#TeacherFriends Chat: A Charming Giveaway

Many regular readers know my non-teaching time is spent with family, friends, or downstairs in the crafty nook, and that my "summers off" are typically spent creating and crafting to my heart's content.  It's more than a hobby, it's a need to make, do, learn, and often, share.  It's how I wind down from the good and not-so-great stressors that accumulate during the school year.  It's how I relax and re-energize.  It's a ritual, even.

It seemed fitting to create a charm for tomorrow's #TeacherFriends chat: one lucky participant will win it!  Join us (try following along via Tweetdeck.Twitter.com, it's easier) Tuesday evening, June 2, at 7:30 p.m. Kansas time for our "early bird" chat, and stay for our formal chat when we'll share ideas for how to refresh, renew, and re-energize ourselves this summer. There will be additional prizes as well, so make sure to find our link to a Google doc during the chat so you can enter to win.  All teachers and friends of education are welcome to participate, regardless of tweeting experience!

See you soon!

Pinterest Follower Giveaway!

The extended weekend is affording me extra time to spend in my crafty nook at home, and surf Pinterest looking for creative inspiration from other teachers, bloggers and crafty souls.  Finding tweaks to try and additions to make in my own classroom organization and learning centers takes time: hooray for Labor Day!

Checking my boards on Pinterest, I discovered I was reaching over 1500 followers:

Along with Kissing Hand cookies and my math board (found here in my classroom tour), my decorated clothespins have been pinned repeatedly, which got me to thinking...

Why not make some pins for a giveaway to celebrate?

Number buttons have been added to two sets of wooden clothespins, so your students can use them from the right OR the left, perfect for counting, matching numbers, and clipping to pocket charts, counting cards, or other daily math centers and activities.  Using clips such as these helps to develop fine motor skills too: three cheers for the pincer and tripod grasps!

The wood has been covered with polka dot paper strips adhered with Mod Podge.  If any edges start to peel after multiple uses, just add another coat (it's thinned out white glue) on top and allow to dry.  The number buttons have been affixed with the wonder adhesive, E-6000.

Want a chance to win the clips AND three star shaped crayons that I shared in an earlier post?  Just work through the Rafflecopter entries below:



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Michaele

800th Blog Post ~Giveaway Time!~

If you've been following Kindergarten's 3 R's for a while, you're already aware of a few things:

~ I love to share my classroom with you:



~ I enjoy helping you save a bit of time with quick photos and slideshows of projects you might like to use with your own students:


~ I not only love using products such as store-bought bulletin board trimmer, tabletop laminators and Sharpie markers, but I like to make my own classroom decor and center tags:







~ I can get off on a rant:

..... about unbalanced collegiality between administrators and teachers...

...... my experiences as a bicultural person...

..... and certainly about discipline.

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Though the school year can be busy, I enjoy visiting your blogs and answering your questions during the weekends, breaks from school, and nights when Mr. Insomnia visits.  I've found sharing quick links much easier via Twitter and the Facebook page for Kindergarten's 3 R's, so please do consider following me in one or both places if you'd like to know what I'm thinking and reading about education, creativity, and early childhood.

One more thing you probably already know... I love to host giveaways!

To celebrate my 800th blog post, I made a mini-bunting set for your birthday bulletin board display:



Of course I had to use colorful paper and sparkly star punches...



... the letters are silver foil...



The bunting is two pieces, one ribbon laced with "Happy" and the other with "Birthday."  They aren't terribly large (see the ruler for scale) as I wanted to give you more options for display.



Enjoy!

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To enter the giveaway, please follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below.  There are multiple ways to earn entries, and some of them are worth more than one chance to win the mini-bunting for yourself or your students.  A winner will be chosen next week, so check back in.  Don't forget: I'll need a way to contact you if you're the winner.  If you comment without a link to your own blog or your profile is private, please leave your email address with your post.

Thank you again for reading, commenting, and sharing!  I hope you're enjoying a restful summer so you can return to your classroom this fall recharged and ready for your students.

Michaele


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spring-is-on-its-Way Giveaway!

Years ago as a teacher in Alaska, my students and I enjoyed working together to identify the seasons: autumn, winter, spring and summer.

Autumn in Alaska is when the leaves on the trees change color and fall, the temperature takes a noticeable dip and stays there, and the scent in the woods is much less green and ever more cranberry-ish.  If it's a rainy year, it's muddy.  Autumn lasts about two weeks, so try not to blink or you'll miss it.

