Thrift Stores with a Purpose

Today, I talked my mom into going to a thrift store that we rarely visit. It's a church based store that supports our local food pantry as well as a medical assistance program (for people who can't afford their prescription medications).  I don't like going to this particular thrift store because their prices are normally through the roof. (5 bucks for used clothing??? Don't even get me started on pottery & things they think are antiques...) I mostly go to see if they have vintage flower pins, which is something that I enjoy collecting.

                                                             (I love the cheerful colors.)

Anyways, I hit the mega jackpot on games today folks!

1. Vintage Taskmaster sentence creation kit. ($2) It's the exact thing I used during my prison placement to help with sentence formulation. It should work well for my older kids who are struggling with parts of speech.
http://www.taskmasteronline.co.uk/prod-detail.asp?ProductID=5255  is the only thing I could find that sounds similar.

2. DLM Teaching Resources Moving Up in Grammar with Adjectives & Adverbs. ($2) I can't find this item online anywhere. Suffice it to say that this kit is focused on adjectives & adverbs. What are they and how do we use them in sentences? Again, this is a great resources for students struggling with grammar.

3. Mr. Potato Head w/one complete "outfit" ($1). He makes #3, which means no more fighting over who gets to play with the potato head first.

4. Cranium Cariboo ($2). It's missing the key and three of the balls, but I've read that it's easy to find replacements. If you follow Speech Room News, you've seen that this is a great game to adapt for articulation (read post here: http://speechroomnews.blogspot.com/2012/05/articulation-cariboo.html as there's no way I could write a post near as good and I love love love this blog).

5. Wheels on the Bus! Game ($2). It's missing a few game pieces, but they are easy enough to make & laminate. I think this will be a great game for my younger students. We can read/sing the song and then play the game for sequencing. It's not a particularly hard game to win with just four pieces so it's not going to take up a ton of Tx time.

6. DLM association cards ($1). Which one doesn't belong? This is also a great tool for following directions. I have made something similar using stickers on strips of construction paper and use it ALL the time in therapy.

I also snagged some cute books for .50 cents (a miracle considering they like to charge $3 usually).


In summary, I hope that today's post will show you that persistence can pay off even with stores that usually disappoint.