****All links are in this posted are affiliated. I do not own the rights to the products and have not tried all of the products personally.
Prime Day is coming!! I love Prime Day. I currently live in a rural area that doesn't even have a Target. Amazon has replaced my shopping and Prime Day feels like finding amazing deals in Bullseye's Playground. I have not only gotten amazing deals for my classroom but my personal life as well. Yes, I am that person who Christmas shops in July so Prime Day is like Black Friday. Here are some things that I am watching in hopes of scoring an amazing deal.
Classroom Activities
I've had my eye on these resources for a couple of years. The Eureka Tubs come in different animals, themes, and tiles. Great for sorting, matching, counting, categorizing, & words. I already have some of the Learning Journey puzzles and adding another to my collection would be amazing. Finally, the color sorting pie would be an amazing addition to my basic skills activities as well as a vocabulary builder for my students working on life skills.
Books
I have a confession. I do not own any Elephant & Piggy books. I know crazy right! I'm hoping after Prime Day that will change. There are tons of the series already listed in the deals and more could be added. There were too many great books to link but I love "Too Much Glue" for the beginning of the year and "Fill a Bucket" for social emotional work.
Sensory
I love sensory activities and toys, but it can be very expensive to try out all the awesome new materials. I've been hearing about Mad Matter a lot and can't wait to try it out. Water beads have been so fun in my classroom and a big tub would last all year. Finally, you can never have enough play dough tools!
Teacher Supplies & Organization
All of these supplies have been on my wish list for next year. I am desperate for a new pencil sharpener that can sharpen the variety of pencils that I have in my room and as a special education teacher, I can never have enough Velcro. Sharpies and Flair pens are a must have for any teacher even if you already have tons. Finally, the hanging file folder is part of my new plan to get and stay organized this year.
These are just a few of the deals I have found so far. I know more will be posted through out Prime Day and I will be watching. Check back for deals to be added!
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Now that you have your file folder games all printed and assembled, what do you do with them? I will admit I have talked to plenty of people who really don't like file folder games. They're too basic, they only work on matching. File folder games really do have a good purpose for a lot of different skills. They add variety, independence, and structure to tasks. They help with generalization and yes, sometimes just help kids work on complete multiple easier tasks. To be able to provide that variety, you really need a large collection. My collection has gotten quite large and I don't even have all of my copies prepped yet.
As a resource teacher, I have file folders that range from everything from basic skills to behavior to multiplication and division. When I was teaching Early Childhood Special Education, I managed my collection through cardboard magazine holders. I would label them by skill and sort my games that way. This worked out well in that environment because I could grab my ABC or colors box when we were working on those skills and go. I had a teaching friend who used a similar system but color coded her boxes and folders to match to make it easier for her students to put them away themselves. Now that I teach a much broader age group, I had to rethink how I would store and use my file folder games.
When I moved schools this year, my classroom does not have a lot of storage, but did have two large file cabinets. I designated one of them to hold my file folder games. Each drawer has a different broader area like basic skills, literacy, and math. Originally, I tried to use hanging file folders to sort and store my games. This didn't work well because the sizing was off and they ended up just sitting in the bottom of the drawer. Not practical at all!
When this became a hassle and I realized I wasn't using my games as much, I started to look for a new solution. I found these IRIS Large Desktop File Holders on Amazon and they are perfect! They fit great in my file cabinets and hold my games upright so I can see the names and the pieces don't fall out if they come loose. I have two holders right now in each drawer. The front holder keeps games by skill and the second holds seasonal games. I think a third holder would fit if my collection grows to that size (which it probably will).
I organize within each holder by skill and am currently working on labels for each of the skills to use inside the holders. Click on the picture below to head to my TpT store to grab your own set of labels FREE! At the beginning of the day or a work session (depending on how I'm managing my time), I go, find the right category, and grab what I need.
I'm linking up with other Special Education Bloggers today! Make sure to check out all the amazing posts.
I was first introduced to file folder games when working at a residential school for kids with special needs in La Crosse, WI. File folders were EVERYWHERE! I was instantly hooked. We had books we copied out of, pulled pictures out of magazines, scoured the Internet for free or cheap printables, and used Boardmaker to design and plan our own. I found coloring, cutting, and assembling these activities therapeutic. This was before I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers so I can only imagine how deep my obsession would have been if I known about the site then.
As you can imagine with an obsession so deep, I have accumulated quite the collection of file folder games and it grows every year. There are two steps to managing your file folders. First is managing the hard copies and assembling. Teachers Pay Teachers makes this almost fool proof because you can store you files and just print if your missing a piece or need to remake. I am a sucker for nostalgia and have been collecting the original books that exposed me to file folder games all those years ago. They are created and illustrated by Karen Finch and are titled "File Folder Games." They are organized by skills and grades as well as a couple of seasonal books.
These books are great but do take significantly more work. You need to copy, color, and assemble the games yourself. The pieces are also not always the easiest to cut but when they are finished, they are amazing! I used to make color copies of my finished sheets and store them in a binder, but that quickly got out of control as my collection of sheets and books grew beyond one large binder. I recently had an idea that I would use the scan to computer function on my schools copier to store the pages digitally. It has been a game changer. Here are the steps I use:
File folder games are a labor of love because most are not just print and go. You need to take the time to assemble, cut all the cute little pieces out, and then make sure everything is put together before your students can use them. This system makes it easy for me to quickly replace or adjust as needed. Next time, I will post about how I use my file folders and how I manage my collection without it getting to be a huge mess.
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About MeHi! My name is Kelsey & I am a Special Education Teacher in WI. I love what I do & love sharing new ideas & awesome materials. When I'm not teaching, I'm enjoying being a Mommy, cooking, & being outdoors. Archives
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