Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Thank You!

TIMES UP! 
Comments closed at 33 entries!
Winner to be announced tomorrow,
Tues., 10/18!

Woo Hoooooo!!!!!
It's a Thank You Prize!

I mentioned a few days ago that I wanted to do a little give-away to thank all the new readers who have decided to follow my blog and even those who lurk!  Any and all who stop by are greatly appreciated.  And to show you my thanks, I'm offering a little basket of some things I hope you will like.


Poor little pumpkin fell over!
 So, what's in the basket?  Glad you asked!  Well, besides the oh-so-fancy, green plastic basket, there are these goodies:


Of course, a brand new copy of Some Smug Slug!


Then, there's a pointer finger (not sure what else you would call this) for your friends and you to use, a blank notebook teacher journal, and just about the cutest folder ever.  I seriously fell in love with this two pocket folder when I saw it.  How fun are those giant pencils? 
A paperback "basic" thesaurus and dictionary from Webster's.  I don't think we can ever have enough of these in the classroom.


Another good book and some treats for you!  Are you familiar with Scholastic's "If You. . . " line of books?  They have to be a Scholastic classic. I must have a ton of them in my classroom, and my friends love each and every one.  It's a basic question and answer format about the event, and I think they have books on almost every event or important person you can imagine.  They are great books for a research center activity.  I think I've just talked myself into doing a post about them later this week!  Then, there are some Jelly Belly Autumn Mix jelly beans for you and a plastic foam pumpkin for a little fall decoration.

And finally, a great book for anyone just starting to use guided reading groups or anyone wanting to refresh what they are doing.  It's Guided Reading in Grades 3-6 by Mary Browning Schulman.  Now, I have to be honest.  This is not a new book.  Everything in the basket is brand, spanking new with the exception of this book.  In fact, there's a small tear on the back cover that I taped.  Here's the story.  When I wanted to start guided reading groups, I purchased a copy of this book and read it from cover to cover.  I probably wrote more notes to myself in the margins than the author wrote text!  It was invaluable as I started my guided reading.   It wasn't until I went to put the book on my bookshelf that I saw this copy sitting right there.  Yes, I had repurchased a book I already had.  So, this is the copy that was sitting on my shelf.  It's essentially new.  I didn't read this copy and there's no writing in it, but it's a little shelf worn.  Is it tacky that I'm including it in this give-away?  I hope you don't think so.  It's just a great resource I would rather share than have sitting on my shelf.

So, that's the contents of my little give-away.  I hope you are interested in entering.  Here's what you need to know:
  1. One entry per a person. 
  2. One basket for the one lucky winner!
  3. To enter, leave a comment with the word "BOOKS!"  That's it, but. . .   If you really want to be a sport, in your comment you could also share the title of your favorite picture book and what mini-lesson you use it for.  It would be a nice way for everyone to get a new idea or two.  Then, everyone is a winner!  Sadly, it won't improve your chances of winning the basket. ;-)
  4. The contest will be open from Wednesday, October 12th, 6:00 AM until Monday, October 17th, 6:00 PM Eastern Time.  Now, this is my first give-away, so I'm going old school on the drawing.  I'm just going to print out the comments, cut them into strips, drop them in a bag, and randomly pick one.  It probably doesn't get more old school than that!  Once I draw a winner, I will post their name and comment. The winner will be instructed how to contact me with an address to which I can mail the basket. 
  5. The winner will be posted Tuesday, October 18th.
I know how busy teachers are,
so this is just my way of saying thanks to
all of you that choose to spend some of
your time reading my ramblings.
Good Luck to All!

50 comments:

  1. BOOKS! What an awesome giveaway. Way to go!

    I use Owl Moon for writing minilessons for personal narrative.

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  2. Books!

    I use A New Coat for Anna for sequence [& to tie into bartering, a social studies skill!]

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  3. BOOKS! I love using "I Wanna Iguana" to teach persuasive writing. Great giveaway! :)

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  4. books!! I'm a newly certified teacher (yet to have my own classroom). I love books & have quite a collection so far. I ALWAYS try to take books on daily sub assignments to read during extra time. Love your blog!

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  5. I love BOOKS!! I have almost 2000 books in my classroom library, and I can't stop buying more! I love Memoirs of a Goldfish! Such a cute book and I use it to introduce my students to writing a memoir or biography. Then we write our own memoirs about ourselves!

    amylynnmarshall@aol.com

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  6. BOOKS! I teach 7th grade, but I have found your witty, informative blog works for middle grade readers also! My students love "The Three Little Pigs from the Wolf's POV" when we do narrative writing and talk about point of view/character perspective. Thanks for this great blog! I found it on Pinterest and now can't get enough of your readers' workshop ideas, graphic organizers, and writing prompts.

