Dollar Spot, My Hero

Since it seems everyone else is blogging about their uh-may-zing deals from the Target Dollar Spot, I figure I should share as well. As with anything you see on this blog, I am not a photographer, I do not claim to be a photographer, and I think it's pretty darn cool that I can even put pictures on the internet. So don't judge.

plenty-o-stickers

There are 5 sheets of stickers in each package with 270 stickers total for the round letters, 215 for the rainbow letters, and 560 for the stars! That is a lot of stars. They're also all glittery in case you can't tell from the photo. I'm going to borrow a great idea from Ms. Van Orman and use the round alphabet stickers on bottle caps for a different, fun manipulative in my ABC center.

In the package, so you know what to look for!

I also got these counting puzzles that have two sets of matching cards. Each set covers numbers 1 through 10 and what I love about these is that there is a set matching the numerals to pictures, but also a set to match the numerals to dots. I've recently learned a lot about subitizing, which is the ability to recognize a quantity without counting. Counting dots is a great way to teach subitizing because they are a static representation that look the same every time. When children are asked to count different pictures, they sometimes focus on the attributes of the objects and that can get in the way of their counting. When they are counting dots, they learn to recognize the number of dots without counting and can then apply this skill to objects and pictures. I'm excited to find sturdy puzzles for $1 that teach this important skill!

Now these cards are just awesome. They're photographs of animal families. I love finding quality photographs to use in my classroom because I believe they are much better for making connections and learning new concepts. Here's an example of some of the animal families:

mammals

birds

There are several other sets of animal families. Each set has 8 examples, which is a good number for exploring the similarities and differences found within each type of animal. I am so in love with these cards! Plus they could easily be used for any activity where pictures of animals are required.

This is another great product I found in the Dollar Spot. It's a mat with letter spinners! It's also made of a dry-erase laminate so it's already super sturdy. The intended use is to spin, name the letter you land on, then write the letter in the space below.  I plan on cutting each spinner out so I can use them for lots of different activities. In case you're interested, here's the other side of the mat:

I don't use a lot of activities like this in my class because I have many others I think are more meaningful and engaging to practice writing letters (like the spinners on the other side), so it's not a big loss for me to lose this side after I cut up the other side. If you wanted to do both, though, you could easily just buy two (or more!). This side is also dry-erase so it's an easy activity to put in a center.


There are PLENTY more things I've bought and am making to share, so I will leave with this for now. I wouldn't want to give away all my tricks in one post!