Kwik Stix & Pencil Grip Review & Giveaway

Hey everybody! Having a great summer so far? You know what would make your summer even better... a giveaway! The lovely folks over at The Pencil Grip company sent me a couple of their products to try out and are offering one of my readers a little prize as well!

One of the products they sent me was a 12-pack of Kwik Stix. I had seen these on a few other blogs and was really excited to try them out!

Kwik Stix are tempera paint sticks in a marker-like form. They need no water, dry super quickly, come in tons of vibrant colours, and are SUPER easy to use! 

On the second last day of school, my students were having some free time at the end of the day, so I put out the Kwik Stix and some regular white paper and invited my students to try the paints out. I instantly had about 10 kids swarm the tables to try them out. They loved how easy they were to use and how smooth they were to write or draw with. 

Because they dry so quickly (it says 90 seconds, but it's almost instant!), the students were able to layer the colours to make some really interesting paintings. One boy drew an amazing night sky with the black and white paints. 

One of my sweeties also wrote me a little good-bye note with the paints. "Have a good baby!" Hehe. Love it!

The Pencil Grip company also sent me their 3 Step Training Kit. The kit contains three different grips: the Crossover Grip, the Pinch Grip, and the Pencil Grip. I didn't have a chance to use it this year, but I will definitely keep it in mind for my students next year! It's a three-step system to correct a student's pencil grip. This will definitely be helpful with the students who need some help with how they hold pencils. 

The Pencil Grip company is generously offering to give away one pack of their Kwik Stix 12pk in Assorted Colors. This will instantly become an essential classroom tool! I'm even planning on letting my 2-year-old create some beautiful artworks with them!

To win this pack of Kwik Stix, visit both First Grade Garden and The Pencil Grip, Inc. on Facebook. The giveaway will end in one week. I will announce the winner on Saturday, July 16th. Good luck! Enter on the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In addition, everyone has the opportunity to get 15% off their total purchase at thepencilgrip.com. The coupon is good until 5/27/17. Just go to the www.thepencilgrip.com. Shop for any of their awesome products (I'm looking at the neon and metallic Kwik Stix next). Then enter the coupon code: YOUWIN15 at checkout to automatically receive 15% off your total purchase.

Amazing Back to School Giveaway!!

This is the best teacher eCard I've seen this summer. Isn't it so true??

Well to help ease you out of summer and into back to school mode, how about a fun giveaway??

The collaborative blogs iTeach Kinder, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th are coming together to bring you this amazing Back to School Giveaway. One lucky follower will win an iPad Air 2, an adorable owl case, a stylus, and an iTunes gift card. The contest runs from today, Aug. 2nd, until Sat., Aug. 8th. The winner will be announced on Sun. Aug. 9!

Click the button below to visit our blog iTeach First to enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win an iPad Air 2 bundle! Good luck! :)

Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my Joy Cowley giveaway! Congratulations to Cherie who won her own big book copy of Joy Cowley's Do-Whacky-Do! Such a fun and silly book.

Don't forget you still have until the end of the month to enter the Joy Cowley Grand Prize contest and win a package valued at $1000! Click the picture below if you haven't entered yet!

And you still have 3 days left to enter my iTeach First blog launch giveaway. Go to this post to enter!

New Collaborative First Grade Blog - iTeach First

Friends.

I have a very exciting announcement to make! 

I have decided to team up with some of my very best first grade buddies to write for a collaborative blog! 

That means ONE blog with TONS of great ideas from several super awesome First Grade teachers!

One thing I L-O-V-E about this blog, is you will know exactly what to expect each day of the week.  For every day, there is a blogging theme.  Check them out! 

I'm SO excited to get started on this new adventure, and am thrilled to invite you along for the ride.  Let's celebrate with a little giveaway!  

You can win two of my spring packs--First Grade Spring Math Centres and First Grade Spring Word Work Centres. Nine math centres and five word work centres to keep you busy for the next month or so! Hopefully they will get you in the spring mood!

All you have to do to enter is follow us over at iTeach First then follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I can't wait to get started sharing some great First Grade ideas with you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Clipart Credit: Melonheadz Illustrating, Creative Clips, Sonya DeHart Design

2015 Joy Cowley Classroom Giveaway

Are you familiar with the author Joy Cowley? She is the genius behind the delightful story of Mrs. Wishy-Washy and many others! I love her early reader sets because they are the perfect levels for first graders. The text is simple and the stories are very entertaining and humorous for young readers! These books are perfect for guided reading groups, read to self or partners, and home reading programs.

