Yesterday, I got together with my group of friends we affectionately refer to as the Kindergarten Teacher Crew. It consists of current and former Kindergarten teachers from my school, encompasses three different school districts, and a variety of new jobs! We have a Counselor, a Reading Recovery Teacher, a second grade teacher, two retired teachers and three current Kindergarten teachers. We try to get together several times a year to catch up. I adore this group of Godly women and I look forward to our get-togethers. Lately, we’ve been able to see each other a little more frequently because at the end of the night, we all pull up our calendars on our phones and schedule our next visit. It’s definitely the way to do it.

I carpooled with friends, so we were able to do some shopping before and after dinner. Here are my fun finds from several Staples stores and Target. Most of these items had a limit of 2 or 4, so we weren’t able to get very many at each store. Keep in mind that our nearest Staples is 40 miles away, so we had to make our trip to town count!  I haven’t posted about all the fun things I’ve purchased for my classroom. I think I will probably wait until the items are in my room all cutesy and decorated!

The cashier at Staples also let me know that Teacher Appreciation Day is Saturday, August 11. I don’t’ know if that’s everywhere or not, but I thought I would mention it. I have never been. Have any of you? Was it worth it? I was told that there is a goody bag involved.

Staples

• 18 Staples Stickies - 25 cents each
• 8 Staples Pencil Cap Erasers - 1 cent each
• 1 Clip & Go Germ-X 2-pk  - $2
• 8 Staples Index Cards - 1 cent each
• 16 Post-it Notes (2 per pack) – $1 each
• 5 Post-it Bags – Free (Buy 2 Post-it products and get a bag for free. Not available in all locations.)
• 19 Sharpie Highlighters (5 per pack) – 50 cents each

Total: $32.16


Target

• Paper Mate Pens – $1 – Used $1/1 PaperMate Pens printable coupon FREE
• Crayola markers 10 pk – 99 cents
• Wipe Clean Alphabet Cards – $1
• Dr. Seusss Flash Cards 1-20 – $1
• Paper Clips – $1 (From Staples)

Total: $4
(Not shown, but this may be beneficial to some of you—Target has a $3 Mossimo coupon that pairs nicely with the $5 camis that are on sale right now. You can’t beat $2 for a cami!)


Staples

• 3 HP Ink Cartridge Combo Packs – $31.99 each 
• Ink cartridges are Buy 2 Get 1 Free right now. I also used a $5 off $30 coupon. This made my ink cartridges less than $10 each.

Total: $58.98


Have you found any great deals lately?

I was just reading Deanna Jump's post about using Pebble Plus Books for teaching her Zoo Animals unit and thought they looked familiar. We have several of the habitat and homes Pebble Plus books in our school library and I love them!

So, I headed over to Amazon to check out the zoo animal titles and I was able to get 4 books for the price of 3. The books in the widget above qualify for this deal. (If you are reading this in a reader, you will have to click over to the actual post to see the widget.) The books ship free with Amazon Prime memberships, as well. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else needs a few extra resources for the end of the year. :) I bought Elephants, Zebras, Lions and Giraffes for $20.85. 

If you've never signed up for Amazon Mom or another free paid shipping service through Amazon, you can sign up and receive several benefits, but one of the best is free Two Day Prime shipping for 3 months. If you aren't sure, see if you qualify. It's definitely worth it!

I picked up a few Valentine’s goodies from Dollar Tree and Dollar General the last several days. I plan to do a post with each of the items in use, as soon as I finish the printables to go with them. I thought I’d take a few before pictures though in case you want to pick up some of these items before they are all sold out.

Dollar General

Be Mine Treat Bags (4 count) $1

I’m Going Nuts for You! Mini Treat Envelope Bags (12 count) $1

Chocolate Covered Love Heart $1

Rose Petals (150 count) $1

Felt & Gingham Novelty Heart Bag $1

Dollar Tree

Heart Shaped Boxes (10 count) $1 x 2

Square Silver Tray $1

Round Bowls (4 pack) $1

Heart Table Scatter (60 count) $1

Picks (7 count) $1

Heart Stickers (72 count) $1

Here’s what I’ll be doing with the following two items:

The heart picks will be used as individual pointers during small group. I started using mini pointers for my RtI groups and they loved it! It just adds a little fun and I think it has really helped with one-to-one correspondence with letters and words. 

