reading this, you’re thinking, “DUH! Don’t we all!?”  But this is my blog and not yours.  ;)

Today I’m featuring TWO good finds, the first of which is an idea I came up with last year when  I was teaching the concept of time.  I wanted a more active and fun activity to do with my math small groups, and this idea popped into my head. 

I bought a dollar store shower curtain liner and freehanded a large clock (no clock hands) with a Sharpie marker.  Then, I had my students lie on the “mat” and use their arms/legs to show me a certain time.   They had a BLAST doing this, and the shower curtain has lasted the last two years with no tears-  even with the kiddos wearing shoes!

Here's one of my sweet girls showing 12:30.  I once was that flexible...

To adapt it for math centers, I created large hands out of construction paper that they can place on the clock to show the time (my class is a little wild and I didn’t think that letting them use their arms/hands would be as successful without me there to keep them on task).  Then I wrote digital times on an index card so that they could draw a card out and show the time on the clock mat.

My kids ask to play it every day now and it only cost me $1 to make!  I can just see a pre-made clock mat like that retailing for $20+ at one of those teacher supply stores.  I love cheating the system!

I’m sure there are other great things to make for the classroom with a cheap shower curtain.  I’m picturing something Twister-esque.  I'm anxious to hear if any of you have any ideas for repurposing shower curtains in the classroom!

The 2nd idea is a little bonus addition because I found these puppies today!  I was at Dollar General (which in our small Arkansas town, we happen to have FOUR of these!).  I was checking out when I saw a clearance basket so I sifted through the items.  

I found these little desk calendars, assorted colors.  Originally $1 but clearanced at 90% off!!!!

That's $.10 people!  So I had this idea... I bought 6, for a whopping total of $.60.  I took them to my classroom and cut them into two sides, separating the numbers from the calendars.

I realized that the numbers on the left would only have the numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 in the tens place since they corresponded to the calendar dates, so I bent the bindings on 3 of them, and removed the numbers from the once place to replace the numbers in the tens place on the other.  That sounds very confusing, so I hope this ends up making sense.  Regardless, I ended up with 0-9 in the tens place and 0-9 in the ones place.  So I bent the bindings back in place and ended up with 3 cute little flip charts to use for place value in a math center!  Plus, I have 6 adorable little flip-chart calendars that I can use to create a calendar concepts game for a math center as well!  

Check out these little cuties!  Too bad they're all in super girly colors, but they'll make fun additions to my math centers!

Well, tomorrow is FRIDAY and just so happens to be a triple whammie:  Friday....pay day....Spring Break Eve!!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwww!  I'm just a tiny bit excited.  I hope you all have a fanTAStic weekend and are getting to enjoy some sunshine like we are here!  I'd love to hear your latest thrifty finds, so leave some blog love to share!  Tah-tah!