If you love Joy Cowley and her books, you will love the giveaway that Hameray Publishing is putting on. The lucky grand-prize winner will receive a classroom package of Joy’s stories, which include the newest adventures of cherished characters Mrs. Wishy-Washy, the Hungry Giant, the Meanies, and others. This year’s package includes ninety leveled readers, eighteen big books, and a set of finger puppets, with a prize total valuing at $1,000!

To enter the contest, head over the Hameray Publishing website and enter their rafflecopter! Click {here} or the picture below to head over there now. The contest runs from now until March 31, 2015. A winner will be chosen and announced on that day! (That's also my little Zoe's first birthday! Fun!)

Hameray Publishing is also hosting a little mini-contest here on my blog. One winner will receive a big book copy of Do-Whacky-Do, a fun story about ten silly clowns! To enter this contest, enter the rafflecopter below! This contest will end in two weeks, on the 18th! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Easy Daysies! {Giveaway}

I was very excited when Creative Teaching Press contacted me to review one of their new products. I love trying out new things and when I found out these were created by a fellow teacher & mom, I got very excited! We all know that things created by teachers (hello TpT!) are the best, because who knows what works in the classroom better than ourselves?? I also love that they featured this product on Dragon's Den (Canada's version of Shark Tank). You can check out videos of this {here}.

Creative Teaching Press sent me the Every Day Starter Kit and two Classroom Management packs.

Now, I don't have kids to test out the Every Day Starter Kit (the one in my tummy is a WEE BIT too small for chores and making the bed.... hehe) but I can see how wonderful of a product it is! This is definitely a great tool for children who love routine and always want to know what's happening next. On the right side of the magnetic board you line up the daily events/chores. Then when your child completes the tasks, they can move the magnet over to the left side of the board to show that it's done! There are lots of magnets to choose from and you can also get additional add-on packs for special after school activities or family events. I think this would be a big hit with the kids!

Creative Teaching Press also sent me the Classroom Management Tools for "Pre K & K" and "Grade 1 & Up". I absolutely loved these magnetic cards! They are quite large and a very heavy duty magnetic material! These will definitely last through many years of wear and tear. The font is very simple for students to read and the images are bright and cute. They are easy to move around to change your daily schedule and you can easily write the times beside the cards. I love that they don't take up much space... just the edge of my white board that I don't use much anyways!

Tons of different options for every subject area. Plus it comes with a few blank cards to add in your own!

Now for the giveaway! If you are interested in trying out your own Every Day Starter Kit set, Creative Teaching Press has graciously offered one of my followers their very own pack. In order to win, please use the Rafflecopter to follow Creative Teaching Press on Facebook and Pinterest. The contest closes Friday at midnight (central time). Enjoy the rest of your week!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hall Pass Freebies and Where Are We? Mini-Posters {Plus a Giveaway!}

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this picture of my awesome Oriental Trading loot that came in the mail last week. I got some awesome Dr. Seuss cut outs, some fun fish counters, an inflatable campfire (have been dying for this forever!!), a cute treasure box, a fun word work centre, tooth keeper necklaces (144 for $7.25!!), and some bright colourful lanyards.

The lanyards I bought because I wanted to make some hallway passes. I like the idea of a lanyard when students go to the bathroom because they don't have to hold on to it while they go! Yuck! :) The pack I bought has 6 fun, bright colours. I made two bathroom passes, a telephone pass, and a water fountain pass.

The other two I used for a fire drill class last. I saw this idea on Pinterest, to keep the lanyard by my door and have my class list on the back, so it's easy to grab when I'm heading out the door.

The final lanyard I made for myself is a classroom management trick I'm going to try next year. My new school is a K-9 school, so we have the juniour high sports teams and our school mascot is a Bengal. Well I just happened to have a cute stuffed tiger (an adopted pet from WWF) that I decided was going to be Benji the Bengal. I'm going to pass out Benji Bucks to students for good behaviour. Those tickets will go into a bucket and each day I'll pull out a ticket and that student gets to be Benji's Caretaker. They get to keep the stuffy for the day and wear the badge. I think this will be a fun motivator for students!

Now, I know not many of you are going to have a "Benji Caretake" in your class, so I have added a "Nurse Pass" to the collection of hallway passes because I know a lot of schools down south have nurses. I have made these passes a freebie, so click {here} to download.