Winter is rather straightforward and long-lived.  It's snowy, cold, and dark.  Each morning as the hair in your nostrils frosts over, you catch the distinct smell of wood burning stoves.  You might hear the slow crunch of tracks being made by a moose in your backyard.  Block scheduling at school includes an extra ten minutes before the bell, before and after recess, and before dismissal for students to either take off and store all of their cold weather gear or to put it all on before stepping outside.  Daylight stays on the horizon for a very short period of time each day, so try not to blink or you'll miss it.  Winter can stretch from October to March.

Spring can begin in March, but sometimes holds off its solid start until April or even early May.  Despite the snow melting and warmer temps, people know not to bother washing their vehicles no matter how mud covered they might become.  Students alter their layers of clothing, swapping out snowpants for jeans or even shorts though it's still only twenty degrees above zero.  With the sun's return, everyone purchases sunglasses and watches where they walk or drive to avoid puddles, lakes, and potholes.  You won't be inclined to blink but you'll certainly be squinting as you await summer, noticing the buds on trees and the tiny spots of green popping up amongst the rotten slush-ice and debris that needs to be cleared away on an annual clean up day.  Summer is just around the corner.

When summer arrives, mosquitoes have hatched from every water source imaginable, and bare legs, arms, necks and faces wear more bug repellant than sunblock.  Students wear shorts and light shirts to school, teachers wear sandals and prep their homes for summer visitors, and many families give their green thumbs the go-ahead to dig in the dirt, plant seeds, or arrange glorious plant and flower varieties in hanging baskets, whiskey barrels, or tires left lining the driveway.  Green explodes overnight.  Aluminum foil covers many bedroom windows to block out the twenty-plus hours of sunlight.  Neighbors might mow their fast growing yards at nine or ten o'clock at night, and children are tan from all of the time spent outdoors.  If it's a rainy year, it's muddy.  The school year ends in May, just in time for everyone to soak up as much sunlight as possible before autumn returns after the solstice.

My Stars in Oz observe a more evenly distributed progression of the seasons.  Though school begins in August, it's still rather summer-ish in its warmth and appearance.  Fall begins in October, and winter can be finicky when deciding whether or not to provide students and teachers with snow days right before or immediately after winter vacation.  Spring is one of our favorite seasons because with the return of warmer weather comes flower blooms on many trees, worms crawling across sidewalks, and the promise of Easter egg hunts on freshly mown lawns.  Summer is hot, and can deliver a bounty of produce from the garden, along with mandating several hasty moves to tornado shelters and safe rooms.  

What observations do your students make as they track the change of seasons?  

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To welcome the return of spring, Carson-Dellosa is celebrating Very Hungry Caterpillar Day with a giveaway!  Check out the prize pack below:

To enter, please leave a comment *on this post only* telling me which season is YOUR favorite.  Please remember that I must have a way to contact you if you are the winner, so either leave a link to your own blog or an email address with your comment.  I'll pick a winner on March 30!


Good luck!

Bailey Book Review and GIVEAWAY~

Storytime brings my Super Stars and I together each morning, every day before recess, and right before we leave for home in a way like no other.  Storytime is in fact, one of the first "routines" each new group of kindergarten students masters early on each school year.  Can you blame them? Engaging literature, intriguing illustrations, and ~the voices~ we use to share stories (okay, the voices *I* use when I read aloud) all catch our students as the world of reading magically opens as they sit at our feet, enthralled.

Needless to say, I was delighted when Bailey arrived in my mailbox:

Written and illustrated by Harry Bliss, Bailey is the story of a brilliant dog who, along with his classmates, is learning to navigate the world of ~school.~



Like most students, Bailey wakes each morning and must wash and brush the sleepies away before riding the bus to school.  Unlike most students, Bailey's school fashion includes colorful dog collars.



Bailey participates in all school and class activities, giving his ALL during music, though my students' favorite part of the story was when Bailey danced his wiggles and sillies out. Several students wondered how Bailey would eat his snack and lunch (Would he carry a lunch tray or lunch box?  Would he have a dog bowl?) and our teacher aide laughed out loud when she realized why Bailey developed a tummy ache requiring a visit to the school nurse (I'll give you a hint: ..."my dog ate my homework").


During book free-choice time, Bailey was enjoyed again and again, my students poring over each and every page, looking for hidden humor, doggie favorites, and squirrels!

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Would YOU like to win a copy of Bailey?

I'll have THREE winners:

The grand prize winner will receive a copy of Bailey AND a Bailey lunch box:



...while the two runners up will each win a copy of Bailey to add to their own classroom libraries.

