I'm heading to a Lakeshore store tomorrow for the first time and I'm super excited, but I know I'll be overwhelmed. Any must haves that you love? I teach Kindergarten.
They are not cheap, but they have great art supplies for classroom crafts and storage containers. They have lots of different types of pocket charts, and a good children's literature selection. I usually buy my borders, nameplates and name tags there because they are on sale there at this time of year. Enjoy!
Especially if you're new, go in thinking you won't be able to buy everything wonderful at once! When DD was little, they had arts and crafts activities on weekends so I'd go in, she'd do the little activity. Every time, I'd buy a little art supply for her. After a while, we'd accumulated quite a variety! I'd say you might buy some arts and crafts supplies and stock up a little at a time. I did invest in a set of borders and name tags.
They do have good children's books but our local one usually had mostly hard covers so I tended to buy elsewhere.
I have a box of magnetic letters from there that I use all the time with my small groups. I also have several of their games that I use for Math choices and small groups. I also like their magnetic pocket charts.
My buddy teacher and I visited the new Kansas store in March and chose things we could share to teach Common Core concepts. Don't have the receipt handy, but I know we got magnetic 10-frames for teaching place value in math and some sequencing cards that were either magnetic or heavy card stock for teaching beginning/middle/end. The craft stuff we can pick up at Wal Mart or Hobby Lobby--we went for the things only Lakeshore seems to stock. Check their web site and Facebook page for coupons and discounts, too. Have fun!
After years of chasing the BTS sales for the cheapest glue sticks, I bought the chunky ones at Lakeshore last year. They held up sooo much better than the others. I guess you get what you pay for...
I feel like a kid in a candy store when I go into Lakeshore! I teach kinder also, and the things I use every year are their nametags (just replace the inside each year, although this year I have a few tags that need replaced), the little people making kits in the art supply (fun first week activity and look so cute up on the bulletin board), the bag full of paper letters (they are on squares and in all different fonts - we use them a ton for center activities and they last a long time) and the alphabet stickers (capital and lowercase letter plus 4 pictures - we use these in a journal once a week to go with our letter of the week).
I also love their magnetic letters (blue consonants, red vowels), they have loads of great games, the reusable paint cups, caddy and matching brushes... there's just too much to list! Check out their sale section as sometimes you can find great deals. And don't go without a coupon! You can sign up for coupons via text and they send one every week. Have fun!
When I taught Kdg I bought the paint cups with the lids that stop spills and tools for paint (daubers, different textures, etc.) and tools for play-do. I also like their manipulatives because they are tough and really hold up! The letters are awesome also. At this time of the year the stuff is usually 20% off, so my suggestion is make a list and try to stick to it!
Thanks everyone for the tips. I felt like a kid on Christmas. My friend and I were there forever, but I bought some great stuff. I got the magnetic ten frames- LOVE, a magnetic long vowel game ( I had the short vowel one and love it for stations/small group), extra large laminating pouches, label pouches, name tag lanyards and a few art supplies.
I found out they can text you coupons and I got buy one get one item 50%off. Yay!!!!
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07-21-2014, 04:12 PM