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  7. BOOKS!!! What a fabulous giveaway! My favorite picture book for my ancient civilizations social studies class is 'Weslandia'

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  8. BOOKS! Great giveaway!

    kellybrown28021@gmail.com

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  9. BOOKS! This is a great giveaway! It might sound totally random, but I used Dr.Xargle's Book of Earthlets as an introduction to the difference between observations and inferences. I got the idea from the resource Picture Perfect Science.

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  10. BOOKS. Now here's a suggestion for you!! To do your drawing, save some time and type each entrant's name into the interactive fruit machine (it works like a slot machine) http://classtools.net/education-games-php/fruit_machine/ Click fruit machine and presto...the names will spin and you'll have your winner!!

    mrs.mary.howard.118@gmail.com

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  11. Books! This is a really fun giveaway!

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  12. I'm so excited I love BOOKS and now I have to wait to see if I win Sum Smug Slug. I was going out this weekend and find it. It will be wonderful to help teach writing to my fourth graders!!!

    I use the Giving Tree each year around Christmas to inspire a story about a time my students gave or received a special gift from someone.

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  13. Books! I love Math Curse for the first day of lessons. I also love to share Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and The Giving Tree. There's so many more... I just love books!

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  14. Books! I love using a curriculum called Wee Can Write. It teaches the 6+1 writing traits to K-2 using picture books. Last year, I read "I'll Love You Forever" to my class, thinking that if I have them chant the repeating text with me, I won't get all sensy and start crying. WRONG! I totally cried at the end and the little boy sitting next to me put his hand on my knee and said, "Teacher, it's ok." :)

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  15. BOOKS! Thank you so much for doing this, I'm really enjoying your blog!

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  16. Books! I also teach 5th grade. So happy I found your blog!! :)

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  17. books! I use The Humungous Cat to tech punctuation and fluency. I also use it to teach synonyms!

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  18. Books! I use CHILDREN MAKE TERRIBLE PETS by Peter Brown to teach the plot diagram. It is a great hook in the beginning of the year because the kids love the story and the awesome art.

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  19. Books! I have been loving your blog SO MUCH! I like to use Diary of a Worm to teach point of view and voice.

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  20. BOOKS! Thanks for sharing all of your great ideas :)

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  21. BOOKS! I teach 7th grade and I use "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street" before introducing narratives. It has great ideas for the students when writing. We refer back to Alexa Leore all year to "Stretch the Truth".

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  22. BOOKS! I am new to your blog and to teaching, but I am looking forward to learning from all your teaching ideas!

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  23. BOOKS!! What a great surprise to find on a Friday. I just got done reading My Great Aunt Arizona, a picture book, to my students. We worked in our reader response journal writing what inspires us. Thanks for doing this! :)

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  24. BOOKS! Charlie Anderson by Barbara Abercrombie is a great picture book for teaching about questioning. Thanks for sharing so many of your fantastic teaching ideas!

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  25. Books! :)
    Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas with us!

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  26. Books!

    I am researching teaching reading as I believe that a co-worker and I are going to switch the classes we teach and I will be adding reading and losing grammar/spelling. I am frantically searching for ideas!

    Stephanie

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  27. BOOKS! This is my first year teaching and I must say it's been a year already. I do have a suggestion for the finger pointer! If you have a shorter student who can't reach the top of the smart board, they can pick up the pen and use the finger to underline or select things! It's great. I've been meaning to get one!

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  28. Books! Thanks for sharing some great ideas! I just read Big Chickens to discuss story elements! Such a fun read!

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  29. Books!!! I love this giveaway! Fall is such a wonderful season to inspire our little treasures! I love using the book "peanut butter and jelly" to teach sequencing! :)

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  30. BOOKS!!! I'm so glad I just found your blog on Pinterest! Anyway one of the new picture books I've found this year is Born Yesterday, The Diary of a Young Journalist by James Solheim. I used it in my writer's workshop to introduce writing.

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  31. Books!!! I found you on Pinterest, too! My favorite book is Thank You, Mr. Falker. I used it this year to kick off the school year and teach about the importance of reading. It also served as a great mentor text as we learned how to make connections. My kids now refer to Patricia Polacco as "Trisha"; she's like a 28th member of our class!

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  32. BOOKS! I can't get enough! I use a ton of picture books but one great one is The Important Book at the beginning of the year to share things about ourselves with others, also The Worry Stone and Mrs. Spitzers Garden. So many I could go on and on!

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  33. Books! I'm learning so much from you. Thank you!

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