Wanna Go to the Dollar Store?

Going to the Dollar Store alone can be fun, but when you go with friends you really hit the jackpot.  While I was in New Orleans I went to the Dollar Tree with my friends Kathy and Gina and here’s what we found:
*Fun pointers for independent reading
*Post it note flags to mark things you want to share with your partner
*A book light to clip onto your book….just for fun!

Items for “Read the Room”:
*Clown glove and large tooth brush for pointing to words
*Fun glasses
*Glue the scrubbers to dowels and have children “scrub the words”

Here’s what we found for words:
*Children toss and catch the ball as they spell their sight words
*Give kiddos 3 pompoms that they can drop into the 3 sections in the tray to segment phonemes

How about these cute bath scrubbers? Use them as they are or glue them to a dowel.
*Use the pigs to retell the 3 Little Pigs
*Use the frogs for “5 Little Speckled Frogs”
*Use the fish for  five fish songs…there is one by Jack Hartmann and one by Dr. Jean

These are southern flyswatters! We grow our bugs big down here! They are great for the Swat game. I have this game in a lot of my literacy game packs. Spread the cards on the floor and then the children find the card with the “answer” and swat it with the fly swatter.

I love these containers for crayons, glue, crayons, etc.

Here’s the game I am going to make…Put 10 silk flowers in the flower box. Have the children reach in the box and get a handful of flowers. Using a 10’s frame, have the children organize the flowers on the frame. Ask, “How many more do you need to make a 10?” Think I might have to make a recording sheet….
You can do the same thing with the chick by using small plastic eggs.

Did you notice that the ice tray is a 10’s frame? Usually the ice trays have 12, but we found this one that had only 10 holes! For the ducks…Get a large bowl of water. Have the children roll a dice. Put that many ducks in the bowl of water. Roll the dice again, “What do you have to do to make the bowl have that many ducks? Take some out or put some in?” Great for fluency with addition and subtraction!
The plates can be used as counting mats with the foam insect shapes.
There are a million uses for these! You can write almost anything on the petals, have the children spin the flower and “grab” one of the petals while it is spinning. Then, they tell you what is on the petal.
*Write numerals, children grab the number and tell you the number that is one more, one less, ten more, what is the double of that number, tell me a number combination for that number, how many more to make a 10, and on and on!
*Write letters or words and have children read them. Grab the letter and tell the sound or a word that begins with the letter. Grab a rime then tell a word that is in that word family, and on and on!
So let’s play a little game…leave a comment with how you use the flower spinner!

OMG! Just saw where my sweet friend Michele at Fabulous in First has a new product that is all awards around things you can buy at the dollar store!

Check out her post here:
http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com/2013/04/baseball-season-gotta-love-it.html

And here is the product on tpt:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dollar-Store-Superlatives-End-of-the-Year-Awards