My 3 Favorite Places To Get School Supplies

I'm linking up with T_____ Things Thursday, hosted by Operation Skinny Jeans and The Carbmonster :)

As teachers, though we normally have basic supplies (paper, paint, etc.) paid for by our schools, we often spend a lot of time and money getting supplies on our own dime (especially if you homeschool or do in-home care). So I thought I'd share my favorite places to pick up supplies on the cheap!

1.) Discount School Supply

Discount School Supply seems to be the go-to place for preschool supplies, and with good reason; they have a large, affordable selection of anything you could need. Granted, I don't personally order things from there, but my boss does, and sometimes I get to pick things out ;) I thought it would be good to list it anyway, because it's a great resource. I've often poured through the catalogs picking out all the things I'd want in my dream classroom.

2.) Dollar Tree (or any other dollar store, I suppose)

Dollar Tree is the BEST. I could easily spend over a hundred dollars in there. The best part is, if I did, I'd come out with over a hundred items, because EVERYTHING is $1 or less! You really can't beat that. They have plenty of supplies geared specifically toward teachers, like sentence strips and sight words, as well as normal office supplies like notebooks, tape, pens, etc. It's also a great place to get toys/coloring books/bubbles/etc. for treasure boxes and birthday bags.

3.) the Target Dollar Spot

  So you know when you walk into a Target, and there's that little area with bins full of various (often colorful) items? That's the Dollar Spot, and it's a magical thing. Everything's not a dollar (though quite a lot is), but I don't think I've ever seen anything over $5. There are all sorts of fun little things to be found, from supplies to toys to snacks. I once bought some of those little dinosaur  capsules there (you know, you put them in water, the capsule dissolves, and you get a foam dinosaur?) and my kids went CRAZY over them; they couldn't wait to show their parents! There are so many awesome things to be found here!

What is your favorite place to get supplies on the cheap?

Sparkly Snow Scene Art

While the snow here in my corner of the world has melted (and been replaced by horrible, terrible, bitter cold), but we created some snow in class today!

This is a really easy project for little kids, and doesn't require anything you can't get easily (in fact, you may need to look no further than your medicine cabinet!).

What you'll need:

• black construction paper
• white crayons
• warm water
• Epsom salts
• a paintbrush and a bowl/dish

It's best to mix your special solution ahead of time. To do this, dissolve Epsom salts in warm water. We actually didn't have Epsom salts (at least not where I could find them), though I could have sworn I'd seen them a few days before. I substituted ice cream rock salt, which we did have, and it worked just as well.

I was using the paintbrush handle to stir. I like multi-purpose things.

 Then use the white crayon to draw a picture on the black paper. For demonstration purposes, I drew (and I use the term loosely -- I'm terrible at drawing) a snowy landscape with snow falling.

 Paint over the entire paper with the salt solution.

Allow the paper to dry.

If it's done properly, the paper should then have a subtle glittery sheen.

See the glittery bits?

See?

SEE?!?!

It's an easy, fun, seasonally-appropriate activity for kids of all ages! (I did it this  morning with 2 and 3-year-olds.)

Teacher-Appropriate Work Wear: Maurice's

So Maurice's may not be the first store you think of when looking for pieces for your work wardrobe, but it's definitely  worth a look.  The pieces there can be fairly affordable as  far as work wear goes, and they carry extended sizes. The clothes are good quality, and they have a lot of separates that can be mixed and matched.

Teacher-Appropriate Work Wear: Maurice's by goodgirlgonewife featuring a lace blouse

Lace blouse
maurices.com

Belted skirt
maurices.com

Stretching shoes
maurices.com

Blue Bead Coil Bracelet - maurices.com
maurices.com

Blue Petal Earring - maurices.com
maurices.com

Teacher-Appropriate Work Wear: Old Navy

Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what to wear to work (it is for me too, because I don't have a lot of clothes, particularly work-appropriate ones). To help us all out (and help curb my shopping cravings), I'm going to spotlight outfits made from pieces from a different store each week.

This week I'm featuring my favorite store to buy clothes at -- Old Navy!

Teacher-Appropriate Work Wear: Old Navy by goodgirlgonewife featuring pointed toe ballet flats

Old Navy camp shirt
oldnavy.gap.com

Old navy
oldnavy.gap.com

Old Navy pointed toe ballet flat
oldnavy.gap.com

Old Navy post earrings
oldnavy.gap.com

Women's Chunky Cable-Knit Sweaters | Old Navy
oldnavy.gap.com

It's Been Awhile

So I realize it's been almost three months since I've updated. Yikes.

Please know that neglecting this blog was never my intention; I've been involved in a lot of other projects (NaNoWriMo, trying to start a blogging network, starting a fitness blog with my bestie) in the past few months.

There is one thing, however, that has happened that actually has an effect on this blog: I (kind of) got a promotion!

I'm still in my old classroom on Monday mornings (with just M and N), but Tuesday-Thursday mornings, I am in the Preschool I classroom (which is M and N's main classroom), and Monday-Thursday afternoons, I am in the Pre-K class (4 and 5-year-olds).