To enter this giveaway, please do at least one of the following:

1) Leave a comment ~on this post only~ telling me what grade you teach and what kind of dog (if any) you have!  Make sure I have an email address or link so I can notify you if you're the winner!

2)  Tweet this giveaway, leaving me a comment ~on this post only~ letting me know the Twitter-verse has been made aware that this great book is available...

3)  "Like" Scholastic Book Clubs on FB (feel free to track down Kindergarten's 3 R's on FB as well), leaving a comment ~on this post only~ letting me know you're linking up with us.

Doing all three (and leaving comments for each one) will earn you three chances to win!

I'll be drawing the winner on Thursday, September 15, 2011.  


Good luck, and happy reading!

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One World One Heart 2011: Welcome Teachers!

... and education majors!  And homeschooling parents!  And any and all other early childhood advocates!

Yes, I can be a bit exclamation-point-ish, but if you're a regular reader of Kindergarten's 3 R's, then you're used to it by now.



If you're a new visitor, directed here by Lisa's OWOH blog list or my other blog, Twigs and Tulle, I do hope you'll stay and wander a bit through my recent posts and archives!  If you're not the teacher type, but have a teacher (or future teacher!) friend or family member who'd enjoy my blog, I do hope you'll pass this link on to him/her and leave a comment for a chance to win:



A large bag of pattern block shapes!

Students love to learn about the attributes of shapes and make creative pictures and creations as they work with these wonderful geometric models.  Wonderful for a learning center or extra shape reinforcement activity, your children (or students) will love working with these manipulatives!

For a chance to win the bag, just leave a comment ~on this post only~ along with an email address or blog link so I can reach you if you're the winner.  If you're a blogger participating in OWOH, never fear, I'm on my way to visit you too!

I'll draw the winner of the pattern blocks on February 17- how exciting!

Don't forget to visit Twigs and Tulle for the giveaway post there (it's something crafty and cute!)!

Happy reading!

Ordinal Numbers

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,
the first one said "Oh my it's getting late!"
The second one said "There are witches in the air..."
The third one said "...but we don't care."
The fourth one said "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said "I'm ready for some fun!"
Hoo-hooo went the wind and *out* went the light
and the five little pumpkins...
rolled out of sight!

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For fine motor practice, students can draw and cut out their own five little pumpkins (they'll certainly want to add faces to turn them into jack-o-lanterns), glue them to a headband, and add a copy of the song/poem:







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Is your favorite color yellow?  If not, is it a close second?  Visit Catching Fireflies and enter their "I Love Yellow" Giveaway!

(The Bananagrams are my favorite!!!)

Bravo BOB!

Shortly after I began my teaching career, I discovered BOB Books Sets via Scholastic Book Clubs and purchased them to help round out my personal classroom library.

Students, their parents and I enjoyed the books' detailed illustrations and simple sentences that reinforced sight words and developed phonological awareness.  The stories were interesting, but short enough to not overwhelm students.  The look of surprise when a student read his or her first book with me was quickly followed by lots of "Wow!  I read a book!  I really did it!" or "Did you hear me read those words?  And I pointed to the words too!  I can read!"


I've maintained my collection of BOB Books ever since, adding to my collection each time a new set appears in a book order form.


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Nothing encourages a child to continue to read more than the feeling of pride and self satisfaction she or he feels after making sense of words and sentences.  When the text "fits" the illustrations, children *know* they've GOT IT!



Mastery of sight words helps students comprehend text and read with fluency.  I'm a fan of the Kindergarten Sight Words pack and the First Grade Sight Words pack since they introduce children to thirty sight words as they read their way through the ten books contained in each set.




I intended to photograph the kindergarten and first grade BOB Books "in action" in my classroom this week, arranging them on my reading table as my students finished their snacks.  Before I could get the books (and sight word cards, SCORE!) artfully arranged, one of my readers ran over to the table, plopped himself down, and started reading.  Finding the kindergarten set a bit too easy, he dug through the first grade box and read through "Little Bug."

We then used several of the flash cards as a review of the words he'd read (ate, he, little), though it was a card from another story that made us laugh:

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How would *you* like to win both the Kindergarten AND First Grade Sight Word Sets of BOB Books AND a lunchbox for YOUR little readers?  Each box contains ten books, thirty sight word flash cards and a parent guide.  Helpful tips can also be found on the inside cover of each book!

Leave a comment ON THIS POST ONLY by Friday, August 27th.  Dear Daughter and I will draw TWO winners' names and notify you via email/winning blog post.  Please make sure I have a valid e-mail address for you.

Participation in this giveaway is for U.S. residents only.

Many thanks to Scholastic.com for making this giveaway possible!

