Learning Resources has a ton of great, affordable resources for the classroom! I combine them with my own handmade materials to use in educational activites. Here are the products I highly recommend!
Learning Resources Smart Snacks Alpha Pops, Alphabet Matching & Fine Motor Skills Toy, Letters, 26 Double Sided Pieces, Ages 2+
These are so adorable! My students love playing with these and coming up with flavors for each one. I usually start by having them separate (you have to pull them apart with some force so they are good for fine motor) and hide them. Then I distribute letter cards and they have to go find the matching popsicles and put them back together. It's a great up-and-down activity.
The ONLY qualm is that they only come with 13 popsicles so you have to flip them over to see the other letters. If they ever go on sale I would get a second set and use some parts cleaner or magic eraser to remove the letters from one side and just have a set of 26 popsicles.
Learning Resources Counting Surprise Party, Homeschool, Fine Motor, Counting & Sorting Toy, Ages 3+
These are a recent buy and I know I will get a ton of use out of them! They can be used for so many things! You can practice counting, colors, names of the objects inside, asking questions like "What's inside?", "What is it?" or "Is it a ball?" etc. You could use the boxes to put other objects inside, depending on your theme. I think they will be great for birthday party and Christmas-themed lessons. They are such a good price, I almost considered getting two sets!
Learning Resources Alphabet Acorns Activity Set, Homeschool, Visual & Tactile Learning Toy, 78 Pieces, Easter Basket Gifts, Easter Gifts for Kids, Ages 3+
Probably the best value of all are these acorns. I use them for my fall lessons in almost all my classes. They are so cute and colorful and kids love opening them and closing the acorns. I made my own set of cards that have the upper and lower case letter and a picture of the object to go with each acorn because otherwise it is an overwhelming activity. It comes with enough to give each student five or six or put them in pairs to work on it together. There are some design elements I would change (for example, B is for Boat but it is a sailboat and V is for Van but it looks like a bus and is the same color as the B acorn) but overall, for the price, I think this is a great value.
Learning Resources Farmer's Market Color Sorting Set, Homeschool, Play Food, Fruits and Vegetables Toy, Easter Toys, 30 Piece Set, Easter Gifts for Kids, Ages 3+
I started my school with handmade felt toys and I quickly learned that I needed more durable materials to use with my students. I have quite a collection of play food from Learning Resources but I wanted to highlight this set because it is such a nice set with the buckets included and it is a really good price. I love the chunky, soft rubbery plastic that these are made out of and they are a nice size for little hands.
Learning Resources Super Sorting Pie, Fine Motor Toy, Early Number, Patterns, 68 Pieces, Grades Pre-K/Ages 3+
This is used for my fruit lessons but the pie is a fun sorting tray that my students like to use creatively with other manipulatives. The set comes with red apples and grapes, orange oranges and peaches, yellow bananas and lemons, green apples and bananas, and purple grapes and plums. If only it had strawberries!!! I have done sorting activities, letter-recognition activities and pattern-making activities. Food-themed toys are always a hit with students!
Learning Resources Domestic Pets Counters, Educational Counting and Sorting Toy, Set of 72
As my class size grew (I try to cap my classes at six kids each), I realized that having manipulatives and having enough for each student was very helpful in activities. I have pretty much every set like this that they make and they are all good for reinforcing vocabulary and teaching phonics. Here are more versions below:
Learning Resources Mini Motors Counting and Sorting Fun Set, Early Math Skill, Set of 72, Ages 3+
Learning Resources Farm Animal Counters, 10 Different Animals, Set of 60, Ages 3+ and Learning Resources Friendly Farm Animal Counters, Educational Counting and Sorting Toy, 72 pieces
Learning Resources in The Garden Critter Counters Math Manipulatives, Set of 72
My students prefer these because they are not as creepy-looking as the other insect counters!
Learning Resources Jungle Animal Counters, Educational Counting and Sorting Toy, Plastic Animal Figurines, Jungle Animals, Set of 60, Ages 5+
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