CPX Accessories Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

[Dmontgom]

I currently have a class set of CPX boards that I use with Code.org. Along with the boards I have micro-servos, AAA battery packs, and lots of different kinds/sizes of alligator clips. I would love to give my students a chance to just explore and play with the supplies and see what they can discover on their own. But I look through the Adafruit website and am overwhelmed as to what I should order. So I ask the experts here...what supplies should I order that would...
1. Inexpensive (most bang for the buck!)
2. Easy to figure out how to use for middle school students on their own
3. Online examples for them to follow/be inspired by
4. Durable (remember...these are middle schoolers!)!
5. Be used for a variety of projects

I have looked through sample projects but would love to get an assortment of items instead of focusing on just one project! I look at the LED strips regularly, but they confuse me because it talks about cutting them or needing certain amounts of power. But I also want more than just LED strips. I just don't know what I want (I hope that makes sense!). Honestly, the kids are a lot better than I am at using the boards so I want to give them more ways to use them but I need help figuring that out! This is the first time in about 4 years that I have a budget to purchase items so I want to "spend smart"! Thanks for any suggestions anyone can give!
(PS...if anyone knows a better place to post this question please let me know!)

[userpay]

Piggybacking off this as it saves me making a separate thread about the same topic but I'm also very curious about this.

In my case I bought a Circuit Playground Express Advanced Pack, a Adafruit Circuit Playground Bluefruit Express Starter Kit - ADABOX014 Essentials, and a Crickit for my own use and to demo for my school district. Just with the small handful of things I've done so far with them I've gotten a lot of positive responses so I'm also trying to figure out what else I should be grabbing to demo. Lights, speakers, servos, ect. My target group is also middle school and potentially as low as 4th and 5th grade as well. Like I assume stuff like the Adafruit STEMMA Speaker - Plug and Play Audio Amplifier - JST PH 2mm would perhaps be preferred over, say, the Mini Oval Speaker - 8 Ohm 1 Watt since the later would need the Crickit or TFT Gizmo? Appropriate power packs and/or wall warts since those always get tricky when looking at base Circuit Playground vs attachments/extra lights?

[Dmontgom]

I’m glad to see I am not the only one with these questions. I started using these boards with code.org. But I would like to give my students the tools to do more. I see a lot of different offerings on the Adafruit website, but my budget is limited which is why I posted here. I am hopeful that other teachers or people with that knowledge will give suggestions.
For now I am going to look at some of the items that you recommended.
Thanks!