I Love Back To School Sales!!!

I am so addicted to school supplies!  I love shiny new notebooks and sharpened colored pencils.  I can't get enough folders or glue bottles. 

Thank goodness for Staples and Office Max.  Do you know about their policies for teachers?  Both stores have good sales going this week.  At Staples, with the teacher reward card, teachers can buy more than the limit on sale items and will be credited on their rewards card the difference between regular price and sale price.  So, those penny deals?  You pay 1 cent for the first 2 (or whatever the limit is) and then spend regular price on the rest up to 50 items.  Then they send you your rewards with the difference to spend like a gift card.

At Office Max, teachers can buy double the limit as long as you have their teacher's reward card.  Plus, for every $75 you spend in a quarter, they'll send you $10 to spend like a gift card.  This week, I bought a whole bunch of PURPLE pens for 25 cents/10 pack.  They also had a great deal on AAA batteries, which our house never has enough.  I spent $16.99 on a huge pack and will get $16.98 back in my rewards in a few months.  I love those rewards coupons.  It's awesome to go back in October and grab the things that didn't go on sale in the summer.  New electric pencil sharpener, here I come!!

I don't work for either store.  I don't get any kind of special deal for mentioning them on my blog.  I just wanted to share a couple of great resources for any teachers out there that may not have realized these services were available. 

Look at what I've got!

So, I've got great projects coming soon.  Hopefully this blog will help keep me working on stuff like this so I'm ready in the fall.  It will help keep me accountable if I post here that I'm going to do something.  I'll be much more likely to conquer the procrastination habit if others may come look at my blog to see my progress.  Here are my "before" pictures of several classroom decor projects.  Let's see how long the "after" photos take!



I'm going to turn this into my attendance board!  This is a magnetic and chalkboard covered canvas with printed inspiration on it.  I think it was $14.95 at Meijer and I LOVE it!!  Each of my students will get a magnet with their name on it to place on the board when they come in each day so I can take attendance.  I'm even thinking I'll have little slips of paper to put under the magnet to show whether they are eating hot lunch or cold.  I can't wait to get this up in my classroom!!

So, then I found this ice cube mold in the shape of little stars at Meijer, too.  I'm going to make my own magnets in star shapes using the Plaster of Paris and then paint them to match my black and white and turquoise theme.  I think that I will make little shooting star tails for their lunch choices.  Won't that be stellar???  (sorry -- couldn't resist that pun)





Now for my Party City trip...  I found a vinyl tablecloth to try making sanitize-able cushions for my classroom reading nook.

I found those paper fans to hang over each group with their group number on it.

I also bought some square blue plates.  I've got a few ideas for how I will use those, but I'm going to keep that a secret until I've made some decisions. 


Help keep me accountable this summer.  I don't want to spend my Labor Day weekend freaking out about the first day of school!  :)

Store #1 is open!

I finally put a few things in my Teacher's Pay Teachers store!  Check out the link on the right to see what's up and available.  Know that more will come soon!!! 

I've been "Out of the office..."

I was all excited and ready to post a bunch of stuff on my blog, but then time got away from me.  (Unfortunately, that's a habit I need to work on breaking!)

I spent several wonderful days at a family wedding in Montana.  It was beautiful.  The wedding took place in Red Lodge, which is in the foothills of the Beartooth mountains.  It's right along the highway between Billings, MT and Yellowstone National Park.  The town is full of great resorts and B&Bs.  There are quaint little shops full of the cutest things, lots of restaurants with delicious noms, and scenery that stretches for miles.  Here are a few pictures to tide you over for now.  Tomorrow, expect some great things on this blog! 

Hmmm.... how can I use this in the classroom?  I'm sure there's a way!