Sunprint® Kit to the Rescue!

Hi, I’m Laurel Johnston of the Discount School Supply® Sales team. I have had a great time playing with so many of our amazing products, but one of my favorites is the Discount School Supply® Sunprint® Kit (SUNPRINT).

A friend of mine -- who happens to be a curriculum developer -- was looking for an activity to accompany a science lesson about sunlight. She needed the activity to be hands-on and something that a group of children of multiple ages could enjoy. Many activities she researched were too complex for younger kids; however, she wanted the activity to challenge older kids as well as younger ones, so it couldn’t be too simplistic. She also wanted something eco-friendly and low-mess since she wanted to encourage teachers to complete the activity outside in a natural setting. She was stumped.

Discount School Supply® to the rescue! I suggested she try our Sunprint® Kit. It’s super easy to use for children of all abilities, exciting for people of all ages, and a great, no-mess activity.

The kit comes with light-sensitive paper that children can use to create interesting and one-of-a-kind prints. They can use items from nature, found items, paper cut outs or any favorite object to place onto the special paper. Exposing the paper to sunlight for a few minutes will create a reaction on the areas of the paper where there is no object covering it. The paper will turn white, and, after rinsing with water, the prints will appear. Anywhere an object touched the paper (and blocked the sunlight) the image will appear! This proved to be a great science activity that teachers could use in classrooms and with children of many ages.

Check out this video about this great product and to see more ideas for cool creations kids can make with the Sunprint® Kit available at Discount School Supply®.

* originally published on 2/23/12

Visit Booth # 1720 at NAEYC®!

Discount School Supply® is a proud sponsor of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC®) and this time of year we are busy preparing for the NAEYC Annual Conference & Expo which takes place Nov. 7-10 in Atlanta, GA. Thousands of early childhood professionals will attend the conference to attend workshops, listen to experts in the field and to visit the display booths of early childhood supply vendors and other companies that serve the education marketplace. Our booth (#1720) will have free crafts, a “Wheel of Fun” with amazing prizes, new products on display, contest entries and friendly Discount School Supply® staff ready to answer any questions and listen to educators’ supply needs.

All of the elements in our huge Discount School Supply® booth take a lot of coordination and planning to be sure that everything makes it to the conference center on time, and that all booth areas have all the items they need for a successful show. NAEYC® conference time is an especially busy time for the departments who coordinate all of the booth elements: Brand Marketing, Graphics, Merchandising, Sales, Operations, and, of course, the intrepid travel coordinator who handles travel, lodging and unexpected crises for all of us! These crews work day and night to be sure everything for our booth gets set up as planned, and that the conference runs smoothly.

We hope you'll stop by the Discount School Supply® booth #1720 where we'll showcase a wide variety of early childhood educational products. In our booth you can explore fun-filled arts and crafts activities at our make-and-take tables, spin the ever-popular "Wheel of Fun" to win terrific prizes and enter a contest to win your choice of an Angeles® crib or MyRider® trike. Each day we'll have educational consultant Sharron Krull on hand to get everyone moving with her “Circle Time” demonstrations! While at our booth, be sure to check out our popular furniture collections and browse our innovative products in Arts & Crafts, Active Play, Curriculum, Special Needs, Infant & Toddler and more!

We're looking forward to seeing you in Atlanta!

Beach Explorations with Moon Sand®!

Hello. I’m Amy Foley, an Educational Consultant with Discount School Supply® based in Ohio. Although I am new to Discount School Supply®, I have worked with teachers in early childhood classrooms for the last 10 years.

Growing up in Central Ohio, I didn’t get a chance to see or feel sand on a beach until I was a teenager. Finally, we went to spend two weeks over the 4th of July holiday, and I can still remember that feeling of warmth and calm between my toes. Do you remember what it felt like the first time you felt sand between your toes?

Everyone can get that same feeling with Moon Sand® (PMOONSET) from Discount School Supply®. Let your senses be excited with this unique product that shapes into whatever you ask it to- sand castles to letters and anything in between. Moon Sand® is specially coated sand that molds without adding water, and it retains its shape until you want to make something new.

Little ones will love using simple shovels and rakes (SHOVRK8) to play and practice gross motor skills while others may want to mold T-Rex dinosaur bones with our sand molds (EXBONES). My personal favorite would be to practice letter recognition with our Uppercase Alphabet Sand Molds (CAPITAL). By filling these primary colored sand molds with red, blue or yellow Moon Sand®, children can recognize and practice their letter recognition and learn to spell their names. What fun!

Where to store and use my Moon Sand®? How about a sand activity tub (TUBS)? Or for toddlers, the Sand and Water Table with Shelf (2856) keeps your Moon Sand® clean and fresh, while storing your sand toys underneath on the birch shelf.

Moon Sand® is sure to offer hours and hours of fun, educational play time for kids of any age: preschoolers to grandparents and anyone who loves to remember that first time they felt the sand in their hands and between their toes.

Watch our video for more information!

* originally published on 2/9/12