Alphabet Fun!

I have been busy getting ready for my presentation in Las Vegas this summer, and made some fun new games to share with you!

The first one is called Monster Munch!  This is a great game for the beginning of the year to help our sweet little babies understand that there IS a difference between a number, letter, symbol and word :)

My 6 year old LOVES to play around with this game!!  She makes little munching noises when she feeds the monster the letters. SO fun!

There are two options included for making the game.  The photo on the left shows it made with a nut can! I just cut the mouth out and cut a mouth with an exacto knife out of the nut can. 

You can also use a regular old gift bag!

   

 

You can purchase Monster Munch at my TpT store.

The next game I have for you is a fast paced, super fun card game!

It’s called Bubble Pop!

I guarantee you your kiddos will LOVE this game!

 

My daughter and I played FOREVER! (My dog, on the other hand, was not as impressed!)

You get three sets of cards in the pack – upper and lower case and picture cards for letter sounds.  You can mix and match all three games or just focus on one of the three.

You can find Bubble Pop at my TpT store!

I would love for someone to win each of these games!  Leave a comment below!  The first THREE people to comment will win! Be sure to leave your e-mail address!!

Wow! You guys are fast! Keep commenting and I’ll pick three more random people!! 

Favorite Things–#2!

Sorry for the delay in my next favorite thing! That darn summer….. ;)

First up! The winner of my first favorite thing is….

Are you ready for favorite thing #2?? I use these every single day!

I would love to send you a set of Mr. Sketch markers for you to use next year!

Here is what you need to do:

1. Follow my Pinboards on Pinterest.

2. Come back to Growing Kinders and find something on my blog that you want to pin to one of your Pinboards.  I just installed the Pinterest hover tool, so it should be easy for you!

Remember to add the #growingkindersfavoritethings

3.  Finally, come back here and make your entry on the Rafflecopter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pin it to Win it Instructions….

I’ve had some feedback that some are having trouble seeing the Punchtab widget to enter.  It looks like this….

If you are having trouble viewing the widget, you may need to update your browser.

I used this widget because I could not get Rafflecopter to work for me the other day.  I will go back to it next week!  Sorry for the confusion!

I’ll go over again how to enter the contest!

1. You need a Pinterest account to play. If you don’t have one, then sign up here:

2.  Next follow my Pinboards on Pinterest.

3. Come back to Growing Kinders and find something on my blog that you want to pin to one of your Pinboards.  I just installed the Pinterest hover tool, so it should be easy for you!

4.  Finally, find this widget at the bottom of

THIS PAGE (<---click there) and enter via e-mail or through Facebook. 

Once you log in, you’ll see a Facebook banner pop up – it says you can earn additional entries by sharing on your FB. This is something that PunchTab does (that I didn’t know about).  You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to!

But, click the little blue arrow below that and you’ll see this screen:

Click on “go there” to make sure you are following my Pinboards. Then you will be entered!  You can use the arrows to see how you’ve entered the contest.

Remember to use the #growingkindersfavoritethings on the picture that you pin from my blog.

Like this:

I hope this tutorial helps! Sorry for the confusion!

Now, go back to this page and enter!

Favorite things Day 1!

Ooooh! Are you excited?!  Sorry I didn’t get this up earlier today, but I dropped off my 11 year old at language camp for 2 weeks today!  This is her 4th year at the camp, and her 2nd year going for 2 weeks.  If you want your child to learn a language, this is the place to do it! The kids have a BLAST!

If you are a frequent visitor to my blog, you won’t be surprised by my Favorite thing #1!

I LOVE these roll and learn pocket dice! I use them all.the.time.  In fact, I have multiple sets – I probably have about 8 of these babies.  They are great to have on hand for centers, and when I have to be out and don’t want to run centers.  I’ll prepare a roll and write activity and each table group will have their own dice.
You want a set?  Well, you could order them at Amazon.  OR, I can send you a set. 
Here is what you need to do:

This contest will be open for ONE WEEK.  I will close the contest on Midnight on Sunday June 16th.  I will post a NEW favorite thing on Monday June 17th with another contest!

Have fun pinning! Good luck!

My Favorite Things…

So, I thought it would be fun this summer to give away some of my favorite things to my wonderful blog readers!  You all have been so supportive to me over the past 2 1/2 years (almost 3 – gasp!) that I thought I would spread the love!

So, starting TOMORROW (Monday), my first favorite thing will be up for grabs! (This time it is an item you can use in your classroom!)

So, be watching the blog tomorrow – I have to take my girl to camp tomorrow, so I’m not sure when my post will go up.  You will need a Pinterest account to enter, so if you don’t have one – go sign up! It will rock your world! 

You will also need to follow  my Pinterest boards, so if you aren’t doing that yet go to my page and follow my boards for another head start!

See you tomorrow!!

Whole Brain Teaching–Learn Along with Me!

I have been slightly intrigued by the Whole Brain Teaching phenomenon over this past year.  Like most of us, I don’t have a lot of free time during the school year to read professional books. But, once summer comes, I LOVE to get my hands on professional books.  I decided that my #1 read was going to be this book:

The “challenging kids” part is what caught my attention.  I’m sure you’re all thinking of a few challenging kids you’ve had over the years in your head, right?

I’ve watched a few YouTube videos, read a few blogs and have a BASIC understanding, but really wanted to dig deeper and learn for myself from the creator of the Whole Brain Teaching program (Chris Biffle).

So, if you’re interested, you can follow along on my little learning adventure!

First up, Chapter 1.

Here are a few things that I highlighted!

Yes! Of course they do!  Whole Brain Teaching is FUN – they make their program fun to follow so children will WANT to be part of the classroom environment in a POSITIVE way.  Children learn to work together to make their teacher happy and because they love to play the teacher and teach their friends.

Biffle says the program is more like a GAME that all students want to participate in.  There are penalties and rewards when “playing” the game. 

I am very excited about this part!  Learning about how the brain works in learning to read has been another item on my list of “to-do’s”.  Chapter 5 goes into greater detail on how Whole Brain Teaching uses all parts of the brain.

I hope that you join me on this WBT journey! If you want to jump ahead, go ahead and order the book from Amazon, or go to their website.  What is amazing about this program is that there is so much information on their website that is absolutely FREE!

  I would love to hear your thoughts – leave a comment below! Do you use WBT?  Are you intrigued?  Keep checking back this summer for more WBT posts!