Dollar Store Finds For The Classroom

What do you do on a Friday night when you are in Orlando with 4 of your blogging/teacher buddies? You go to the Dollar Tree to see what you can find!! When we returned to Deanna's house, Deanna, Holly, Kim, Katie, and myself had our first Facebook Live video to share what we found.  (You can view that full video replay at the end of this post.) We decided we would do a blog hop to follow up with the ideas. Be sure and visit all 5 blogs to see all 15 of the ideas and enter to win some Dollar Tree dollars of your own!

Here are some ideas that I shared during the video:

This alphabet was found in the school supply section. Just cut and you are ready to roll! You can build all kinds of CVC words and make it into a game adding dice and pom poms. 

Here's how you play:

• Cut your alphabet and lay the letters in 3 columns. (C/V/C)
• Place one fuzzy pom at the bottom of each column. 
• Students take turns rolling the dice.
• If they roll a 3, they move their pom up 3 letters.
• Repeat for all three columns. 
• All players will use a white board to write down the three letters that the poms landed on.
• Have your students practice sounding out each word and blending it together. 

I explain to students up front that some words rolled will be real and others will be nonsense words. 

I try to introduce a variety of ways to practice phonemic awareness during the year because let's be honest, it keeps it exciting for the kids! Here's a new one to add to your tool box using these fun rollers we found in the summer toys section. 

• Set out three small balls of play dough. 
• Give students a word, "Pig" for example. 
• From left to right, say each sound in isolation as you roll over a ball. 
• Once all the balls have been rolled make sure you end by blending the word back together ("P...I...G....Pig")

The possibilities with this one are endless! This particular tray had spots for 14 cubes, so I put strips of washi tape over the ones I didn't need to create that barrier. Here is the idea I shared in the video using manipulatives to show multiple combinations of the same numbers. 

To make 6 they can do

• 3  and 3
• 4 and 2
• 2 and 1 and 3 

Are you ready to shop? 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...

• Follow each of us on Instagram. Each blogger will provide their link in their blog post. Here is mine: https://www.instagram.com/fallingintofirst/  Please be sure to like all the Instagram accounts...we will check. :)

• Visit each blog and read the ideas. Each post will have a link at the bottom to take you to the next blog.  So hop on over to Deanna's to see her ideas!

http://www.deannajump.com/

Once you're ready, get yourself entered using this Raffelcopter!!! 

We will pick a winner on Friday. Good luck and happy shopping!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can watch our full Facebook Live video below to see each idea in action!