Now keeping with my fun, colourful theme, I wanted to create a set of "Where Are We?" posters to hang outside my new classroom. I just adore Melonheadz clipart and I had the perfect sets to create these fun posters. I always have my special helper change it whenever we head somewhere in the school. These posters are two-to-a-page. I print them out on cardstock, laminate them, and hang them on a ring outside my classroom door. Click the picture to check out the poster at TpT.

As I logged into blogger to put this post together, I glanced at my stats and noticed I had 700 followers! Wow! I can't believe my little blog reaches that many people! So as a thank you, I am having a little giveaway! For 700 followers, you can win 7 items! Your choice of any seven items from my TpT store. Just enter on the Rafflecopter before Sunday at midnight and you can win! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

K/1 Giveaway with Mrs. Kelly's Klass

I have *never* done this before!! I am breaking a bloggy rule by posting twice in one day!! But I just had to share about this amazing opportunity to win some back to school goodies! Sam over at Mrs. Kelly's Klass is making the exciting move from second grade to kindergarten! In celebration of that, she is hosting a K/1 giveaway with a kindergarten prize pack and first grade prize pack. I have donated My Calendar Journal to the first grade prize pack. Click the picture below to enter her giveaway and see all the fabulous prizes you could win! You have until July 11th toe enter. Winners will be announced on Friday. Good luck!

Weekly Update & Giveaway!!!

Here's a peak at some of the things we did this week... Hold tight, it's a long one!! In math I have slowly been introducing the math by myself and math with someone activities. We have just about gotten through all of them. I used some of the centres I posted about last year {here} and some from my Intro to Guided Math Centres that you can buy {here}. We've also been working on the numbers 1-5. I made this "All About the Number Chart" inspired by Kim Adsit's chart from her All About Numbers pack. We complete the chart together then work on a little number book. This year I am using Kathleen's mini books from her Fun with Numbers! pack.

When we worked on the number 5, we read/sang the book "Five Green and Speckled Frogs". Then we did a little activity on the Mimio. I chose a student to move some frogs onto the log and some into the pool. Then we wrote the addition sentence together. We did this a few times to get all the ways to make 5! If you have a Mimio, you can download my file from MimioConnect {here}.

The next day we sang the song again. This time I had five students wear froggy neclaces and "act out" the song for us. Then we made our own froggy craft! We glued a log and pool down, then they could glue some frogs on the log and some in the pool. Then we filled in the numbers. You can download all the pieces here.

We have been chugging along with our Daily 5 practice. We are still building stamina with our Read to Self. Next week we will start Read to Someone. I love using my Mimio to organize Daily 5 things. I made this chart to keep track of our reading buddies.

I have 10 word work stations that I want to teach the class. So for this week, I put the class into five groups and each group will get the chance to do 2 stations each day. That way, by the end of the week they will have tried them all and when we get into our rotations (hopefully by Oct. 1) they can start to choose which activity they would like to do during Word Work.

Our theme this week was family. We read a few different books about families and talked about how families are alike and different. We brainstormed all the people (and animals) that are part of our family. Then we practiced our family words by drawing some pictures of family members in the boxes. Click here to download your copy of family words.

We did a venn diagram of our brothers and sisters on the Mimio. I have no only children in my class! After the graph we drew a picture of our family--just the family that lives in our house. We practiced writing our last name at the top and wrote how many people in our family at the bottom. The pictures turned out really cute! Click here to download your own copy of the family portrait page.

And lastly, we made a family glyph (idea from Shari Sloane). You can download the words for the key here. The letter clipart is from KPM Doodles.

If you made it to the end of this post, you deserve a prize. So here it is--giveaway time! I am celebrating over 500 followers! 517 to be exact.

One lucky reader will win themselves these three prizes:

{1.} Any three items from my TpT store.

{2.} $20 Amazon gift certificate (.ca or .com)

{3.} A one-year classroom subscription to Samson's Classroom ($80 value)

This giveaway will run for one week. 

I will announce the winner on Sunday, September 30th. 

Samson's Classroom is a paid website, for students in grades K-5, that helps students work on their sight words, spelling, and reading. It has some really fun activities! I am going to use the sight word section with my students this year. Click here to watch a video of how the site works.

I'm using RaffleCopter for the first time, so here goes it! Hope it works!

a Rafflecopter giveaway