Spring is all around us ~ it’s beautiful out, my allergies are flaring up and there are tons of bunnies, insects, and flowery things at the Dollar Store.
Here are some great finds that you can use in your primary or preschool classroom.
Call me crazy but I find such inspiration at the Dollar Store or Dollar Spot at our favorite place ~ Target. There’s always something to spark my imagination and I think about how I can use it in my classroom or how YOU can use it in yours.
So…I came across some eggs, some legos, a teeny, tiny jenga game, some pom poms, tweezers and tiny Etch – a – Sketch board.
My first thought when I saw the eggs was – how FUN would this be in Kindergarten or preschool?!?! First you could write their names on all eggs. ( One letter per egg so it would take a while ) Maybe enlist parent help for this one. BUT – then the kids could go on an egg hunt and only look for the letters in their name. They would have to leave the other eggs alone. Then they could come back to their own egg carton and ‘build their name’. When I taught preschool my students would have loved this!
Here is a sample, if you have time you can create a caterpillar out of an egg carton for them to have a spot to build their name.
Another thing they would enjoy and it’s great for both fine motor skills and counting/one to one correspondence would be the caterpillar counting activity. Cover a toilet paper roll with bright green paper, add antennae and you have your caterpillar. Give them die – either purchased or made and after they roll the die they have to count out that many pom poms and ‘feed’ their caterpillar. You can even add the oversized tweezers to make it more of a fine motor activity for them as well.
The teeny, tiny jenga game is PERFECT for little hands! You can have them pull it and read the sight word. Or if they are non readers have them identify the color or letter after they pull their wooden piece.
Kids love anything hands on – when I saw the Play doh, Legos and tiny Etch -a – Sketch I knew I could turn it into something fun and engaging.
One of my all time favorite games to play with my students to reinforce a skill or practice spelling words is TRASHKETBALL. I space out points with tape and they choose where they stand – if they get it in and answer the question correctly they earn that many points for their team. Read more about it { here }
I hope these finds gave you inspiration as well and you have some fun new ideas to try out with your students, your own child or your grandchild.
Happy Spring! Remember you can find me very active on my social media pages linked at the top of my blog. Just click on the icons to find and follow me.
xo,
