Back to School Shopping

Hello and happy Thursday!
I know it's summer vacation, but I spent the entire day at my school for a training, and I am officially in BTS mode. My guest room is begging for school to start:

When I was first starting out in kindergarten, I had no idea what to do to get ready for the upcoming school year. Now that I have a few years under my belt, I wanted to share some of my purchases from this summer! I typically will buy things slowly so as not to break the bank, but this year I went all out in about a week. Here's what I found:

The School Box

Every summer, I spent about $30 at The School Box. It's the best teacher store in the metro Atlanta area, and the only place I know of around here where you can buy individual packs of construction paper! Be still my heart. Anyway, here's a peak at some of my finds

Name plates, birthday crowns, special stationary for my "About Me" letter to parents, and person die-cuts for our special beginning of the year project!

Walmart/Target

This is where I pick up the folders I use for my take-home folders in my classroom. You MUST get the vinyl folders, people! Most of these make it through the year, and I always have a few extra on hand for new students and the occasional broken/torn folder. I buy the non-name brand versions of these, because I don't want logos and a lot of stuff on the cover. I actually bought out all the ones they had at my Target, then went to Walmart for the rest! They're typically 50 cents each.

Staples

This was a new spot for me, and I went specifically for these folders. Every year, I try to find these at the cheapest place possible, and I knew 15 cents each was a great deal! Just a note- there is a 30 count max on the fifteen cent price, so bring someone along to buy the others you're definitely going to need. I use these for meet the teacher night and curriculum night, and I send them home for the families to keep both times. That's why cheap is essential.
Teacher Tip: I purposely use colors for these folders that I don't use in my classroom. For instance, we have purple take home folders, and red art folders. I wanted to make sure these stood out as being just for meet the teacher and curriculum night.

Target Dollar Spot

Like so many other teachers on summer vacation, I went a little crazy at the Target Dollar Spot... I may or may not have gone four times in one week. It was mayhem! And every day I found different things.
Teacher Tip: If you don't see something out in the dollar spot that you have seen other teacher buying recently, ask someone from the store to look in the back! We found a whole slew of Dr. Seuss stuff back there.

I bought out all they had in these bins! I wish I had gotten there sooner!

EVERY SUMMER my teammates and I clear out the dollar section's Dr. Seuss supplies. They always come out first thing in July. We use them as presents for Dr. Seuss's birthday in March!

My kids LOVE these pointers, and they're much cheaper from the dollar section than from teacher supply stores!

Okay, this cost more than a dollar, but I love it! I can't wait to hang it by my desk.

Sam's Club

Random spot, but there are some great finds here! I am lucky enough that most of my students bring in the requested school supplies, so my go-to here is individual packs of Goldfish crackers. I'll share my favorite meet the teacher project that uses these ASAP! It was about $8 for the box of 24 packs.
Teacher Tip: Pick up a box if you want to have extra snacks on hand for kids who forget.

Scholastic

This one is extra special. My sweet boyfriend bought me 24 of these books when they were a dollar each. Sadly, I don't think they are available anymore, but keep them in mind next May/June when you have lots of bonus points built up! I am giving them as another meet the teacher gift in August.
Teacher Tip: If you don't have a scholastic club account, you must make one this August! I'll do a post about setting up your account when the club reopens in August.