Oh Target, You Got Me Again!

To say I'm a Target addict is a complete understatement...  If I had to shop at only one store for the rest of my life, I'd say Target would definitely be my store.  

I started seeing posts about school stuff in the dollar / bargain section of Target last week, so I pretty much went there immediately to do my damage.  Altogether, I've spent right around $50, so about half of the money I will get back from our PTA.  (More on my other school shopping later this week!)  My goal is to stick as close to that $100 as possible this year and not spend more than about $25 or $50 of my own money.  I also have a $35 Wal-Mart gift card I received for doing a student survey thing, so I'm contemplating using that on some new decorations for my classroom.  I hate Wal-Mart and try to avoid going there at all costs, but I will admit they do get some cute things this time of year!

Okay, onto my goodies...

I was pretty pumped to find so many fun purple items!  The plastic storage (6 total) were $2.50 each,  but oddly enough I went back this week to 2 other Targets and they were $3!  I don't know what's up with the price difference / increase, but I'm glad I got these when they were only $2.50.  (I grabbed my 25 original book bins when they were only $1 each back about 5 years ago!)  I made another trip back yesterday when I heard that they had purple pocket charts.  I knew it was a longshot since I hadn't seen them at the other 3 Targets in town, but there they were...  Just waiting for me to give them a home in my classroom!  Yay!  There are several things I seem to hoard for school and these $1 pocket charts are one of them.  I swear I have pretty much every color ever.  

I also picked up 4 new non-fiction books for $1 each.  I use these almost weekly for mini-book reports in our research work station.  I try to pick up these books whenever new ones come out.  There are almost always new books in their dollar section, not just during back to school time.  For 3rd grade, I usually go for the Level 2 and Level 3 books.  

I didn't really need notepads and notecards, but these were too cute to pass up.  I love having cute notecards to write notes to the kids on and I'm a huge fan of the Muppets, so of course I had to grab a couple packets of those.  And the little cassette tape sticky notes!?!  Love those!  

My biggest purchases were Dr. Suess items.  I went a little bit crazy with those!  We always team up our assessment kickoff with Dr. Seuss week, so I like to stock up on these goodies when I can and save them for when we start assessments.  (You can read more about my assessment goodies here.)  I ended up getting class sets of award certificates, pencils, erasers, stickers, and bookmarks.  They had some other cute Dr. Seuss items like bags and silly bands, but I decided this was plenty for right now.  The school usually provides other assessment treats, so I think my kids will be well take care of when testing season arrives next spring!

Have you found any other goodies are Target? Please share if you've found any of your own Target treasures!  

Target Teaser

I hit one of the Targets today and did some pretty decent damage in their dollar section!  I'll share more detail and pics at some point when I have time to do a full post.    But, in the meantime here are some of the items I bought and saw there:

Small dry erase boards

Plastic book / magazine bins

Plastic organizers

Non-fiction books

Small rugs

Small pocket charts

Star student seat cover

LOTS of sticky notes and notepads

Decorative pen holders

Miscellaneous flashcards

Dr. Suess randomness

Other random organizational stuff

Mini trashcans

Stickers

AND a lot more that I can't think of right now...

(All of the items were either $1 or $2.50.)

Since we team up our assessment kickoff with Dr. Seuss Week, I stocked up on lots of Dr. Seuss items since I like to give them to my kids during assessments.  My other splurge were some purple plastic tubs and book bins.  Like I said, I'll be sure to show pics and do a full post, but that's going to have to wait til after the next few days of craziness!  I may also try to pop into my regular Target and see if they have anything different.

Have you found any other awesome goodies at Target yet?  Please share your findings!

Testing Tuesday (A Few Days Late): Goodies!

 Happy Tuesday Friday  SATURDAY!  It's been a very busy week with testing, so I'm a little behind on my posts.  I've been trying to work off stress (and make up for going out to eat too much in the last few weeks) by working out each evening, so my computer and blogging time has been a little less.

Well, reading assessments have come and gone and I have to brag on my class...  They totally rocked!  I was pretty confident that they'd all do just fine, but I was really surprised at how well they did as a whole.  They're my highest scoring class in my five years of teaching!  I hope that they're ready to do this well on math assessments next week!

Anyway, I mentioned the other day that I had a lot to prep for assessments.  I've taken over a lot of the testing coordinator responsibilities this year, so I've been in charge of getting goodies together for all of the students.  

(You might recall my post on motivating students.)  

I wanted to share some of the treats and goodies that we have for the kids during testing weeks.  

I might also add that we combine our assessment kickoff with Dr. Suess Week for the lower grades.  Pre-K through second grade has themes each day based on a Dr. Seuss book.  Ours are pretty much the same, but ours are tied with testing:

Monday - Dress for Success (Wear nice clothes.)

Tuesday - Anti-Bullying shirts (This is every Tuesday.)

Wednesday - Ready, Set, GO!  (Wear green shirts.)

Thursday - Step Up to the Test (Wear silly socks.)

Friday - Hats Off to Testing (Wear hats.)

In addition, our principal comes around to each classroom and gives a motivational speech.  He's been doing this for several years (as a teacher) and we all insisted that he continue this tradition.  He usually finds a video clip about someone who has overcome challenges and encourages the kids to overcome their fear and challenges with testing.  He then passes out a special paper with an encouraging phrase that many of the students take with them during testing.

Finally, the little kids in the lower grades write letters to the kids before testing.  My aunt is a first grade teacher in my building, so her class wrote letters to us and gave out some little treats.  My class loved getting letters from the first graders!  Many of them took those letters with them during testing too!

Does your school do anything special to get the kids pumped up for assessments?  I'd love to hear some ideas and suggestions that I could use for next year!  :)

Dr. Seuss on Pinterest!

This is gonna be short and sweet...

Dr. Seuss week is just around the corner, so I'm sure many of you are looking for ideas and lesson plans.  I've stumbled upon several great boards of ideas on Pinterest that I wanted to share.

Enjoy!

http://pinterest.com/MrsFresh2o/dr-seuss/

http://pinterest.com/melissavecchio/seuss/

http://pinterest.com/jacindar/dr-seuss/

http://pinterest.com/lynnderella/dr-seuss/

http://pinterest.com/dpastenes/dr-seuss/

Happy pinning! :)