Mrs. Beers' Language Arts Class: Treasures and Trinkets

We are heading off on a fun-filled beach vacation this week. In order to prepare, I took my kiddos to Michael's and told them they could each pick out 5-one dollar items to put into their backpacks for the car ride.

Currently my daughter is obsessed with everything Disney Princess, so a coloring kit, two packs of stickers, stamps, and a HUGE coloring book were her chosen treasures. My son is becoming more thoughtful in his choices rather than grabbing the first thing he sees, but his loot included a dry erase board with markers, Avengers stamps, a HUGE coloring book, and Grow-Your-Own Octopus. Despite my explanation that the octopus was not something that would be traveling in water in the car with us, he decided it was a treasure he needed.

My children loved having the opportunity to select these items to be put in their backpack. Most items will not make it home from vacation, and a few items will be used in the first 5 minutes of our trip, never to be looked at again. Oh well! The fun part was the finding, selecting, and filling up their backpacks.

We browsed around Michael's looking for these perfect items all the while I was looking for trinkets to place in my "Bulldog Buck Store" for my 6th graders. This is a store that I have in a back closet. Every Friday my 6th grade students get to spend the Bulldog Bucks they earn during the week.

Some students earn many, some earn a few. Some save for weeks, some spend faster than they receive them. These "Bucks" are given for working hard, making good/kind choices, doing something that was not asked, but contributed positively to the school environment. Some might tell you that 6th graders don't care about this stuff...I will tell you that Friday is probably the most well-attended day of the week because my hard-working students can't wait to shop for trinkets and treasures.

It used to be stocked to the brim with candy-there is still candy, but after becoming a mom, I thought more about what I would and wouldn't want my children to have copious amounts of at school, so we try to minimize the candy. These are a few items I picked up for "dirt cheap" at Michael's yesterday that will be well-received by my dilligent and excited-to-spend 6th graders. Picture frames, jumbo erasers, pencils, paint, noise-making goo...I will continue to pick-up items as I spot them, so just like my own kiddos, they have the joy of finding, selecting, and filling up their backpacks with items they worked to earn. You can check out more items that are able to be purchased by my students in the Bulldog Buck Store here http://mrsbeerslanguageartsclass.blogspot.com/p/6th-grade-schedule.html.