School Supplies!

Something I've noticed in my endless digging through teacher blogs and expat websites is that Korean kids love American school supplies. They go ga-ga over stickers, kookoo for posters, etc. Since it seems to me like getting such things is not too easy in Seoul, or that their selection is limited, I decided to track down some good ol' American goodies...

I have many friends who are teachers, most of which teach youngsters like mine. I posted on FaceBook with the question: "where should I get teacher supplies?" - several commented that I should check out the Dollar Store. I was surprised, and skeptical... but, why not?

So yesterday when I was on the nice side of town (aka: not where I live) I decided to see what the local Dollar Tree had in stock. I walked in and the first aisle I happened to check was the teachers supplies (and students' supplies down at the end).


First thing I found were rolls of "motivational stickers" (like, Great Job! on homework, etc.) I started looking around the box for the price, and my friend informed me that, unlike many other "dollar" stores, Dollar Tree ACTUALLY only has one price - $1. My eyes lit up! The whole roll of 180 stickers was only $1... I grabbed 5. (Hey, they had a variety!)



The next of my finds was posters... a Happy Birthday banner. You know, each month, swap out the names? Well, I wasn't too convinced I needed that, but I kept digging through the posters and found some that WERE what I needed. Each pack had two posters. I got "Opposites/Positions" to learn things like "in/out" or "happy/sad" - these could be great for vocab lessons, right? Right behind that was "Animals" with one poster being marine life and the other wild life (think African safari...) Some of these animals might be a little more complicated in their names, but it won't hurt! Plus the pictures are GREAT! Finally, the jewel in my poster-crown... the name chart. You know what I'm talking about... A chart where all the names go down the left side, and accomplishments across the top. Each time one of the students completes something, they get a coveted STAR. I LOVED this when I was in school... I couldn't wait to see my stars kick all the other rows of stars' butts! (Call me competitive...) Luckily, right after grabbing that set of posters (the other side was a Happy Birthday poster with each month and a box to write the kids names, much better than a banner...) I happened upon packs of foil stars! Goldmine! I grab two boxes of 440 stars each, and considered another, but decided to hold off...

My last finds were some cute motivational erasers (prizes??), some Mickey Mouse flashcards for colors and shapes (gotta know that stuff, right?) and finally, "Grow Your Own" capsules... wild life variety. I figure kids like that kind of sciency weirdness, and we can do them when learning animal names. :)

Man... these kids are so lucky that have an awesome teacher like me! ;) I spent a whole $15 on them! LOL I'm pretty proud of my spectacular finds... I'm sold on Dollar Tree!!