Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas

Do you love grabbing items from the dollar store to use in your classroom? Get ready for a treat all about Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas. I am going to show you things you items I snagged and ideas to use them in your classroom. I have 7 dollar store hacks & ideas I am sure you will love!

Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas 1: Colorful Shot Glasses

First, I found these colorful shot glasses in the tropical, luau section recently. I snagged up all three colors because these make perfect pieces for light able pieces and ideas. You can use clear shipping labels (Amazon link here) or sharpies to make learning activities. You can read more the light table ideas here. For one dollar for 24 plastic glasses, grab these now!

Additionally, I love the idea of using these cups for sight words as well. Think about a stackable game.

Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas 2: Shaped Decor Sheets

Next, the rule for the dollar store should be: grab these decor sheets up even if you don’t know what to do with them! 36 colorful pages for $1 is worth holding onto in case you are up the air about the use. additionally, Here are the decor sheets I found and a few ideas you can use them for.

Earth Decor Sheets

-Earth day activities and matching games
-th blends with the picture on one side and the word on the other
-2D or 3D shape sorting activity

Pineapple Decor Sheets

-Tags that read something like be sweet and stand tall
-Fact families activity with the number on the top and equations that may be in the fact family below. If you laminate, students can circle the fact families are are correct.
– Tag for a gift that reads “One Sweet Class”- great door decor for any pineapple themed classroom

Ladybug Decor Sheets

-Equations with answer on one side and equation on the other, then cut in half
-Rhyming pairs with two rhyming words on either side, then cut in half
-Compound words like ladybug. You can put the word on one side and the image on the other, or you can put a word on either side before cutting in half.

Cupcake Decor Sheets

-Word on top then decode the word in pieces below. For example hat on the icing part, then h, a, t cut into pieces for the cake part.
-Birthday card for students
-Number sense with the number on top and a matching ten frame on the bottom

Rain Cloud Decor Sheet

-This is my favorite
-Making sets of ten using the rain drops as counters. Write 6+__= 10 on the top and have your students find the missing number.
-Subtracting from 10 using the rain drops as counters. Write 10-__= 7 on the top and have your students find the missing number.
-Use for any other math activity. If using for another number, just cut off the unneeded raindrops from the back.

Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas 3: USA Puzzles

Then, I grabbed several of these 60 piece puzzles sets. If I use them all in my classroom, I will mark the bottoms of each puzzle with the same color marker. One puzzle will be marked red while another marked blue. This way if a piece gets mixed in, I will be able to return it to its home easily. This puzzle is ideal for the presidents day activities. The box won’t hold up long, so I will cut the front off and put the front picture with the pieces in a gallon size baggie.

Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas 4: Rubbing Plates

Since I am a huge fan of rubbing plates, I was excited when I found 4 different sets of them this week! The red sets was backgrounds. The green set was plants. Blue is ocean. Yellow is flowers. There are only three plates per set, so you may need more than one set. I still love this insect set on Amazon and this leaf rubbing set on Amazon too. Those sets have 16 rubs per set. You have to know how many rubs you need for your students as well as the price you are willing to pay.

Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas 5: Sticker Activity Kits

Then, I love these sticker activity sheets. I will not be using this as a sticker set though. My idea is to stick the pieces on the inside of lamination pieces before running them through! Once I cut them out, they can act as center and sorting activities! How fun is that?

Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas 6: Craft Sticks

Now, I love craft sticks and I love the price of these! Why? They aren’t thick, but they will work for these awesome sound sticks! We are talking about a penny a stick so you can make a class set of these sound sticks with 78 sounds using under one pack a student! I suggest putting some of these sticks on your back to school list or even wish list. Need your own sound sticks? You can get the download here. 

Dollar Store Hacks & Ideas 7: Bath Toys

Marsha McGuire introduced me to these and I love them so much. She uses them for hands on games and I am hooked. Think about adding fr blends to the bottom of the frogs, then place the frogs in a sensory table for learning fun! Dollar store also has ducks and other seasonal suggestions. You can also check out Marsha’s idea for morning tubs as well. I honestly want all these bath toys now!

Lastly, looking for more dollar store ideas? I mean who isn’t?!?
Check out my other Dollar Store Articles by clicking on the pictures below. 🙂