Ordering Books at Wally Online

I've really enjoyed getting to see new books that other teachers are using in their classrooms.  Usually, during the school year, I'll check Scholastic book clubs first, to see if they offer what I'm looking for.  Hey, any time I can use my bonus points is a good time!  Some of the books I've seen posted about this summer would have been perfect to share with my previous classes!  So, each time another teacher blogged about a great book, and I thought I wanted it, I added it to a list I keep in my "summer ideas for school" notebook.  When I finally had quite a number of them listed, I check out Scholastic, but they didn't have what I was looking for.  I know a lot of people who are HUGE Amazon shoppers, but I've never really been one, so I turned to... you guessed it, "Wally!"

I have had so many good experiences ordering from them online and using "ship to store."  I need to save money whenever and wherever I can, so free shipping is a must.  And who doesn't stop into Wally at least every other week?  Every week?  I suppose it depends on how close the nearest one is.  So, what I LOVE to do is put every book I want in my cart.  Then I see my total.  And then I start eliminating books based on the following criteria:

1.  It just looks really cute.
2.  It's not really a topic I teach about.
3.  I don't know how I'd fit it in.
4.  My class probably will not like it.

And then I order what's left in my cart.  Unfortunately, they didn't have a couple of the titles I was looking for, but still, seven books for about $40.  I think that's pretty reasonable.  Here are the books I chose to use with my math curriculum:

Don't you just love Stuart J. Murphy books?  I'd love to have more, so I bought this one about grouping in tens and ones.  Also, I'm surprised every year by one or two kids who can't master the even/odd numbers. I'm hoping that the characters of Even Steven and Odd Todd will help. On of my first grade team mates and I are going to try to read  math picture books at least three times each week.

Other books that I just had to have include:

I can't believe that I've taught for 15 years, seven of them in first grade, and I have NEVER owned a copy of Where the Wild Things Are?  Unbelievable.  Well, I have it now.  The other four books will help in teaching my class about expectations in first grade.  You might own and use some of these in your classroom already.

Do you know this book?

Hunter's Best Friend at School has been a favorite of mine for several years.  In this book, Hunter and Stripe are best friends.  They do EVERYTHING together, and most things the same.  Except that Stripe is naughty at school.  And he gets Hunter to be naughty, too.  Hunter feels terrible and talks it over with his mom. She suggests that Hunter doesn't have to do everything like Stripe.  Maybe Hunter should try to get Stripe to do what he does, which is behaving.  I bet you can guess how it ends.

Isn't it fun getting ready to go back to school with new ideas?  It's a fresh start every September.  I love it!