My calendar helper and I will be using the chocolate covered heart as a pointer during calendar time. We are currently using a snowflake. Now that I mention it, pointing to anything with a chocolate covered heart just makes me happy! Happy teacher, happy students!  

I know a lot of people are really bummed about the Terms of Use changing through DJ Inkers right now and I feel your pain. I use to exclusively use DJ Inkers and Carson Dellosa Clip Art for everything I made. However, now I'm a Scrappin' Doodles addict! Plus, Denyse is amazing to work with! Her customer service is outstanding and her response time is unbeatable.

Right now, you can hurry on over to Scrappin' Doodles to take advantage of 25% off all orders over $5 through December 31, 2011. Just use code BOXINGWEEK2011. (Some exclusions apply)

***Update: At this time, you only have to have a license if you are offering  freebies on your blog or in your stores. If you purchase graphics to make items to sell, you can do so as long as they are offered in a secure PDF file.  This only applies to Scrappin' Doodles and Cheryl Seslar graphics, not Alice Smith. Check out the Terms of Use here.

Source: www.ScrappinDoodles.com

If you are considering the switch to Scrappin' Doodles graphics, be sure to check out the Affiliate Program while you're there. You can earn commission from sales generated from click throughs from your blog or site. I have been an affiliate for several months and it's so easy! If you click on the picture above and make a purchase, I will receive a percentage of the sale. I truly appreciate all of you that have purchased through my link on the right side of my blog. Every little bit helps--especially when I can use the commission to buy more graphics to make more printables! (Did I mention my addiction?) Ha!

What are you waiting for? Hurry on over to Scrappin' Doodles!!! Be sure to check out Scrappin' Doodles on Facebook and sign up for the weekly email newsletter. You will be so glad you did!

Scotch Thermal Laminators are on sale on Amazon for $16.99!!!!

I just bought a second laminator for home and another for a para in my room. I'm so excited!

I recently entered a Seat Sack giveaway on Facebook for a Teacher Tote and much to my surprise, I won! I was beyond thrilled and when I emailed the company with my shipping information, I mentioned that I would blog about the tote when I received it. I promptly received an email back stating that there would also be something in the box for me to review on my blog. It wasn’t a little surprise either, it was a HUGE surprise!

The box was filled with a class set of 25 red Seat Sacks, a leatherette File-n-Save Sack for my file cabinet and a brand new beautiful tote! I was giddy with excitement! My family thought I was crazy, but it was well worth it! Check out this wonderful box of goodies!


For the tote, I went with Caldera Red and it is beautiful! I was very impressed with the quality and size of the tote, along with the lining, double straps, extra pockets, a place to add my keys, phone, etc. I thought I would use it for day to day items I tote back and forth to school, but found that it is the perfect size for my laptop. Yay! 

Check out the great selection of totes here. Right now, they are buy one get one half off using code BOGOTOTE. These would make excellent gifts for your teacher friends or your child's teacher.

Michelle H. at Seat Sack was such a wonderful representative of the company. She returned emails promptly and had excellent communication. I was very impressed with the entire experience and I certainly feel blessed to have gotten so many quality items to use in my classroom.

If you are thinking about purchasing Seat Sacks to save room at your desks or tables or just to organize your space at home, I highly recommend Seat Sacks. Also, now would be an excellent time to stock up, because they are selling the Seat Sacks for buy one get one 50% off using the code BOGOrange2011.

I feel like these are the most important features that  a teacher would look for in a Seat Sack:

• machine washable
• large variety of sizes to fit most chairs
• slips directly over the back of a chair
• organizes books, folders,  binders, dry erase boards, etc.
• easy to clean
• quality material

I encourage you to check out Seat Sack and see for yourself the amazing products they have available for your classroom.

In case you don't know, I LOVE Jack Hartmann and his music! I got to see him last year at Conference on the Young Years and he is so funny and energetic and his songs are catchy and full of fun for my Kindergarten kiddos and me! :) I am so excited that he is now offering his CD's as MP3 downloads!

What's even better than his new MP3 downloads?

The fact that he's offering Lil' Country Kindergarten readers a 20% discount on all orders over $10 with the coupon code LilCountryMP3 through November 1st!!! The code will give you a one time discount on each item in your cart, not just MP3 downloads, so feel free to mix and match! Just head over to his newly redesigned site and start shopping! http://www.jackhartmann.com/  You'll be so glad you did!

