They didn't have a lot of money, and they weren't highly educated. My grandpa, a US veteran of Mexican descent had Parkinson's disease and my grandma, a diabetic, was wheelchair-bound. But what they lacked in money the made up for in quality time, and boy did we sure have a whole lot of fun. I always felt special that I could come home with little treasures, especially elephant knick-nacks (my favorite). And after a hard day of bummin' I'd get a happy meal to boot!
My grandpa, my father, and I
I still love to go bummin.' You never know what you are going to find. Last weekend was the Crete city-wide garage sale extravaganza. I bought a huge pack of hair curlers for the classroom. I'm not sure what we are going to do with them, but for $2, I'll figure something out.
I also bought this old Kodak camera:
I don't know if it works, or even how to open it, but it has a nice heft, the knob turns, and the button makes a wonderful clicking sound.
I also bought this:
It teaches multiplication. You depress a spring-loaded button, and on the side of the button above it is the answer (you can just make out the 16 above the 2x8 button). Now, I don't expect my preschool children will learn their times tables. What I'm mostly concerned with is that their are numbers in the environment and that there are objects to manipulate.
The summer garage sale season has just begun, and I can't wait to see what classroom treasures I find next!
That's one cool multiplication game!
ReplyDeleteI'm always on the hunt for old hand tools, the kinds that get sold at estate sales after the old guy has passed on. It's a bitter-sweet kind of shopping, but I like to think they'd be happy knowing that their treasured tools are in the hands of a new generation.