Category Archives: IKEA
Brilliant Bowls
Do you know about these AMAZING bowls from IKEA? They are from the KALAS collection and are currently $2.49 for a 6 pack–which is a great deal! I may or may not own 10 sets of these bowls. 🙂
I use these bowls for everything in my classroom! I use them to sort out math materials, prepare materials for group work, and use them to organize materials in work tubs.
They are terrific for quickly passing out materials! Our new math adoption has lots of games that my students play and having these bowls helps me to prepare them the day before. I have enough bowls that we can all use one set individually and still have another set leftover. I might be a tiny bit obsessed with these. 🙂
There’s also a set of plates and cups that are in the same line (along with silverware!) and I have class sets of those too:
We used the plates as trash plates when we were doing activities that had lots of little scraps to throw away. The children can just put their scraps on the plate and empty it when they are done.
You can see how we use the cups to store our crayons. They are very easy to transport when we want to work in our science notebooks or for writer’s workshop.
They are a GREAT organizational tool for any classroom! And, I love that after we use them, I can bring them home and put them in the dishwasher to clean them and take them right back to school. 🙂
Spring IKEA trip 2014
I’ve probably said this a zillion times before, but I’ll say it again! Vacation = trip to IKEA with colleagues!!! Seriously, every vacation we have through the year, a few of my colleagues and I pick a date and head to IKEA!! This time, I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I did need to get a few things for an after school class I’m teaching at my school soon. Its called “Mad for Monograms” and each project we complete will have the child’s initial(s) on it in some way.
So off we went!
(Loving this new app I learned about at the blogger meet-up called Phonto!!)
I added these letter trays to my scrapbook room wishlist. 🙂
Saw this great idea for a dry erase board, so I bought two similar frames to try this…
Here’s all my goods. 🙂
Not the most exciting thing…but I got pillow cases for my after school class. We are going to iron on either their name or the first letter in their name to the front. 🙂
I also picked up these little reusable sandwich pouches. The kiddos in my after school class will iron on the first letter in their name and then I’m going to help them embroider (by hand) a flower or other little design on them to fancy them up. 🙂
Saw these cute bandaids and couldn’t pass them up for .79 a box! Space ships, cats/bears, and plain…my kiddos will love these when they get an owie. 🙂
These metal buckets were a steal at .79 each! I’m thinking I might use them as little trash pails at each table, but I might end up using them at home to plant some flowers in too. 🙂
These marker stampers were a “new” item from the Spring catalog…you get 6 for $3.99 and then stamp the designs you see on the front of the package. I got them to use in place of stickers when I check their homework packets in. 
Love, love, love this pretend baby bath! I’m going to use it in my classroom Vet’s office and the kids can wash the animals. It comes with everything you see, except for the dog.
My 9 year old was in a good mood today and wanted to help model it for you. 🙂
How cute is this freshly “washed” puppy? All wrapped up in the included hooded towel!
I also got these new finger puppets. They are fairy tale themed and will fit right in with the animal finger puppets I got from IKEA last year. 
It comes with this cardboard castle and a white card with these finger like shapes attached to them. I’m sure it was just in there for display in the packaging, but it seemed like something the kids might like to help hold more puppets than they have fingers for so I kept it–it probably won’t last too long, but we will see! 😉
These are the picture frames I got to try that dry erase idea. These were $2.99 each and I made sure they had a sheet of plastic in them to use as the dry erase surface. These colors match what I have in my classroom, so I’m going to insert some cute scrapbook paper and hang them up! 
I thought I might hang one on our classroom door so I can write sight words on it. When we are waiting in line, the kids can read them and read one to me on the way out the door.
Kristen 🙂
IKEA Trip
Each vacation we have from school, a few of my school friends and I trek to our closest IKEA and buy lots of things we don’t really need. Here’s what I got from our Thanksgiving trip.
I got this adorable cart I’ve had my eye on for 2 years now! I got rid of the previous shelf that was here, got rid of lots of stuff and consolidated it down to this. 🙂 My friend who went along suggested that I could use this card to help pass out materials to the kids more quickly. I love that idea…just load up the materials on the cart and roll them to the kids or pick up materials from them. I pushed it around my room and felt a little like a stewardess. 🙂 
Here’s a look at what’s sitting on the top shelf. These are the things I use on a regular basis. The tall pink thing you see is my dollar store collapsible trash can. I put things in it when I’m demo-ing how to do something. 
The second shelf holds all my demo materials, pattern blocks, cubes, tiles, cards for our agenda, etc. 
This is another cart I got that I shared about a few weeks ago. I went back to IKEA and got two more of these. I’m using it to store the masters for my Math and Literacy Work Stations. That way if I run out, I can quickly find the replacements. This is the same cart that I use for my small group materials.
Don’t forget that today is the first day of the Tpt Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale.
Use the code “CYBER” to get the discount. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Guided Reading Groups
It is a difficult thing for me to find a system that works for organizing my guided reading materials I am using each week.
I went from this:
I used to put all my materials into Ziploc baggies and line them up in this tub. They got all mixed up, so that wasn’t working–it was taking too much time to find what I needed.
To this:
My stacking drawers are similar to these except I have drawers that slide in and out. Functional, yets, problematic, yes!! I was very limited to the size and quantity of materials I could fit in these baskets. I needed to find something new!!
To the new love of my life: 
I got this beauty at IKEA last time I was there for $15.00!!! The drawers are called LENNART drawers. I had to do some quick assembly, but this bad boy fits right under my horseshoe table with about an inch of clearance. The drawers have waves in the back of the tracks to keep the drawers from falling out. The drawers slide in and out very smoothly and they are about 3 1/2 to 4 inches deep, so I can store everything I need in them! There is also a nice 4 inch space under the bottom basket where another basket could easily slide in. 
I’m going back to IKEA in two weeks and you’d better believe that several more of these are on my wishlist!! I need one for the other side of my horseshoe table and this is the perfect height for me to put my laptop on (well at least for short people like me it works!!). I have several more places picked out in my classroom that will be getting a set of these. 🙂
I’ll share some more pictures later this week of my guided reading materials in them. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
I’m Baaaackkk!
I feel like I’ve fallen off the blogging/Tpt earth! I’ve been so busy with assessing my kiddos for report cards and then Fall Break happened, so I decided to take some time off (oh and enter data for those report cards!).
We took a trip to IKEA and Jungle Jim’s (a grocery store destination in Cincinnati, OH that’s over 200,000 square feet of shopping space!!).
I got some new goodies at IKEA (a lots of food at Jungle Jim’s) and I wanted to share them with you:
I got this timer for $1.99 to help keep me on track during my small groups (I have this tendency to just keep talking!!), so this timer will help keep me on track!
I got 3 more packs of these bowls. We use these for all kinds of things (sorting, observing critters, setting out materials for projects, individual supply bowls, etc.). They are $1.99 for 6 of them and we’ve had our sets at home for 9 years now and they are not showing their age at all! I like them because they are reusable and I can get enough for my entire class very cheaply.
I also got this spaghetti strainer last time I went and decided I needed another one for school. This one fits perfectly in my classroom sink and we can drain things in it (paintbrushes!!) so they are not just sitting in the sink getting wet over and over again!
Lots of people have asked where I got my supply baskets and I got them at IKEA during my summer trek there. They were $4.99 each I think and they are holding up very well. The only change we made to the baskets was that we put the scissors and glue into the ziploc containers and put the crayons into the cups (that I also got from IKEA–I got 3 more sets of these cups this time, they are so handy!).
What are your favorite purchases from IKEA?
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 