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thevirtualvine.com 2003

Shopping Spree!!!!

Teachers are known the world over as always on the lookout for things for their classroom, especially if it's considered a bargain.  Sometimes they spend THOUSANDS of dollars a year on their classroom.  Much of the time it won't be for the traditional things that non-teachers would think that they'd need to teach their little cherubs.  Often times it's for something others would think of as "off the wall!" :) 

You won't see anyone else but a teacher jumping up and down with glee in the middle of the school section at Wal-Mart because she's finally found the much sought after $10 pocketcharts!!!  She may not know exactly what she's supposed to do with it after she's bought it, but that doesn't matter .... she KNOWS she has to buy it because she's heard countless other teachers searching high and low for the elusive item.  She'll worry with what she's going to do with it later, because she KNOWS that someone will share AGAIN how valuable the pocketcharts are and how you just can't teach a day without them!

Because of this phenomenon peculiar to teachers, and after returning from a foray to Wal-Mart myself with a few prizes, I decided to create this page to share some of the things that I've found.  And in case anyone just has to know ... I'm in South MS and all purchases will be made in that vicinity unless otherwise stated.

Kohl's

www.kohls.com

7/03

After being tipped off online, I ordered these 4 items from Kohl's.  They're selling the 3 stuffed animals along with books from Laura Numeroff's collection.  Every thing is $5 each and the money goes to charity.  The pig may not look like the one in If You Give a Pig a Pancake, but to me he's the cutest! :)

Teacher's Garage Sale

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teachersgaragesale/

7/03

This is a Big Book that I bought to go in my Apple Pickin' Time unit.  I already have the student size book.  I think I paid $10, maybe $9, but not more than $12! :)

 

Ebay

www.ebay.com

7/03

I'm a Cherished Teddy collector and I saw this cute teddy on Ebay.  My final bid on it was $8.50!!!  Isn't she precious?   She's going to school with me. :)

 

Dollar Tree

7/03

8 packages of mini erasers to use as counters.  Butterflies, circles, whales, telephones, rectangles, and parrots. 

Foam stamps to use with paint. 

All only a $1 each.

Dollar General

7/03

3 handshaped flyswatters for $1  I'm going to use a couple for pointers, and turn the other one into a turkey pointer (can you visualize it?).  They also come in blue.

The pencil was 50 cents.  I'm going to pull the pencil topper off and stick it on a dowel rod to use as a pointer.

The kitchen towels I think were $1.97 each.  I have a kitchen area in my classroom and I wanted them for that because of the apple motif.

Wal-Mart

7/23/03

A while back I tried to talk my husband into NEEDING the stuff that I saw in a storage box like this at Wal-Mart, but it was full of nuts, bolts, etc.  Didn't work! :(  So after being tipped off from some other like-minded teachers that these boxes were sold EMPTY, I went back.  Sure enough, for $3.97 you don't need your husband! :)  Look in the hardware section.

I'm going to put my plastic letter tiles in the box after I've labeled each compartment.  You can visit Literacy Connections to read about how I use the letter tiles and hopefully soon you'll see a picture of it as well.

The Cleanipals handpuppet is a bath mitt that depicts the nursery rhyme "This Little Piggy".  $2.97 hanging on one of those shelves that's stuck in the middle of the aisles and is always in the way.

100 Primary Ruled Index Cards ... these are causing quite a stir online.  Everyone's buying them, but they don't really know what for! :)  I bought a pack with a couple of uses in mind.  One, write sight words on them, laminate, and have students practice copying the sight word onto the card with a vis-a-via pen.  Two, put a picture on the card, laminate, and have the student write the word on the card to go with the picture.  For younger students, you can also write the word on the card with the picture and have them copy it.  [School supplies section]

Amazing Ants sparkle book:  The colors of this book and the sparkle caught my eye.  I bought it to go in a Picnic unit that I'm working on.  $2.97

Colors book: A simple book for reinforcing color words and colors. $1.47

Ten Little Monkeys book: I think I already have this book in my collection of Math books, but I got another one since it was only $.97.  I'm going to put this one in my Monkeys unit.

Colors mini board book: Another simple book to reinforce color words and colors. $1.47

I was looking for a "pick me up" for one of my teacher friends, and in the gardening section I found the cutest colored flower pots 2/$5.  They came in great colors ... lime, orange, purple, blue, etc.  So I bought the lime one and filled it with Hershey's gold Nuggets candy.  Then I added the ribbon and a little sign that said "You're worth your weight in gold!"

Oh!  I also got a white mailbox that's not in this picture.  $7.97  See a picture of the finished product on the  Back to School page. 

And  I just remembered that I also got a large standing storage compartment to replace my old one that I use with my pocketchart to hold the pocketchart letters.  (see Literacy Connections)  This one has 44 drawers with larger compartments underneath the smaller ones.  I'm going to use the larger compartments for storing pocketchart die-cuts.  If I like it well enough, I'm going to go back and get  another one to keep all my stamps in .. especially considering that I just bought a ton of them off Teacher's Garage Sale.  This storage compartment is red and cost about $10.  Look in the hardware section as well.  (It's still in the car so no picture yet)

 

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7/24/03

last updated 7/24/03

 

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