What
do five teachers who are hanging out together after the TPT Conference do on a
Friday afternoon?
Go to the Dollar Tree, of course!
We had an absolute BLAST!
By the looks we were receiving from
other customers, there must have been sparks of creativity flying in every
direction! It was seriously CrAzY! We strategically attacked every aisle with critical
eyes… and as one person had an idea, another would follow it up with an even
better use for the classroom!
It was “Dollar Store Magic,” my friends!
We instantly knew we wanted to share
our ideas with y’all, and since we had just been to the TPT Conference where we
were encouraged to start moving toward using videos to connect with other
educators, we knew what we had to do!
Facebook Live!
So we grabbed our dollar store
goodies and flipped on the phone! We made our FIRST Facebook Live video and
shared 15 of our favorite Dollar Tree finds along with ideas for how to use
them in the classroom.
We also decided we would do a blog
hop to share our ideas in print!
Here are the
ideas that I shared during the video:
Mini-container “Dice-in-Box”
Place your classroom dice in a mini container, like this one,
before setting them out in a center or activity. Kids simply shake the container and set it
down (with the lid down as shown) to reveal the number rolled. WA-LA!
The dice will never roll away and off the table again! {If you run to your nearest Dollar Tree now,
you can pick up 10 of these mini-containers for just $1.}
Slinky Stretch-A-Word
When teaching your kiddos how to “stretch out” words, encourage
them to grab a mini-slinky to make the learning experience a hands-on one! For
example, you can give a child a word like “cat” and encourage him/her to
stretch it out like this…
1.
/C/ --Pulling the slinky and
stretching it out just a little bit
2. /A/ -- Stretching the slinky out a little bit more!
3. /T/ -- Pulling and stretching the slinky almost all of the way
apart
4. Student then should push the word (and slinky) back together to
say “cat.”
Hair Roller and Cookie Clip Number Sense
Based on our Facebook Live Video comments, this one is a crowd
fav! As soon as I saw these spongy hair
rollers, I snapped them up and knew I could use them for mini-versions of all
of the Pinterest ideas I had seen created with pool noodles! So. Fun. These little gems are just like mini pool
noodles when you pop off the ends and pull out the metal bar inside. Just
imagine the miniature place value/tens and ones activities you could do with
these babies!
I also came up with a new idea of my own when I ran across these
snappy little “Cookie Clips” in the utensil section. I measured the hair
rollers and cut them to the same length as the cookie clip sticks. I then cut
each roller into 10 same-sized pieces. (Be sure to purchase more than one color
of hair rollers. You’ll see why in a
bit!) The first activity I thought of included making little number cards (1-10)
which can be held in the clip. Students
are then asked to identify that number and place the matching number of roller
pieces onto that stick.
Another idea is to place the same number cards on multiple cookie
clip sticks and invite students to use two different colors of hair roller
pieces to show how to make different number combinations.
You did see our Dollar Tree Finds Facebook Live video, right??
If you missed it, check it out below...but be sure to keep "hopping" in our blog hop so YOU can pick up more tips on these special finds and also enter to win a Dollar Tree gift card!
So... have we inspired you to go “dollar shopping?” Would you like a $25 gift card to get you
started? Here's how you can win one! It's really simple. All you need to do
is...
2. Visit each blog
and read the dollar store ideas. Each post will have a link at the bottom to
directly “hop” you to the next blog.
3. Leave a comment on
my blog telling me about your favorite Dollar Tree find!
Keep your eyes open! On one of the
blogs you will find the Rafflecopter Dollar Tree Gift Card Giveaway to enter! {Be
sure you like all of our Instagram accounts...we will check!}
Next, you need to hop on over to Katie's blog now to see her ideas!
I'm thrilled to announce that I'm giving away a HUE document camera and a HUE Animation Studio Set! 
