Dollar Tree Must Haves for Back to School

Uh, it's only July... it is not the season yet. But alas... all the major stores have started stocking for BTS already. 

The Dollar Tree has really upped its game this back to school season. If you haven't yet visited in recent weeks, you need to go. Drop everything. Go now.

You know, as teachers, we can't wait until the last minute to snag great deals. If we wait, we will only find 16 pink pencil boxes when we just need 4 blue ones to complete a set. And that's rough. #teacherproblems

I shared this video on Facebook the other day after visiting The Dollar Tree and finding some really great stuff...

One thing I ended up purchasing were all of those magnetic, dry erase shapes. They had all 5 of these shapes. Each package has 3 in one package, so I purchased 2 sets of each.

Being a special education teacher, I am always looking for work tasks for students to complete. I figured these magnets would be a great work task for them to complete at the front white board.

What I'm going to do is create patterns on the board, take a picture of them with a specific classroom iPad, and then create an iPad work task center.

Students will then grab this iPad and work to not only recreate the beginning of the sequence, but also finish it. The magnets aren't too small or too large, so they are perfect for small hands.

You could also start out the sequence for students and have them complete it. Lay out all of the different shapes and have them complete it...

...or give them only the shapes within that sequence. Either way, it's going to be a really fun, effective way for students to practice their sequencing.

PS. Did I mention those shapes are dry erase too? You could easily write numbers or letters on them and have students sequence that way too!

The one thing I went specifically to The Dollar Tree for were these magnetic pockets. Yes, clear pockets... that have magnets on the back.

You get two in a pack for $1. I think I bought 10 packs.

I have so many ideas on how to use these:
• visual schedules
• classroom jobs
• review Jeopardy
• indoor recess games (like tic-tac-toe)
• send 1 home with students on the first day and have parents use it as a calendar reminder system, frequently sending home reminders in daily folders
• work tasks
...and so much more!

As you can tell, I'm pretty pumped about these. So much so that I created a blank set of cards that perfectly fit inside of the clear magnetic pockets. Click the link below to grab them.

{ Editable Magnet Cards }

You can see other ideas I am going to try implementing in work task bins this school year on my Work Task / Bin Pinterest board: