Oriental Trading & Classroom Crafting

*This is a sponsored posts. I was compensated for writing about Oriental Trading. All opinions are my own.*

Crafting in school can be quite expensive, particularly when teachers are paying for the supplies. Dough ornaments, acrylic paints, paper crafts, tempera paint, clay pots, googly eyes, and the list goes on and on. One place that I love to order items for my class is Oriental Trading. Now they have an education page as well for teachers which makes it easier to find items for your classroom.

Additionally, Oriental Trading Co. have a wish list (here is the link to my class wish list) designed to share with others so that you can easily add it to your parent supply or donation list. This makes it so much easier for the parents as well because with a few clicks they are able to donate to your class, you get what you really wanted (I don't know about you but I am a brand snob - Crayola only thank you very much!) and items you will use in your classroom.

As the school year prepares to get under way I always end up spending a lot of money - usually way more than I intend to. This year is no different. So when I was approached by Oriental Trading and asked to write about their wish list and in return they would provide me with some craft products for my kids I jumped at the chance.

I am in love with all things Snoopy and though my classroom has a polka dot theme there are a lot of Peanuts characters/Snoopy items as well. We start our school year studying what it means to be a good citizen. As you know it is also an election year so snagging these Peanuts Patriotic Stickers were a great addition to my citizen unit. Aren't they the cutest?! We will be using these during our first unit of the year as well as on Election Day when we hold our own classroom polling center.

As I have mentioned in a previous post (or two, or three) I work at a Title 1 site which means that we don't always have money set aside for "extras" like art supplies and as mentioned earlier, I am a brand snob so if it isn't Crayola I don't put much faith in it. I know we will have a lot of fun this year using the assortment of Crayola Tempera Paint and paint brushes. I love that the paints are not just basic primary colors. Look at the shades of blue! I can't wait to get these in the hands of my students!  

 

Last year I spent over $30 on 5 sets of Crayola Oil Pastels. They were a huge hit with the kids but there always seemed to be at least one student who had to wait on a color he/she wanted to use. I was able to snag 2 more boxes for this year which means fewer kids waiting and more of them creating! 

Who doesn't need googly eyes? We use them for our Mother's Day pots (I will have to blog about these this spring as I forgot to last year. I love them!) as well as many other things throughout the year. I hate that when I buy them though there are always those tiny ones that I never use. The ones from Oriental Trading are all 10mm. I know I will use them all and there won't be any sitting in a baggie somewhere taking up space because they are too small. 

Finally, I snagged some awesome personalized pencils with the Grilled Cheese font (see the image below) for my kiddos.

This is a great way to start the year. They instantly felt like part of a select group (which, of course, they are *smile*). I will add a photo of our pencils on Monday when I get back to school as I didn't think to take the photo when they arrived. Oops!

If you have a blog and you would like to review Oriental Trading (and snag some free stuff for your class in the process) add your name and blog link in the comments below; I will gladly pass them along to Katie (their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Outreach Specialist).