Summer plans.

Well school is over. I spent the day screening new sprouts for the fall… we administer some assessments and score them to help with placement... it’s always a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, I’m excited to meet new friends… on the other hand, I am ready for summer vacation.

As I did last year, I’ll be taking a break from daily postings over the summer. Don’t worry, I’ve got a few special surprises up my sleeve. Some giveaways, a book study, and some other stuff you’ll just have to come back to find out about. How's that for a cliffhanger?

If you have the summer off, ENJOY. I’ll be spending the first half of my summer working with graduate students at the local university... spreading my love and enthusiasm for literacy. The second half will be spent traveling and RELAXING. I’ll be back soon with more information about the giveaways and book study.

Giveaway - HeidiSongs! - WINNER!

Using the lovely (and free) service at random.org to pick a winner (truly the only fair way to do it), Sarah L. was selected! Sarah will receive the HeidiSongs prize package detailed below as soon as I receive her mailing adress (Sarah - you've been emailed, just reply back to me privately).

Congratulations to Sarah and thank you to everyone who entered. There was almost five hundred entries! Thanks for a wonderful 2010 and here's to an even more amazing 2011.

Giveaway - HeidiSongs! - Last Day to Enter!

The HeidiSongs Giveaway (below) ends tomorrow, 12/29 at midnight E.S.T. If you haven't entered yet, go ahead an enter! Remember you can enter once a day until the deadline! So far over 400 amazing folks have entered! I'll be announcing the winner here Thursday 12/30. Good luck!

Giveaway - HeidiSongs!

Recently, as I perused the data from my first report cards, I realized, as a whole, my class was really struggling with teen numbers. They are TRICKY - that's for sure, but we needed to focus on them and try to get the majority of the class on track. As I was flipping through my resources at school, I stumbled upon my HeidiSongs CDs and DVDs. Heidi Butkus is a kindergarten teacher who created these resources to help her own students. They are extremely catchy tunes that really do help with remembering skills and concepts.

HeidiSongs has a CD or DVD for almost everything you can think of... sight words, letters, sounds, numbers, math concepts, you name it. In my classroom, we have been singing and moving to the songs for numbers 11-19 for a few weeks and I'm starting to see a big improvement. Her catchy tunes really do hit the spot. Heidi also has a blog with LOTS of free resources. Her music and blog are truly invaluable.

As my holiday gift to one lucky winner, I'm giving away the following HeidiSongs prize package (click on each for a product overview):

• Jumpin' Numbers and Shakin' Shapes CD
• Musical Math CD
• Sing & Spell #1 the Sight Words CD
• Jumpin' Numbers Vol. 2 - 11 through 30 DVD

Pretty cool, huh? How do you enter to win?

Click here and leave me your name (first name is sufficient) and email address. That's it. No need to follow or 'like' me on facebook, although I always appreciate both. The contest is open to friends in the United States only (sorry my international friends, but this to keep my shipping costs down). You can enter up to once a day until Wednesday, December 29th. The winner will be announced Thursday, December 30th. Good luck to all!

This is my chance to say thank you and help someone else utilize a wonderful resource that has proven so helpful in my own classroom.