Saturday is.....

Yard sale day!!!!

I have stocked both my church and school classrooms primarily from yard sales and thrift stores. It makes buying things new very impractical! At this time I'm mostly looking for items for my Continent Drawers. I was lucky enough to find quite a few things today.

 My Asia drawer is getting quite full but I couldn't resist a few more items like the embroidered slippers from China. You can also see a Native American doll, a little glass sand sculpture from the painted desert, a spoon from Florida, a covered wagon model and two little license plates. I was excited to find so much for North America because that drawer was a little slim. I also found the little South American doll and a Mask from Africa. Both these drawers are also VERY slim. I'm still searching for items from Australia which is the country will be studying this year but I have not been successful in finding anything....yet!

In addition to my Continent Drawer items I scored quite a few books, including a few grammar books by Ruth Heller which I was planning to purchase this summer. Since I got them for about $0.25 each I was REALLY pleased! I also found this nice cube puzzle (which is quite challenging. I'll make a control chart for all four puzzle possibilities to help the children) and a Sounds of the World Bingo set. I'll use that at circle time to help the children work on their listening skills. 

I was happy to find a few other things that you don't see in the photo: felt shapes which we'll use for button sewing (I was thrilled to find these as I typically have to hand cut the shapes myself!) and several bags of pony beads which the children love to use to make necklaces. 

Not bad for a Saturday morning. I didn't even leave my school district! I actually stopped at school to drop off a few things so I didn't have them here at home (wooden building materials, a mosaic board, a ladybug for our garden and a small watering can). 

I spent a few hours at school yesterday weeding our classroom garden box so I could plant two pumpkin plants. I wanted to have something growing for the children when they return in September. Some of the children were attending summer camp and it was so fun to talk with them! One three year old spent most of the afternoon helping me weed and chatting non-stop! She has really grown and matured since the end of school. It made me miss everyone and although I'm loving my vacation, it made me realize how much I love what I do!

Happy weekend everyone.