Between this offer and the email I got below, I am pretty sure I scared my Kindergarten kiddos with my giddiness today!

Jack Hartmann with my two co-workers and me!

My kiddos and I are currently in love with his DVD, Movin' with Jack--mainly because they can't get enough of the Silly Pirate Song and Humpty Dumpty. They are hilarious doing Hip-Hop Tooty Ta! It's one of those songs with actions that you truly hope no one walks into your classroom and observes you doing with the students! Ha! Apparently it's not as cute when you're doing it at 36 as it was when you are 5 or 6. :) However, it's soooo much fun and it's a great song to get the wiggles out.

Just try to get these catchy songs out of your head! :) I dare ya!

You can find out more about Jack Hartmann at the following sites:
Blog
Facebook Fan Page
Web Site

I am not being compensated for this post. I am just sharing my love of educational music with you through the quality products provided by Jack Hartmann. :)

Yesterday I headed to town to take advantage of a few sales. This is what I came home with for school.

Dollar Tree – $16

• 4 green plastic bins
• colors border
• alphabet border
• sports cello bags (our PBIS theme)
• desk nameplates
• Disney Princesses numbers and counting cards (These are great! They have numbers, quantity and number words.)
• dice – 3 packs of 10
• Mickey Mouse numbers and counting cards
• 2 packs of sea life animals (I am working on a printable for these.)

Target – $13

• tabletop pocket chart easel
• 3 pocket charts
• 2 metal pails
• Sharpie markers ($1 off coupon here)
• child’s umbrella (on clearance for $4.98)

Staples – $9

• 4 packs of 5 tab dividers (50 cents each)
• shapes and colors bulletin board set

I can’t wait to see all of this in my room!

I bought one of these tonight!!!! In my defense, I only paid $19.24 because I had $10 in Amazon gift cards from SwagBucks and it was shipped for free. Yay! Thanks to everyone who has signed up and been earning SwagBucks. I owe you for helping me out! :)

Source: www.Amazon.com

So, which do you think it was peer pressure from other fabulous bloggy teachers, love of a fun product that saves me steps to the laminator in the workroom located in the trailer outside our building or just plain good old-fashioned lack of self-control?

***Update: I'm beginning to think that you guys can't live without your Scotch Thermal Laminators! :) Now, I'm even more anxious to try it out!

I have a love for vintage things and I like to decorate with flea market finds. So it's probably no surprise that one of my absolute favorite shows ever is Little House on the Prairie. :) This cute desk reminds me of the one room schoolhouse/church on the show. When I saw this desk at a flea market recently, I had to have it! My husband was able to talk the owner down on the price a little and he purchased it for me no questions asked. I love that man!

Isn't it the cutest? It is big enough for two people and has a desk area and cubbies for two people behind the seat. If I can't fit it in my house, I'm going to take it to school. I just can't decide on whether or not I should refinish it.What would you do?

(Please ignore the little stove on the porch. It is too heavy for me to move, so I have to leave it up to my hubby to move it and I couldn't wait to take a picture. :)

Ha! I feel like I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy by not only hitting the Target dollar spot as much as possible lately but by also trying to squeeze in 80 fun activities with my family before I have to go back to school. Seriously, where does the time go?

Have I mentioned that  I live in the country? That means the nearest Target is an hour away! Talk about torture with all you fabulous bloggy friends posting all your wonderful deals! When I go to town for any reason, I try to go to every store I might possibly need to in order to make the trip worthwhile and to save on gas.

So, I tried getting in on some of the inexpensive Staples deals for the week, but that didn't work out so well. They were all out of the 5 packs of Sharpies for $1. I LOVE Sharpie markers!  I am very brand loyal on this item. Is anyone else like that?

Here’s what I ended up with.

Staples – $1

• 4 sets of page flags @ 25 cents

Target – $24

• flash cards: 4 sets
• card sorts – 2 sets
• heart beads: for patterns, counting and sorting – 2 sets (I’m going to make some printables for these.)
• magnetic mini erasers – 3 packs of 2

• pocket charts (3)
• addition spin and write
• alphabet spin and write
• calendar set of 2 (I’m not using these for my calendar. I’ll show a picture of what I have in mind in another post.
• class scheduler
• lesson planning book (This is just for making notes for planning. It is not what I will use for my actual lesson plans and daily schedule.)

