It is garage sale season, and this is a good time to remind you of the great deals you can pick up for your classroom at garage sales, yard sales, tag sales and at local charity and thrift shops.
Setting up your classroom doesn’t have to involve hundreds of dollars.
Here are some finds we’ve recently heard about:
A first year teacher got fifty children’s books for ten dollars at a yard sale.
Another teacher found a full set of the Harry Potter books in hardback for 50 cents each at a thrift store.
A second grade teacher went to a garage sale that turned out to be given by a retiring second grade teacher. She got books, lesson plan materials, bulletin board decorations, puppets and all kinds of teaching materials for cheap and the retiring teacher threw in lots of freebies!
A sixth teacher found lots of board games to use with her students on rainy days and snow days when students had indoor lunch and recess. Can you say “sanity saver?”
What will you find at a garage sale?
The next time you are tempted to drive by that yard/garage sale, slow down and check it out!
Here are 10 things to look for at garage sales and thrift shops:
- Games.
Games are a great garage sale find because they don’t have to be fully intact to be useful. Gameboards can be easily modified to fit whatever content you are teaching as a review activity. The dice and spinners can be separated from the game for many classroom activities and as a grouping tool. While most games teach a skill or two, if you are lucky, you will find a game that serves a clear academic purpose. Boggle can be a perfect station for spelling. Zingo! provides picture cues to accompany words for your early readers and Mancala helps us stretch our thinking.
2. Puzzles.
Puzzles are the perfect indoor recess activity for students of any age. In addition, puzzles serve to enhance motor skills for our youngest learners. Puzzles also offer a creative way to form groups. Pick six connecting pieces from each corner, break them off, mix them up, distribute one to each member of the class, and then have the students find their group members by searching out others with conjoining pieces. If you think out of the box, there are also many other uses for puzzles in your classroom.
3. Puppets.
Although not as easy to find as puzzles or games, it is not uncommon to find puppets at garage sales. When purchased new, puppets can be pricey. However, at yard sales they are often affordable. Don’t shy away from puppets that look “overly loved.” Although they might look a bit shabby to you, there is some quality about that puppet that made some child love it so much. Could your students feel the same? Puppets have several uses in a classroom depending on the age of your students. From the basic chef puppet that reads the lunch menu each morning, to the cat and mouse puppets that can be used to teach about dialogue, we think you can find a classroom use for even the most interesting yard sale puppets.
4. Carpet squares.
If you are fortunate enough to come across these at a yard sale, grab them and run. If they are still at the yard sale, it means a more veteran teacher hasn’t been to the yard sale yet. Carpet squares provide much more comfort when sitting on hard classroom floors. Plus, they create perfect boundaries for students when working on the floor and are easily transportable by the students themselves.
5. Furniture for flexible seating.
Grab those bean bags, director’s chairs, and butterfly chairs with neon green faux fur. All of these and more are most likely waiting for you at the yard sale around the corner. They are inexpensive, easy to move, and will be a hit with your students. Most likely your students will give you credit for picking out such a “cool polka-dotted bean bag” for the reading corner. You don’t have to tell them that your 12 year-old neighbor actually purchased the chair and you just bought it from her for $3 at the yard sale.
6. Books.
Books are teacher goldmines just waiting to be explored at yard sales. Lucky for you, parents love to buy books for their kids. When the kids grow up, the parents pick a few favorites to keep and the rest are yours for the taking at their next garage sale. You will be surprised how quickly you can build a classroom library just by attending yard sales. We know you may be hesitant to buy so many used books because your vision of a classroom library is filled with shiny new books. However, trust us when we say that the favorites will be lovingly battered and bruised by November. The garage sale books just got a bit of a head start.
7. Classroom Organizers.
Every teacher needs organizers to contain all of the classroom clutter. Look for tubs with lids, plastic bins and boxes, magazine and book files, and baskets. Maybe those cute animal shaped cups could hold pens and pencils. Think about organizing glue sticks, math manipulatives and office supplies.
8. Teacher furniture.
We already discussed furniture for flexible seating, but what about other furniture? Could you use that lovely rocker as your read aloud chair? Could you repaint that sturdy wooden chair into an Author’s Chair? We once knew a teacher who bought an old podium and painted it red, white and blue, and featured it in his social studies classroom where it was ready for student presentations, debates and even a mock election! Don’t over look tables and bookshelves either, often you can spruce them up cheaply by painting them with fun paint colors.
9. Costumes.
If you teach language arts, have learning centers, or do plays or simulations in your classroom, you might be interested in starting a costume collection. This can include funky hats, wigs, clothing and creative props. We’ve had pirate garb including a treasure chest, a set of animal masks, and “magic” wands, “wizard” sticks and “light sabers” in our collection. You can’t go wrong with skirts, shawls, canes and old men’s jackets. Use your imagination. We knew of a high school science teacher who regularly dressed up the classroom skeleton in thematic and holiday appropriate clothing. Do you want the attention of tenth graders? Put a tie with smooching lips on the skeleton on Valentine’s day! Dressing up as Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Polly when you introduce the novel will also catch attention!
10. Materials for your curriculum.
Think about the units you teach. A teacher who teaches about different countries or biomes will find maps and National Geographic magazines useful. A music teacher can’t have too many hand instruments and sound makers. A preschool teacher with a “kitchen” or “restaurant’ center can use measuring cups or small dishes. Could your classroom make use of a child’s swimming pool for a reading center or a realistic looking stuffed toy bear for your nature center?
Garage sales offer big potential for classrooms for little investment. It is worth time and effort to spend a few Friday or Saturday mornings checking out the local sales. Grab and cup of coffee and hit the sales early- we don’t want you to miss out!
If you would like a pre-prepared checklist of items to look for the next time you come across a garage sale full of potential treasures, we have one ready for you on our Teachers Pays Teachers store for less than a dollar.
Happy bargain hunting,
[…] Go to a yard sale. We admit to being fans. The fun is that you never know what you are going to find. You might even find some things for your classroom. We wrote a guide to yard sales here and here. […]