Are you a homeschooler, teacher, or tutor? Have you ever shopped online for educational resources?

Maybe you’ve done an internet search for “life cycle of a butterfly” and stumbled on some great activities on Pinterest, books on Amazon, links to blog posts on Google that lead you to more lists of library books and local activities, inspiring pictures of kids doing butterfly crafts on Instagram … etc.

It’s an effective way to find resources or compile a unit study, if you have the energy to research and pull together everything you need, and if the topic is still relevant by the time you get it all prepped.

But … did you know that there is a place you can go where teachers (and homeschoolers!) around the world are daily adding pre-made lessons and unit studies with low-prep or no-prep worksheets and hands-on activities (that are often super cute and more attractive to kids than textbook pages!) for nearly any topic in any grade level you would ever need? It’s a one-stop shop (with thousands … millions?) of niche-specific smaller shops that can provide you with all the teaching and learning resources you may ever need.

Welcome to TPT. Whether you’ve shopped here regularly or have never heard of it, I have 10 tips to help you get the most benefit from this extensive library of (free and paid) resources available and waiting for you on the other side of your computer screen.

What exactly is TPT?

TPT stands for TeachersPayTeachers and is an online marketplace where educators around the world upload high quality resources they’ve created for use in their own classrooms or homes. These products are great ready-to-go teaching/learning resources for almost any topic you’d ever want to cover. Some are designed to cover specific state standards; others are purposely designed to teach certain concepts without aligning to any standards. If you’re willing to do a little searching (who isn’t, really? 😉 ) you’ll probably find something pretty perfect.

I like to use TPT to find hands-on activities, lapbooks, unit studies, learning games, math and literacy center ideas, notebooking pages, etc. Take a look sometime and see if you can find something that works for your students or children :).

I don’t know the current statistics, (lol, i wasn’t willing to do a little bit of research to find out!) but there are … a LOT! … of virtual stores stocked full of learning resources available to you. Here’s a short list of tips for getting the most out of your trip through TPT-ville:

10 tips for shopping on TPT:

Here’s a list of tips that will help you find great educational resources for any subject you’re interested in, any time you need it.

1. Search

Use the search function within TPT to look up Absolutely Anything you want to study and discover a world of ready-made teaching resources from educators (including homeschoolers!) around the world!

2. Freebies

You can get a LOT of freebies in TPT stores! In many stores, at least 10% of the resources are FREE, and some stores have hundreds of products!

3. Wish Lists and Sales

Don’t wait for a sale to start looking; you can browse and build a wish list anytime, then buy products when you need them (or when a sale comes around!)

4. One Login

One of the biggest advantages to TPT is that it’s all under one “digital roof” – you can easily browse/shop thousands of stores all with one login.

5. Free file storage

Everything you ever purchase (or download for free!) lives behind that login forever. You can consider it free file storage and re-access it at anytime.

6. Free Updates

Check your purchases tab every once in a while. Anytime a seller updates a product, you can re-download it and get the new version – every product comes with a Free Updates for Life guarantee! (Note: Not all sellers update all products all the time … but if you build up a library of purchases, there’s a pretty good chance something will be new and improved every now and again.)

7. Gift Card Giveaways

Whenever a sitewide sale comes around (these happen a few times a year … but not too predictably or frequently), you will probably find someone in your news feed doing a gift card giveaway. (Especially if you follow TPT teachers!) Enter them all! 🙂

(Here’s an example of one of my recent giveaways (that has since ended) – the coupon code in this picture is no longer applicable.)

8. Following Sellers

When you find a product you like, take a second to click on the seller’s name and then click the star next to their name that says “Follow me.” This adds them to your list of favorite sellers, so that you’ll see their latest products in your news feed on your TPT home screen and you may receive notifications from them (in your TPT-based inbox located in the top right corner of the page) about new products and discounts. You can follow and unfollow any seller at any time. (For example, if you’d like to follow me and stay up-to-date on new releases, you can follow me on my TPT store here. 🙂 )

9. Subscribe to the TPT newsletter

If you’d like to receive weekly updates about the week’s top resources, 10 free downloads, and highlights from featured sellers, you can set your email preferences to receive this once-a-week newsletter. I often find a quick print-and-go freebie to download for my kids through this newsletter – an instant educational activity with no searching required ;).

10. Provide feedback for credit

TPT builds in a reward system that helps you earn money back: for every purchase that you make through TPT you have the opportunity to provide feedback. You can do this by clicking on the “My Purchases” section of your account, then clicking on “provide feedback” next to the product image. You’ll earn 1 credit for every dollar that you spend, and 100 credits are worth $5 off a future purchase.

Bonus Tip: Whether you find resources around the internet or specifically on TPT, you will likely find yourself at some point in need of some serious help organizing your digital files. (Or maybe you’ve already mastered this? Talk to me!) I highly recommend this post by Andrea at AllTheHomeschoolThings for tips on managing digital clutter that can occur as a side effect of Too Many Fun Digital Downloads syndrome.

I hope this list of tips for shopping on TPT helps you get the most out of your visits! Enjoy your teaching and learning adventures this year!

Highlights from my store:

You can access the TPT homepage here. If you’re interested in Math, Reading, Writing, Science, and Just-for-fun activities, ebooks, and lessons for Pre-K through High School, (mostly Pre-K – 4th grade, plus Algebra and Geometry for 7-10th grade), you are cordially invited to check out my store! 🙂

Here is a small sample of products from my store that spans preK – high school: