Teachers Are Shopping on Temu for Classroom Supplies and It's Seriously Cheap!

As we get into the new school year, one elementary school teacher is going above and beyond, stocking up on supplies to surprise her students.

Sydney Taylor, a fifth-grade teacher who goes by @sydneytaylor99 on TikTok, recently shared her haul of "teachery things" from budget online shopping site Temu. Her finds included a blue foam play mat for her reading corner, a bargain at just $12, and a numeric wall chart for a mere $5, providing a handy storage solution for her students' headphones.

But Taylor's shopping spree didn't stop there. She also picked up magnetic tiles for her students to build and play with, and a pack of 10 yellow bands to attach to their chairs, a clever tool to help with fidgeting. To further engage her students, she added a kids' charades game and some building blocks to her shopping cart.

The crowning glory of her Temu haul was a roll of 500 smiley stickers. “Honestly, I was very impressed with the teacher stuff that I got," Taylor shared.

Temu is an online marketplace offering a wide range of merchandise at prices that are often much lower than other e-commerce platforms and retailers. The platform can achieve such low prices because it connects consumers directly to manufacturers, cutting out the middlemen.

Taylor isn't the only educator to have discovered the budget-friendly benefits of Temu. Many teachers, often dipping into their own pockets to supplement school supplies or buy additional educational aids, have shared their finds on social media.

One such teacher is Kinley, an Arkansas native now teaching in South Carolina. She also turned to Temu to stock up on classroom essentials and teaching tools.

"I did get some fun suction darts that students can throw at their desks to see if they stick," Kinley, who goes by @missbinfirstieland on TikTok, shared with her followers. "So that will be fun to add to our indoor recess container."

Kinley's students have a love for puzzles, so she added two more to their collection. She also purchased a box of pattern blocks that come with matching cards, providing her students with a fun and educational activity.

Recognizing her students' love for stickers, she decided to set up a sticker shop. "These are super cheap so if you have a sticker shop I'd highly recommend checking out Temu for cheap stickers," she advised.

Kinley's Temu haul also included a variety of fun earrings inspired by favorite children's book authors or books, adding a touch of literary flair to her teaching wardrobe.

Practicality was also a key factor in Kinley's shopping spree. She bought a packet of 100 zip ties, a necessity in her classroom. "I saw these and there were 100 of them and were less than $2, I was like I've got to get these to save my sanity for next year," she explained. Her students' name tags, fastened to their backpacks by zip ties, were frequently broken, making the zip ties a sanity-saving purchase.

Kinley used coupon codes to whittle her purchase down from $350 to about $120, she revealed.

The TikToks shared by the two teachers were met with a wave of positive responses from viewers.

One viewer, Morgan Hanna, expressed her gratitude to Kinley in a comment, writing, "Thank you for this!! I’ve been looking at those manipulatives but didn’t know how they would be!" Another viewer, Becca Rhodes, who goes by @rebeccarhodes and is also a teacher, had a practical suggestion for Taylor: "Yes, I’m so glad I’m not the only one wanting a foam puzzle rug. I suggest buying two sets so if an accident happens, you can simply pull apart and replace."