If you have purchased my Letter of the Week Curriculum, or are considering it, here are some additional supplies you’ll probably want to use with the curriculum.
Things we use OFTEN:
- Song time:
Hide ‘Em in Your Heart Vol 1
Hide ‘Em In Your Heart Songs – Vol 2 - Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
- Expo Dry Erase Markers
- Pencils, Pip-Squeaks Markers
- Scissors (kids rounded ends)
- Magnets (I use Power Magnets, or pom-pom magnets – I made them using medium sized pom-poms and self-sticky circle magnets from the craft isle in Wal-mart. You can also use a glue gun and circle magnets, they’d probably holdup better!)
- Wooden Clothes pins (I got little ones from Wal-mart craft section)
- 1 ½ “ wooden disks from Michaels, hobby lobby, or JoAnn’s for the letter match games. (Note: you can also use left over milk caps) It’s also helpful to have a Xyron Sticker Maker so you don’t have to glue or Mod Podge all the letters on, but that’s totally optional! Click here to see how to make them.
- Hole Punch (For the Lacing Cards)
- A magnetic board of some kind: I found a colored cookie sheet at a used HS fair, but they have cute magnetic dry-erase boards that are small enough for workboxes in the school/office supply section at Wal-mart and Target.
- Counters: You can use marbles, beads, bingo markers, beans, cheerios, glass pebbles from the craft store, matchbox cars, dinosaurs, really anything you think your child will like. I have a few different ones just so I can switch them out.
- Yarn or string for lacing
Optional Items:
- Laminator: You can either laminate at home, at a local teacher or office supply store, or not at all, it’s up to you. If you do choose to purchase a laminator, which most homeschoolers find quite useful, I recommend this one, you can find it at Wal-mart and Sam’s Clubs. It’s about $30 for the laminator and $14 for refill packets.
ScotchThermal Laminator, 9×11 Scotch Thermal Pouches
- Glue (I get the glue sticks usually)
- Paint & Large Sheets of Paper for painting
- Colored Construction Paper
- Large Thumb Tacks or Tooth Picks
- Pattern Block Activity Pack
- CREATIVE COLOR CUBES
- Magnetic Alphabet Letters Upper/Lowercase
Click here to see some of our other favorite preschool things!
The packs are the size of one sheet of paper, so to save money I run 2 through back to back so when I cut them apart the fronts are laminated but the back is not. You don’t have to do that, I just like to double my lamination!
I’ve been laminated mine back to back but then the pages tend to curl up. Any tips?
what things do u do this with? ive laminted 2 sheets in 1 pouch before but usually when its something i wont be cutting like a prewriting or tracing item
Hi Lauren,
I keep mine in a binder, so i think that just helps them start to lay flatter. For the daily notebook, i put them in a page protector and we just write on that, so i don’t laminate those pages.
The updates are to the calendar pages since the dates move around each year. I also recently updated the weekday pages so instead of saying “MONDAY” they say “Monday” so I added lowercase. If you don’t want those, then you can skip printing those pages and just do the calendar ones so the dates are correct for this year.
Yay! Thanks for posting this. I was just going to ask you about laminating….and I got my answer. I'll have to do some research on the laminator, but with the price of having paper laminated at a copy store, a laminating machine at home seems like the way to go!
Oh my! I just found your website. What an incredible place. Love all the pictures, printables, ideas…I could go on!
i was starting to collect milk caps until…..i had a stamping party and had leftover generic waters. it dawned on me that the clear caps will work great! county market has these water bottles, 24, for $2.99 this week. i'll just get a few cases, drink lots of water, and save enough caps for the alphabet in upper and lower! not sure if anyone has mentioned this but it's great for less patient people like myself. milk and juice was gonna take forever. 😉
I have a son who is preschool age and we're just trying to get an idea of cost per month for homeschooling. Using your curriculum and considering color printing, laminating, etc, how much do you think it costs you per month?
MARTY: Hi, honestly it's really hard to say. There are so many different prices for things, for example I have a home laminator that's about .40 cents per sheet, however if I take it to Lakeshore Learning, they'll print .19 cents/foot and their laminator is almost 3ft wide, so you can usually get 2 or 3 sheets across it at one time.Also, you don't have to print EVERYTHING, you can do just the activities you want, so that changes things quite a bit as well. Also, depending on your printer ink, or if you take it somewhere like Kinkos or an online printing service. http://www.copiesincolor.com used to offer .06/sheet but not sure if they're still doing that.Also, you have the grayscale printing option as well. I know that's not much help, but there are SOOO many options for you out there and different prices that it's really hard to give you an estimate. I know that if you printed everything it would be over 1500 pages!
Where did you get the magnetic letters I see in so many of your posts? The ones that are different colors and that are in the shape of the actual letter, with a small black magnet at the back. I just printed off more papers than I care to admit to right now! My youngest is going to be in heaven….as soon as I get them all cut out and put together.
Crazy 4 Boys: I just purchased some plastic magnetic alphabet letters from a local teacher supply store. You can also get them online here:http://www.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-Magnetic-Alphabet-Numbers/dp/B000F8R2DK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid;=1302228949&sr;=8-4
I get my alphabet magnetic letters from walmart for $1.00
They also have magnetic numbers now for $1.00 at Walmart.
We've been enjoying many of your printables and activities – thanks so much for putting everything together!I just wanted to comment that instead of laminating, we do two things. For lacing cards and the like, we use clear contact paper.For things that will be written on and such, we use sheet protectors and washable crayons. I am sure dry/wet erase markers and/or washable markers would work also, but there's a certain someone who cannot be trusted with markers yet. :>) If I want to store the sheet protectors in an envelope or file folder, I trim the edge that has the 3 holes to put it in a binder so it will fit.It has worked quite well for us so far!
I’ve been searching for mini clothespins and finally found some at Hobby Lobby. It is $2.99 for 24 and they are located in the unfinished wood section. You need three packages or you’ll be 7 shy when doing clip cards for 1 thru 10 (I’m just saying ; ).