Blog Swap and Hop!

Welcome, everyone, to our Blog Swap and Hop! 

I know you will all enjoy Leanne's post and freebie about a wonderful back to school activity. I'm posting over at Teri's blog, A Cupcake for the Teacher. After you are done here, please hop on over to read my post about a cute back to school activity. I am also posting over at Mandy's blog, Mandy's Tips for Teachers. Please join me there, too, for another freebie! Then, hop through the rest of the guest posts by clicking on all the links on the bottom of this post. Have fun!

Hi everyone!  I am so EXCITED to be here guest posting for my good friend, Lori!  To start, I want to let you know a little about myself.  I have a teaching blog called Leanne Baur's Creative Classroom over at www.leannebaur.com.  I like to blog about classroom ideas and tips and there are even some freebies, too!  Stop by sometime and chat with me- I'd love to have you! 

The FREE RESOURCE I am sharing with you today is brand new!  That's right, I created it with your needs in mind!  We are all going back to school soon (no groaning, please) and I know we are going to need something fun to do with the kiddies.  The resource I have created for you is called, "What I Did This Summer Mystery Mask".  It is a fun get-to-know-you activity that will take up a good chunk of time.  Trust me, the students will be engaged in drawing, coloring, cutting, pasting, writing, and sharing!  Sound good?  I thought so, too!  To get your FREE RESOURCE, just click on the cover page of the item below.  It will take you to Google Docs where you can download the project for yourself.  Just go to "File" and "Download Original".  You will be able to save and print this activity and get an early start on those back-to-school files.  If you like this resource, please be sure to leave a comment letting everyone know! 

Well, I hate to go but I have more resources to create!  I hope to see you soon!  Have a great summer!

                                                         Warm Hugs and Loving Smiles,

Blog Swap and Hop

Sounds intriguing, right? Since it's summer vacation, a bunch of bloggers have gotten together and decided to switch things up a bit. Literally! On Saturday, June 30, we are all going to blog on someone else's blog and someone else is going to blog on our blog. Crazy, right? Well, the best part is, you will all be able to hop through to check them all out. And, if I know teachers, I bet there will be lots of freebies and tons of great ideas shared with everyone. Remember the Teacher Appreciation Jackpot? This will be set up just like that. We're all linked up and ready to go! Below, you'll see the list of all the bloggers participating in this amazing event. You will LOVE my guest blogger. 

I also want to take the time to thank everyone who joined me last night for the facebook party. That was fun! To all my new followers; thank you so much for joining me!

Here's my freebie from the facebook party! 

I'm linking it up to Classroom Freebies for Manic Monday!

Facebook Party

Welcome, everyone, to my blog! I hope you enjoy my freebie, which will only be active until 11:00 PM EST. If you like what you see, please follow me!

Citizenship Anchor Chart

I am linking this post up with Maria for Make a Difference Monthly. This month's trait is citizenship. Here is one thing I do to promote good citizenship in my classroom.

Here is a cute group activity I did in my classroom to promote good citizenship. As a class, we brainstormed ways we can be good citizens. Then, I wrote them all on a chart. Everyone signed the chart and we hung it in our classroom. I know the chart is kind of plain, but, I did this activity before Pinterest and blogging taught me to make more exciting charts! Next year's chart will have fancy letters and illustrations!

Al Pha's Bet...with a freebie!

This is one of my favorite back to school books! It's called Al Pha's Bet, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. 

She also wrote The Spoon, which is a great book, too. Al Pha's Bet takes place long ago, when many things were being invented, like fire and the wheel.  A man named, Al Pha, made a bet with himself to put all 26 letters of the alphabet in order. The king was looking for someone to do this daunting task, and Al Pha really wanted to be a part of history. Through a series of funny events, he found the perfect order for the letters, and the king rewarded him by naming his creation the Alphabet. It's such an amusing book and my students always want me to read it over and over again. Following the story, my students wrote about the book. Some wrote about how they would arrange the letters of the alphabet and some just summarized the book. I made a text to self connections sheet to go with the story. My students think of a time they made a bet with themselves to accomplish a goal. Then, they write about the goal they wanted to accomplish and how they were able to achieve the goal. If you would like to do this activity, just click on the image below.

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do!

Announcing the winners to my giveaway!

I would like to thank everyone who entered my giveaway and welcome all my new blogging buddies! The lucky winner of all the wonderful prizes is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Lori Archer! Congratulations, Lori! You will be contacted by everyone shortly.


And, the 5 lucky winners of the free Samson's Classroom account are...

Congratulations to Sandra, April, Dana, Joann, and Barbara! Samson's Classroom will be contacting you soon to set you up. For those who did not win the free account, Samson's Classroom has been generous enough to provide me with a promo code, giving all my followers $75.00 off a classroom account. Since a classroom account costs $80.00, you would only be paying $5.00! Wow! That is very generous of them. If you would like to take advantage of this incredible offer, you must act fast. It will expire on June 21. The promo code to enter at checkout is: 5FOR500. If you have any questions about this offer, you can email me for more information.

Once again, I am very happy for all the winners and excited to have so many new followers. I look forward to blogging with you! I have added a new page to my blog, called My Blogging Buddies. Please feel free to add your blog link and check out all the wonderful blogs.

Teachers are so giving!

It's true! Check out all of these wonderful giveaways! Christina Bainbridge has teamed up with many bloggers (myself included!) to celebrate her one year blogiversary. Congrats to you, Christina!

When you're done entering Christina's giveaway, click on over to Kinder Kraziness! Laura is also celebrating her one year blogiversary. She is also teaming up with many bloggers (myself included!) to celebrate this special occasion.

Your next stop must be to Dana's wonderful blog, Fun in 1st Grade!  She is celebrating her 100 followers (although, now she's way past 100!) by giving away some fabulous prizes from some fabulous bloggers (yup, you guessed it! I am included, LOL!)

Are you still with me? I hope so! Next, please stop by Tori's blog, Tori's Teacher Tips. She's also celebrating the big 1-0-0, by giving away some gift cards. Surely, we can all use some of those, right?

Next up, please visit Heidi, over at My (Not So) Elementary Life. She's having a 100 follower giveaway and has teamed up with even more talented bloggers.

The Daily Alphabet should be your next stop! Angela is celebrating her big 2-0-0, by giving away a TpT gift certificate! I love those!

Next on your blog hopping adventure, stop by Herding Kats in Kindergarten. She's celebrating her one year blogiversary and has teamed up with even more amazing bloggers to offer you tons of top notch teaching materials.

Please also stop by Jen's Kinder Kids. In honor of reaching 200 followers and getting a beautiful blog make-over, she is giving away  an adorable birthday party packet until Sunday. Act fast! Don't miss it! It's really lovely!

Heather, from Heather's Heart, is hosting a Pete Rocks Giveaway! She is teaming up with tons of great bloggers and offering the cutest Pete the Cat teaching materials.

Elizabeth, from Fun in Room 4B, is celebrating 400 followers! She's giving away some giftcards. Please click on over to her blog, too!

And, finally, your last stop should be to Mrs. Lattin's Kindergarten blog. Amy is celebrating her big 1-0-0 followers, and is also giving away a TpT gift card. Woo-Hoo!

Okay! I am finally done showing you all how generous and giving teachers are. I hope that you show them all some love by clicking on over to their blogs and entering to win all of these totally terrific giveaways. Oh, wait...there is one more! My giveaway! In case you haven't entered yet, please click the image below to check it out. I'll be posting the winners on Sunday. Good luck, everyone!