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A BOB Books sight word search activity can be found here!

Stay Tuned for Back-to-School BOB!

This week I'll be teaming up with BOB Books to offer a fun giveaway, just in time for back-to-school!

Stay tuned!

Mark My Words...

... in four to six years, you're going to have Bellas, Edwards, Jacobs, Alices, Emmets, Rosalies, and Jaspers in your classroom.

I'd bet money on it.

The last big wave of movie names that hit my classroom occurred in 1994 and 1995, five-ish years after The Little Mermaid came out in theaters.  I cannot *tell you* how many Ariels and Erics my kindergarten colleagues and I had to sort through and keep straight.  Yes, I even taught a Sebastian and a Tritan.

No lie.



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Tomorrow I'll be drawing the winner for the bag of foam geometric pattern blocks!  Leave a comment at that post only to be entered for a chance to win!

Blogiversary Giveaway!

To celebrate my 700th blog post, I'm giving away a full bag of ~FOAM PATTERN BLOCKS~ for your math/learning centers/partner activities!

Next Friday, July 2, I'll choose a winner (randomly) from all of the entries.  While you do not need to be a blogger to win, you must have a valid email address so that I can contact you if your comment is chosen.

1)  Leave a comment on this post only to be entered into this giveaway.
2)  To earn extra chances:

     ~  If you follow me via Google Reader, Networked Blogs or Twitter, let me know in a separate comment.
     ~  If you're a blogger and you decide to share this news of this giveaway with your own readers by linking back to this post, let me know in the comments section too!
     ~  Have you added me to your own blogroll?  If so, you've earned another entry!

3)  Check back next weekend to see if you've won!

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Bunting and Gift Tags on the Way to L.A.

Lisa in L.A. bought my "Music of the Night" bunting set for her daughter's upcoming birthday party, so I sent along some coordinating gift tags as a little bonus~
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Work-related musings:

Is it too early in my summer vacation to start hoping for a room mother/parent volunteer for next year's class who is totally into recipes like Mystery Mocha and Lemon Frosted Cardamom Chai Cupcakes?

How much fun would these paper headbands/wreaths be for classroom playtime or the holidays?  

Since I'm happy to bake, how cool would it be to team-teach with this lady?

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Blogiversary Giveaway *hint*:

They're foamy... geometric even!

Hmmm....

One World One Heart 2010: This Family's Magic Carpet Ride

Welcome to One World One Heart's Magic Carpet Ride at *my* blog, Kindergarten's 3 R's!

Seven years ago, the United States Army sent our family on its own version of a *~magic carpet ride~*.  First stop, the Land of Enchantment:

White Sands reminded us of snow with its shades of white, but it certainly wasn't as chilly as we had hoped.  We hopped aboard the camouflage carpet once again and flew (for the first time) to America's Breadbasket:

After two years in Oz, Uncle Sam asked us to spend a year in Texas.  We enjoyed the mountains and our special lunches with my Annie Rooney:

... only to have a return trip to Oz provided by the magic carpet.  Who knew that *this* time true ~winter weather~ would find us?

Dear Husband's eventual retirement from the Army means we may have only one more magic carpet ride left provided by Uncle Sam...

For those visiting my blog for the first time, I'm a full-time kindergarten teacher and a night-time/weekend paper crafter!  Recent winter weather provided several snow days' worth of crafting time for me, along with some much-needed reorganizing of my "crafty nook."  Lo and behold, what did I find?  Banners, banners, and more banners, in longer lengths, that I created as mock ups for later patterns I decided to sell in my Etsy shop.  Perky and *mostly* polka dotted, these paper banners ("bunting" for my European visitors!) are certain to brighten up any winter doldrums you might be experiencing.  

Friends and family use these for birthdays, wedding receptions, bridal and baby showers, and customers have told me they've enjoyed using them as fun accents around dessert tables, hung across headboards, chairs and picnic tables.  Lightweight, they're easy to fold and put away for another occasion.

Leaving me a comment on THIS POST ONLY will enter you in my giveaway, but if you become a follower of my blog (an option to the right of my blog posts~ look at all of those happy faces!), I'll put your name into the hat *twice*!

I'll have FOUR winners!

Winner Number One will receive (3) banners:

Winner Number Two will receive (2) banners:

Winner Number Three will receive (2) banners:

...and Winner Number Four will also receive (2) banners:

Drawings will take place and winners' names will be posted in my blog entry for  February 15 (I'll also email you if you've won!).  I'm **~so~** excited to come and visit all of you!

Happy travels, and HOOAH!