I'm linking up with Kim at Kindergals for Workin' on it Wednesday. Since last week I have been starting to look for things I need for next year and purchasing them. Last week my mom and I went to Tomlinson's to look around. She needed curtain rods and we heard that they sold some. They have all kinds of things from trendy things to home decor. They also have a room with kids toys. I wanted to see what they had since we were there. They sell Melissa and Doug puzzles and toys for discounted/warehouse prices.
I already have plenty of puzzles, but I could not pass these up. Last summer I bought a bunch of the cheap $1 puzzles from the Dollar Tree and Target. I knew that these would only last for about a year. They actually held up better than I thought they would, but they are not the greatest puzzles. I have many Melissa and Doug puzzles and they have lasted all three years and are still in great shape.
I bought the giant fire truck puzzle, fish colors puzzle, and alphabet puzzle to add to the puzzle collection I have. I have told myself to only buy these puzzles and not buy any more cheap puzzles! I am hoping to get rid of some of the cheaper puzzles, so we will have enough room for these better puzzles.
I also bought the see and spell set. I want to have a word work center this year and I think this will be great to have in the center during the beginning of the year.
On Monday, I went to the Dollar Tree and Walmart to start looking/purchasing things for this year. I found so many great things to add to my room. I was in search of new baskets for books, small pencil baskets, pouches for take home books and name tag holders. I found all of these and much more!
I have been looking online at different baskets for my leveled books. I am not sure if I will use these instead of what I already have, but I bought them at the Dollar Tree while they were in stock. I already have 1 of these green baskets and it has held up for 3 years. I figured these would be good to have. I was so excited to find the small pencil baskets. They were 3 for $1. I have seen some that I liked on Really Good Stuff, but did not want to spend that much. I am going to use these with my guided reading groups. Each student will have a basket with a pencil, dry erase marker, eraser, pointer, etc.
I found all of this at the Dollar Tree too. My theme in my classroom is monkeys and they aren't the easiest to find. The monkey banner will hang over my birthdays display. I also got the birthday poster to put closer to the front of the classroom. I got a pack of reading posters to use in the reading castle. They had photo albums that I think I am going to use for word wall words. I haven't decided yet. I bought the notes set to write the words on and insert in the picture slots.
I also bought green ribbon. I saw an idea on Pinterest last year about using ribbon in the back of the homework book to help find the page. This helped speed up my homework checking this year.
I found these cute jars. I'm thinking I will use them for pencil jars. I like that they are clear. They also go with my monkey/green theme.
I found cute copy paper and an ABC's certificate. Our school is trying to cut down on the copies we use. We have a color copier and I love using it because it makes everything look better. I am hoping to use this paper with black and white font instead of using color copies so much.
I liked this certificate and I think it will motivate the students that struggle to learn their letters. I also saw a great blog post this morning about ways to motivate my students. I think I might try doing this!
I bought plastic name tags and green yarn for the beginning of the year name tags. I have always laminated my name tags, but they get gross by the end of the first week. We are starting school on a Monday in our district instead of Wednesday this year. I know I will need something that will hold up better!
One of my teaching colleagues sends home a book each week with her students. I have been searching for some kind of pouch to send books home in that did not cost $5 each! I wanted my pouches to be see-through so the book can be seen inside. I found these at the Dollar Tree and there are 2 in each pack. Now I am on the hunt to find some for the boys. These are pink and red, but the red folder has flowers on the top!
The last thing I did for this week was to stop by our school to look at some furniture. Our commons building will be ready for this school year. The commons building has the art, music, PE rooms and our cafeteria and library. Our old library furniture was put in the main hallway for us to claim. I should have gone last week, but finally stopped by yesterday. Almost everything was claimed but I found this great bookshelf.
I wanted to find a new shelf for my leveled library. The shelf I have now works, but the shelves really aren't large enough. This shelf has plenty of space and has the same shelves on the back too. It is really big, but I am hoping it will work in my new room. I plan on putting it against the wall on its side so that both sides can be used.
Thanks for stopping by to see what I worked on this week! I posted pictures of my first classroom (trailer) on Monday. I will be posting pictures of the trailer I had this past year and the year before, later this week.
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