• alphabet matching puzzles
• counting matching puzzles
• desk nameplates
• 2 sets of 4 dry erase strip boards

It’s not like this is my first year teaching. I am beginning to think that I became a teacher for all the cool supplies!

Today, I had to go back into town to get brush killer and a pump to try to kill the insane amount of poison ivy we have climbing several of the barbed wire fences around our yard. I am highly allergic and have had it three times this spring/summer already. I’m so tired of scratching that I was ready to spend whatever it took to have it all gone!
So, I took advantage of the trip to run by a different Dollar Tree this afternoon. I'm most excited about the ice cream bowls! :) My thought was to make these into another math work station. I would add number cards and have students spoon ice cream (pom poms) into their ice cream bowls. I would also include some recording sheets with ten frames and paint markers. I will try to make that later as a freebie in case any of you get these, too.
Dollar Tree: $9

• 2 sets of ice cream bowls (3/set—1 each of pink, green and blue)
• 2 sets of pom poms (80 pcs/set)
• 1 Cars foam number puzzle
• 1 Disney Princesses foam number puzzle
• 2 sets of divided plastic dishes (2/pack)
• 1 pkg. of flamingo drink stirrers (10/pack)

I bought the divided plates for addition and subtraction. The drink stirrers go with the palm trees I got last night for use as individual pointers during Guided Reading, The Daily 5—Read to Self/Someone, etc. The foam number puzzles will be for putting numbers in order and then I’m already working on a recording sheet for 10-20.

Now, where do I put all of this until school starts?

Scrappin' Doodles is one of my absolute favorite graphics store and I know a lot of other teachers buy from them as well. Throughout July, use the code JULY2011 at checkout for 15% off orders $5 or more.

I was inspired to go shopping by Fran at Kindergarten Crayons. I saw the lovely alphabet and number stamps she bought at Target and decided I needed to make a trip to town. Unfortunately, they were all out of the stamps.
I still hope to find some of the stamps she found, but since we live an hour from the nearest Target, I can’t spend $25 in gas to keep looking for dollar stamps. If anyone finds any extra at your store and you’re willing to buy them for me, I will pay you for them and pay for shipping. I would love to have at least two sets of each, but I will take whatever you can get. Pretty please!
Target: FREE (Two of the items I purchased from a transaction before gave me a $5 gift card, so I got all of these for free.) Otherwise, they would have all been $1 each.

• sports name tags for our 1st day of school nametag lanyards (Our PBIS Schoolwide Theme is Sports)
• monkey card (I needed a $1 filler.)
• alphabet puzzle cards
• animal action cards
• desk nameplates

I LOVED these animal action picture cards. We use HeidiSongs Elicit a Physical Response movements all the time for patterning, calendar time, counting, saying letter names and sounds, etc. I have the sheets in a sheet protector attached to our white board so I can access them quickly. The cards are two-sided and seem pretty durable. There are 40 animal actions.
I thought these cards would be perfect for transitioning from our seats to the carpet, lining up, etc. For example, hop like  kangaroo back to your seats or flutter like a butterfly to the carpet.

Dollar Tree: $10

• number magnets (2)
• jewelry links (2)
• shapes sticker charts
• numbers chart
• tiki ice cube trays (3)
• palm tree drink stirrers (10/pack)

Ideas:

• number magnets for a math work station, along with a small metal for comparing numbers, matching numbers, etc.
• jewelry links can be used for patterning, sorting by attributes, graphing, measurement, weight, etc.
• numbers chart-cut apart and mix up for students to put in order or for one-to-one correspondence using manipulatives
• The tiki ice cube trays will be used as ten frames with number cards and manipulatives for students to create a given number. These would be fun for making Play Doh manipulatives, too.
• Palm tree stirrers will be used as pointers during small group reading instruction.

Mardel: $10
Both sets below were on clearance for 50% off. Yay!

• Cat in the Hat bulletin board set - $5
• Carson Dellosa Tropical Palm Tree bulletin board set – $5

Ideas: pictures with students for Dr. Seuss celebration and measurement

Chicka Chicka tree to replace the real one I use to have that took up so much room.

What are some of your frugal finds this summer?

Photo Source

Kohl's Cares program is currently offering Eric Carle plush toys and hardcover books like The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Mixed-Up Chameleon and The Foolish Tortoise for only $5 each.