All the classes except Play Time (my original class) have co-teachers. One of the co-teachers in the Preschool I classroom was offered a higher-paying job closer to home (at her son's school, nonetheless), and she decided to take it; the director offered me her vacant position, and I accepted.  The Preschool I class is for 2-3 year olds, and is offered Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, with the option to send children two or three days of the week.  We currently have 11 students: three Americans (2 girls, 1 boy -- N from Mondays), three Chinese girls, four Korean boys, and a Japanese girl (M from Mondays).  We can have up to 12 children, and next semester, we will be gaining another American boy. One of our Chinese girls, D, will be going back to China next semester for Spring Festival, so O, who is in Play Time Tuesday-Thursday, will be taking her spot.

Adjusting to having a co-teacher was a lot easier than I expected to be.  There's always an extra pair of eyes and hands and we switch off lead teaching every two weeks so we get a bit of a break.  I love my co-teacher; she's kind and she's pretty hilarious, so that made the transition a lot easier than I expected it to.

Around the same time that I switched classrooms, the director asked me to help out in the afternoon Pre-K class as well.  It's a lot smaller than the morning class (9 kids vs 17), but there are some special needs in the afternoon class. There were originally six kids, including two kids from a set of triplets, and a week or two before I started, the third triplet started as well.  Two of the triplets have Autism Spectrum Disorder and celiac disease, and require some extra attention.  When two more children joined the class, the director figured a second set of eyes and ears would  be beneficial, so now I get to spend my afternoons in Pre-K :) I really enjoy it, because it's the age group I used to teach.

Here are some pictures of my new classroom (the Preschool I room). The theme is adventure/exploring.

view from the door

our teacher corner...all our supplies and files are here

the north wall -- the cabinets have puzzles and games that all classes share

tables. we have two of them.

dramatic play area

sensory table (and some awesome artwork!)

cubbies (and my stuff)

Christmas tree with ornaments the kids made

each child has his/her own "picture"...

...which indicates where they sit on the rug!

books :)

calendar

color jars

P.S. Here's what I've been doing in Play Time the last couple of weeks :)

Spray Art

This week, our theme is Apples.

I'm always trying to come up with art projects my little ones can work do, because as fun as fingerpainting is, it gets boring if that's all you do.

This week, I decided we'd try some spray art, and it went really well.
 
I put some Colorations Liquid Watercolor in red, green, yellow, and pink (some apples are kind of pink -- like my favorite, Pink Lady apples -- and I have four Monday kids, and I wanted them to be able to each have a different color to encourage sharing) that I diluted with a little water (but just a little!) to make it go farther.

I put a paper towel on a tray for each child, and let them share colors to create multicolored works of art.  They did have a little trouble figuring out how to use the trigger at first, but they caught on pretty quickly).  The plan is to cut them out in apple shapes for a display.  The colors blend together in a fun way, and they really did end up looking like some of the pinker apples!

All in all, I highly recommend this type of art for toddlers.  Not only is it fun, but they get a sense of accomplishment when they spray by themselves (not to mention it's an EXCELLENT fine motor exercise!).  They didn't want to stop for our outside time!

So Here's What Happened on the First Day of Preschool

Today was the first day of class at my school.  Overall, it went pretty well, but there were definitely some things that could have been better.

Today I had three children: a little girl, G, and two little boys, D and J, neither of whom understand much English. 

G was great today.  Her mom had mentioned that she has sharing issues (her older brothers spoil her rotten), and I saw a little bit of that today when she tried to take the green chalk from J; that was the only problem she really had today.  She and J played very nicely throughout a lot of the day; the colored on the chalk easel together and played in the playhouse together when G was done swinging.  She was very helpful; she picked up things the boys dropped and followed directions very well.

J had a pretty good day.  He cried at first, but calmed down before his mom left.  He and G played very nicely throughout the day (as I mentioned in the previous paragraph).  He fell when we were getting ready to go outside, so I ended up carrying him to the playground (he would sit down in a fit of tears if I tried to get him to walk).  He also wouldn't walk back in after we were done playing, but that was because he was having too much fun playing and didn't want to go in!  He was very attentive when I read a book during snack, but he really did NOT want his diaper changed.  At all.  We have one of those wall changing tables like they have in stores, and I had to strap him in because he was flailing so much.  So much, in fact, that he wiggled out at one point and I had to tighten the straps once I got him back in.  Other than that, he had a really good day.

Today was D's first time away from his parents or grandparents ever, so considering that (and the fact that we speak different languages), he did fairly well.  He jumped right into playing as soon as he got there, but about twenty minutes later, I guess he realized his family was gone, because he started WAILING.  He didn't stop until we went outside (almost an hour later).  He kept trying to get me to open the door so he could leave.  I felt terrible that I couldn't comfort him better than I did, but I did the best I could.  He was great on the playground though; he really enjoyed the swings, then went down the slide a few times.  He did a super job walking back inside too.  He didn't want to eat or drink anything during snack time, but he did sit there quietly while I read a couple of books (Oh, David! and Oops!, both by David Shannon).  He also didn't want his diaper changed, though he didn't fight me.  He ended up eating his snack when his family came, which was fine, and he told me goodbye when he left, which I'm taking as a good sign for tomorrow :)

On a much more embarrassing note, my skirt fell down today when D's family was waiting on the director.  It was a bit too big, so I had tucked it into my leggings to help keep it up (I had a long shirt on, so nobody noticed).  When I was cleaning up the sippy cups, it just fell.  Awkward, right?  Thankfully, I don't think they noticed; D's grandma was reading a book with him, and his dad and grandpa were talking.  Luckily I was right by the bathroom, so I just popped in and fixed it, but it was definitely embarrassing.

I'm hoping for a great day tomorrow!