9 Things You Need from the Dollar Spot This Winter

You may think it's a little too early to be talking Christmas, but in my humble opinion, it's totally not too soon! In fact, Target (our favorite store) dropped their holiday merchandise THIS WEEK, so you have to stock up before the Dollar Spot is completely picked over!

Here are 9 things you could grab from the Dollar Spot before you miss your chance! 

First and foremost, you NEED these blank books in your life! My students L-O-V-E them, and so do I. Both of the book sets pictured below are too cute, but I chose to stock up on sets with more neutral covers since I can't do Christmas in my classroom. $3 for 6 blank books is a steal, in my opinion.

Want to help your students write neatly in their blank books? Grab my templates, which are FREE in my store!

I don't know about you, but I use mini erasers for ALL KINDS OF FUN THINGS in math! They are the perfect manipulatives to get your students excited about learning and practicing math. I most recently used fun erasers as a nonstandard unit of measurement. The opportunities are really endless. Snowmen, Christmas trees, penguins, oh my!

The next items can also be used in so many ways in your classroom. I use dominoes in math for fact families, addition, subtraction, and more. I thought the tumbling tower pieces might be good for STEM. If nothing else, they make easy, fun, and cheap games for indoor recess!

Clothespins can be found everywhere in my classroom. Most of my clothespins are boring, but the ones currently for sale in the Dollar Spot are just the opposite!

I found chalkboard clothespins first - how clever! You could use them to label stack of papers... "to grade," "to copy," or even "throw away after the kids go home." (Let's be real.)

Target had some pretty cute mini clothespins in the Dollar Spot too, which I've seen many teachers use for centers activities.

STAMPS! and INK! Just take my paycheck, Target! I bought myself some ink because, well, it was only a dollar, and I'm always needing an ink pad for some reason, so why not? The stamps were super cute, too! On second thought, maybe I should go back and get some...

I definitely did not buy any loud, jingly musical instruments for my classroom, but maybe you want to for yours! For only a dollar, a tambourine, triangle, or jingle stick would make a great gift for your students. If you put on annual performances, STOCK UP!

Because Target always seems to have us teachers in mind, you can find "shatter-resistant" clear ornaments in the Dollar Spot right now. Just look on Pinterest for lots of super cute ideas for ornaments that students can make as gifts for their families.

Do any of you have VIP caddies or VIP supplies as a behavior incentive? The Dollar Spot has plenty of festive pens and pencils to stock up on. I personally was obsessed with my own 6-color pen when I was a kid!

Primary teachers, these last items are for you! These magnetic letters, shapes, and numbers are super cute and would look great on your whiteboard! I came close to buying some for myself although I definitely don't need them.

What do you think? Are you running to Target now, or what?!

Have you seen anything else in the Dollar Spot lately that is perfect for the classroom?

Let me know in a comment below.

Happy holidays, and happy shopping! 

- Kristin from School and the City 

Personalized Student Framed Gifts- Finish the Year with a Bang!

Can you believe we've made it to May?! It's time for warm weather, sunny days, and winding down the school year! Yay!

It's Stacia from Collaboration Cuties, and this month at the Primary Peach, we are sharing activities and tips for Finishing the Year with a Bang! So, please check back all month to find tons of great ideas.

I'm excited to share a fun End of the Year Student Gift Idea with you: Personalized Student Name Frames! This easy and meaningful gift is a perfect keepsake for your students.

Amanda (the other half of Collaboration Cuties) made these for her students last year, and they turned out awesome! There are a few different ways to make these adorable gifts.

First, you need to compile a list of words and phrases to describe each student in your class. You can do this OR you can have your students help you. This is a great activity for the end of the year and the perfect way to promote a positive community in your classroom.

If students are compiling the list, there are many different ways to let them do this. Each student can write their name on a sheet of notebook paper and place it on their desk. Then, have students move around the room adding words and phrases to each student's paper until everyone has added one word to each paper. Depending on time, you can also make this a center and have a paper with each student's name in a binder and students add words as they visit the center. Or, in the younger grades, you can do this as a whole class activity and write the words together. Amanda actually did a St. Patrick's Day activity where students wrote character traits for each student on gold coins, so she was able to use those words for her students. Click here to read about it! It's another fun way to have students come up with words for their classmates.

Next, after you have all of the words you need, use a program like Wordle or Tagxedo to create the name posters. You can customize colors and styles to make it unique for each student.

Finally, print out the name posters and place them in frames. You can get frames at the Dollar Tree for $1 each. You can decorate the frame if you want by adding some stickers or other embellishments.

I hope you and your students enjoy this special end of the year activity!

For even more ideas from The Primary Peach be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates. 

Have a wonderful Sunday!
-Stacia