Sabrina Smith is a second-grade teacher with a mind for thrift and creativity. She’s been teaching for 15 years, and her classroom is a place where 26 7- and 8-year-olds will learn, flourish, and grow this year. Sabrina is also a Deseret Industries shopper and has furnished her classroom with items from DI.

When you walk into Sabrina’s classroom, you’ll notice the bright posters, the well-stocked bookshelves, and all of the fun furniture, including an orange velvet chair that is a student favorite every year. Sabrina has been picking up items from DI for her classroom since day one of teaching. Her first DI purchase for her classroom was a bookshelf that she painted red and still keeps over by her computer.

“I just like to see what treasures I can find,” Sabrina says. “I find something, and in my mind, I can see it in my classroom.”

What really got Sabrina hooked on DI was the beanbag chair she bought (also a classroom accessory) for 10 dollars. Other school items that Sabrina has picked up at DI include books, puzzles, games, baskets, stuffed animals, pillows, bookshelves, and a lamp. She stores pencil erasers in an old bird feeder.

“The things I find at DI, it’s almost like they talk to me. What is its history? What kids colored at this table with their parents in the past?” Sabrina says.

Not only is Sabrina a top DI shopper, but she’s an A-plus do-it-yourselfer. She finds creative and fun ways to update the items she buys at DI for her classroom. For example, she painted several tables with chalkboard paint. What kid wouldn’t love to draw on the table—and not get in trouble for doing it? She uses round face cloths from the dollar store as erasers for the chalk.

Recently, Sabrina transitioned her traditional classroom into a flexible classroom. This type of environment allows students to sit wherever they learn the best. She has typical school tables and chairs, but she also has standing desks, stools, and coffee tables. She offers unique seating options (such as the 10-dollar beanbag chair) to give students more control over their learning environment. DI was a helpful resource for Sabrina in creating her flexible classroom.

Over Sabrina’s 15 years of teaching, she guesses that she’s probably spent a few thousand dollars at DI. But what if she had purchased everything new? “My chair alone probably would have been a couple hundred dollars, and my beanbag would have been four or five hundred. I would have spent thousands more. . . . And doing it secondhand, I can make everything my own—I can paint it however I want, I can upholster it the way I want, I can do whatever I like.”

The items Sabrina has purchased for her classroom make learning fun and exciting. The math games, the wide variety of books, even a special chair to sit in while working—all these DI buys motivate Sabrina’s students to learn. “It’s fun for them to have so many cool things in the classroom.”

DI is a great place for teachers to shop when getting ready for school. It’s an inexpensive way not only to stock up on classroom essentials such as books and puzzles, but to release your creativity and make a classroom unique. As we can see from Sabrina’s example, the sky’s the limit on what you can do.

“It makes learning fun,” Sabrina says.