15 Dollar Tree Finds To Use in your Classroom Tomorrow

What do you do on a Friday night when you are in Orlando with 4 of your blogging/teacher buddies? You go to the Dollar Tree to see what you can find!! When we returned to Deanna’s house, Deanna, Holly, Stephanie, Katie, and myself had our first Facebook Live video to share what we found.  Thank you all so much for tuning in! It was so much fun!! We decided we would do a blog hop to follow up with the ideas. Be sure and visit all 5 blogs to see all 15 of the ideas!

Here’s a little recap of the ideas that I shared on the video…

Conceptual Chip Clips

• Read a page of the Quack and Count (Or any duckie counting book) to your students.
• Have them act out the problem with the chip clips.
• You may even choose to have your student write out the equation if they have a great understanding of the concept.
• Have them move all the ducks back over to the left, move on to the next page and repeat the process.

 Hanger Rekenrek 

Here’s how to play this game:

• Determine which number they are working on learning.
• You can start out by simply saying “show me 8.” Students would show you the number with one push.
• Show the students a number of beads briefly and then cover them up. Ask them “How many beads did you see?” “How do you know?”
• Extend this by saying “Show me one more/less than that number.” or “show me double.”
• Split the clothes pins down the middle so that one color is on one side and one is on the other. Say “Show me one way to make 5.” Continue with different ways to make different numbers.

The different colors of the rekenrek allow students to make mental images of the numbers. Using 5 and 10 as anchors for counting make it more efficient than counting one by one and builds great number sense.

Beach Ball Number Sense

This game makes practicing and reinforcing skills seem like play. And, we all know when play is involved, kids are all in! They’re hooked! It’s all about engagement.

All you need is a beach ball and a sharpie! Just write some numbers on the ball and decide what skill you want to work on with your kiddos. Then, just start throwing the ball around. Whatever number their hand lands on when they catch the ball, ask them to identify it. Later, you can work on 1 more or 1 less, or ways to make that number.

In the pictures above, my class is using it as a center. We did this at the end of the year during our Summer Birthday Beach Blast. They took turns passing the ball around and making number sentences to solve. This is a center where they have to work cooperatively together and it’s just so much fun!!

 Are you ready to shop? Would you like a $25 gift card to get you started? Here’s how you can win one! It’s really simple. All you need to do is…

• Follow each of us on Instagram. Here’s mine: https://www.instagram.com/littlekinderwarriors/
• Visit each blog and read the ideas. Each post will have a link at the bottom to take you to the next blog. So hop on over to Stephanie’s to see her ideas!

• Not required, but WE LOVE comments!!! 🙂 Feel free to leave one about your favorite activity.