I was given the opportunity to be a Community Blogger for Oriental Trading Company. I got a gift card and could buy anything I wanted to use in my classroom, so here’s what I got!  (I’m SO excited!!!)

This is the Awesome Alphabet Pocket Chart.  I’ve wanted one of these for a long time!  I’ve seen these on different sites and they were always so expensive so I kept waiting.  Now I have one and it didn’t break the bank!  I love this chart because it comes with the pocket chart which can be hung on a garment rack with a pants hanger or book binding rings.  It can also be hung on the wall with some of those 3M Command hooks (love those!)  I also love how I can use this pocket chart over and over with a variety of activities:

The pocket chart comes with all these different cards. 

The kids can put the picture cards in the appropriate pockets on the chart.

Each picture card is labeled with the word on the back–I’m thinking how great this would be later in the year during Writer’s Workshop.  How do you spell raccoon Mrs. Poindexter?  The kids can go get the picture card!

Also included are the lower case letters so the children can match lowercase letters to the correct pocket.

And of course there are uppercase letters as well! 🙂

I also got these Center Organizing Charts.  I didn’t know that Oriental Trading carried Carson-Dellosa charts, but they do! 🙂  These are going to be great next year for my Literacy Work Stations.  Sometimes there just isn’t any room to put a center activity in my already crowded class room, so these will hang wonderfully from the wall or door! 

Each chart (there are 3 in the package) has two larger pockets on the top and a smaller clear pocket on the bottom.  I’m thinking that any materials for the activity will go in the top two pockets and dry erase materials or small items like dice will stay in the smaller pocket.  They are super strong too!  They will hold up to 5 year old use! 🙂

You get three charts in each package, green, blue, and yellow.

The next item are these dry erase stars.  (They also come in apple shapes too!).  I’m going to use these at my small group table next year so my kiddos can write down their work and not have to waste anytime getting out paper and pencils.  The stars are removable and reusable!  I hung this one on my wall to try it out and it was super sticky and took a little effort to pull off, but the paint wasn’t harmed! 🙂 

I took this picture after I erased the words just to show how cleanly they erase. 🙂

I also picked up this 100 Days of School Countdown Banner.  It was a steal at $1.49! 🙂  I’m going to hang this up in my classroom and we are going to have some fun counting up to the 100th day of school next year! 🙂

I can’t ever have too many dice! 🙂  I got a dozen of these foam dice (1 1/2 x 1 1/2) so my kids could play some math games.  We always loose the traditional sized dice so these will be great and easier for us to find!  I also like them because they’re foam.  That means they will be quiet! 🙂  I liked that there are two of each color, making them easier to put 2 in a center and to figure out what center is missing a die.

I got these Laser Smile Face notepads because I had a great idea about how to use them!  I watch my kiddos when we are out and about collecting information in our science notebooks and although those are wonderful, they are sometimes really bulky to carry around.  I thought we could use some of them as travel sized notebooks! There are 6 dozen in a box–that’s 72 of them in all, so they will last me a few years!  When we are done writing down information, the kids can tear out a page and put it right into their bigger science notebook. 

I also thought I might order some more notebooks with the spiral biding and use them to respond to math questions.  I’m thinking I could write and number on each page and the kids could flip to the correct number that answers my question. 🙂

Did you also know that Oriental Trading offers FREE shipping on orders over $25 until August 24, 2013?  That’s a great deal!  I’ve already got a wishlist going there! 🙂

What are your favorite Oriental Trading products?  I’m always on the hunt for more! 🙂

Kristen 🙂

The opinions expressed in this blog post are entirely mine and were not influenced by Oriental Trading in anyway.  I was provided with a gift card by Oriental Trading Company. 🙂