My Target Haul AND {Ideas}

So this post actually might be a little controversial and quite frankly it's absolutely silly that it even could be! It's not going to be what you might think, because I'm actually NOT sharing my "Target haul" with you, and I will tell you why.

I'm guilty of feeling the joy and excitement behind a good score for an item in the Dollar Spot just like the rest of us. I'm guilty of making trips to Target JUST to go to the Dollar Spot, and yes I'm probably guilty of sharing a Target haul post in the past too.

But now I can't get on Facebook or Instagram without being bombarded with "look what I bought!" and if I'm being 100% honest, it has become quite the pet peeve. -- and the fuel for this post.

I know the Dollar Spot has great deals, hello, it's called the Dollar Spot.
I know that they stock back to school materials during the summer, I don't live under a rock.
I know that items sell fast, I make excuses to go to Target for this reason.
I know that I most likely will not find at my Target, what others have found at theirs.

I know that I want MORE. I want more than the "look what I bought" post. I see those items. I saw them at my Target too because like you, I was there 10 minutes ago. What I don't know, is how do YOU plan to use those items in YOUR classroom? Inspire me. If you can't tell me what you'll use the item for then I can almost guarantee you, you probably never will.

I don't intend to be judgemental-- you do you. I just want to encourage you to share more ideas of what you'll do with your hauls, instead of just sharing a picture of your haul.

That said, I'd be amiss if I didn't share an idea with you for how I plan to use an item from the Target Dollar Spot. We're all still friends after that convo, right?

I was happy to find these letter clothespins in the Dollar Spot this week. They're a great price (of course) at $3 a pack. They sell very similiar ones in Michael's, they're just priced higher. I knew right away what I was going to use these for so I bought them. Money saving tip: if you can't think of what you'll do with an item by the time you get to check out, cause let's be honest you went for just the Dollar Spot, but you're browsing the whole store just in case, put it back.

I made letter matching wheels to create an academic work box task with the clothespins. They're wide so I could not fit all 26 letters onto one wheel. I split the alphabet in half and one wheel has letters A-M and the next N-Z.

You could put both wheels into 1 task box, or split them and create 2 task boxes, each with 13 letters.

Of course, differentiation is a staple in our special education world so there are multiple versions of these wheels. There are capitals in order, lowercase in order, capitals in random order, and lowercase in random order.

For even MORE differentiation, you can take crayons and color the sections of the wheel to provide students with a color cue for where to place the clip.

AND since you've already spent $3 to grab your clothespins, or more if you bought them at Michael's, this is a freebie you can grab if you are a member of www.spedsquad.com ! Not a member? Click the link above to join! 

So, can I get an amen on sharing IDEAS with your future Target Dollar Spot hauls?