Have you all been to your Target dollar section lately? (It’s called a lot of things… Bullseye’s Playground, the Dollar Spot, the One Spot… I can’t keep it straight what the actual, current name is!)
Anyway, they’ve just rolled out some AWESOME educational resources that are perfect for parents and teachers! While I pretty much skipped over the classroom stuff (bulletin board borders, classroom banners & welcome signs, award papers, bookmarks, etc.), I can definitely see many teachers wanting to grab those wonderful goodies to use in their classrooms!
I was most interested in resources we could use as part of our homeschool (not just for this year, but many years to come), so I snatched up some really great stuff that I wanted to share with you.
First up, I found some things to help with handwriting and alphabet learning and recognition. This chalkboard laptop is super fun, and I know the girls will have fun writing on it and pretending to type. I think I actually got this double-sided lined dry erase board a few months ago, but they have these in the dollar spot pretty frequently. You use dry erase markers with them and they’re wonderful for handwriting practice and learning letters. I also like this cursive practice book (for down the road… we’re still working on printing) that is also wipeable. These scra-ffiti ABC’s are really fun and the kids will enjoy playing with them. It’s a fun pre-handwriting activity you can do almost anywhere! I got the Dr. Seuss ABC cards because they “match” the ABC book we have. Jude likes looking through these and telling me what the letters are.
One of my favorite finds is this pack of wipeable letter cards. They are double-sided, so there are 13 cards, each with two letters on them. It comes with a dry erase marker and a little pouch for storage. Vera loves these, and I thought it would be a good activity for Cordelia to work on while Vera is writing letters on paper.
This is a better look at the chalkboard laptop (it includes four pieces of chalk).
This word-building board is fun! It’s magnetic and has spaces for spelling out words, leaving a blank so that the child can fill in the missing letter. It includes over 50 magnets. I can see lots of uses for it! The magnetic alphabet letter set doesn’t technically go with the word-building board, but I think they would work with it! My plan is to use them on cookie sheets (new ones from the Dollar Tree) for spelling, phonics, and more. There are several “puzzle pairs” available currently, and I got the set that pairs letters with words and the set that forms a complete word. Jude is currently “into” puzzles, so I think he’ll like these. They had a bunch of clothespin activity sets (including color wheels, days of the week, etc.), but I ended up getting one that matches upper and lowercase letters, and one that matches the rhyming words. I am hoping these will be things that Cordelia or Jude enjoy doing independently. They also have a ton of flashcards (showing more later), but I liked these with rhyming words.
Fun and games!! These are great car, plane, or waiting room activities. I remember playing with a spirograph when I was young, so I was excited to find this. Vera is the only one who can do it by herself at this point, but the others will learn too, I’m sure. We’ve been having fun with this tic tac toe set! It’s magnetic, so it’s perfect for keeping the pieces together and not lost! We’ve played Find It Fast: Wild Animals several times, and Jude is SO good at it! This game is like Spot It (which we also have), and it’s a fun activity that we can do together or independently. Vera has been loving the Go Fish game, and it’s cute to see how she’s learning a bit of strategy while playing it! These Imagine and Draw cards are nice for waiting rooms, since they’re quiet but also creative. We took one set to the dentist yesterday! Target had a few busy books, but this closures one was my favorite. Unbutton it to find velcro to unfasten, which then leads to a page you have to untie and unlace, then finally a zipper to unzip. Then do it in reverse: zip the zipper, lace up and tie, fasten the velcro, and button up! So good for working on those practical skills in a fun way.
I grabbed a few workbooks (even though we’re not hugely into workbooks) because these looked really cute (and they came with a sheet of stickers). This is another clothespin activity that I got a while ago but saw that they have again. You match the picture to the letter that it starts with (and opening a clothespin is good for fine motor skills). Jude likes doing this one. I got more of these blank books (I’ve bought them before) because I think the girls will have fun writing and illustrating stories (with a little help) this year. There are 8 books in the pack for $3.
On to math resources! We needed a new clock, as the last one was foam and had gotten destroyed. This chalkboard clock is very good quality for $3. Vera knows how to tell time a bit (hour and half hour), so we’ll keep working on that with her and the younger ones. I like these snap number blocks! Each block has either a number or a symbol on it, and you use them to create problems to solve. Very nice quality also! Again, picked up a number workbook. It’s too easy for Vera, but may be right for Cordelia and definitely Jude. These magnetic shapes and numbers are the same size as the letters I showed above. They are so cute and we’ll have fun playing with these on cookie sheets! I got a few more of the wipeable cards: subtraction, addition, and money. The money cards are for older kids, but we’ll use them when we get to that point! I got this felt play money a while ago, but they have it in the dollar section again. It’s $3, but it includes a lot of pieces. We can use this for playing store (while learning the value of money)! It’s easier to handle than the paper pretend money (and will hopefully last longer).
I should have taken a picture of the inside of these workbooks, because they are so cute! Jude loves dinosaurs and the girls have shown interest in space and planets (thanks to the Magic School Bus). The books on the states and the presidents have a few facts about each as well as bright pictures. Great for just $1! Also picked up some more flashcards on flags of the world, the states, and musical instruments. These won’t be for quizzing/drilling purposes, but just for looking through together and talking about. I may punch holes in each set and put them on a ring.
Okay, these may be the thing I was most excited about. They are dry erase pockets for worksheets or whatever you want! They are nice and thick and have a cute colored fabric border (I got yellow, but they had blue and red too). You can use clear page protectors for this same idea, but these are thicker than that and hold a larger piece of paper. You can just insert a page inside and then let the kid go to town filling it out or tracing it. When they’re finished, just wipe it off! Great for saving paper and not having to make a bunch of copies of a workbook you want to reuse. I’m not sure what I’ll use these dry erase strips for, but I thought they were neat. We can practice handwriting on them, but I think they may be for labeling desks or something. I got the adhesive label pockets to label the bins I’m using to store all of these amazing resources!
Finally, I got some Dr. Seuss stickers and a set of highlighters (double-sided) and gel pens (really pretty colors) for me to use.
Phew! I hope you enjoyed reading about the homeschool supplies I found in the Target dollar section! Maybe this will help you know what to look for as you search for resources for your own family.
