Friday, October 10, 2014

Halloween Bash Blog Hop and Giveaway

I'm so excited to join up with The Teaching 2 Step collaborative blog that is hosting an awesome Halloween Bash Blog Hop and Giveaway with over forty bloggers and TpT authors! In celebration I'm offering one FREEBIE that includes a recipe for a tasty Fall or Halloween treat and one new product at 20% off during this blog hop! You can also enter to win your choice of one my TpT store products. 




First I want to share my FREEBIE and how I use Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm as a mentor text and for our Fall Reading celebration.  As part of our character unit I teach students about different character perspectives and with this book they can really see how point of view drives a character or story. We also use Diary of a Fly and Diary of a Spider so students can truly grasp different point of views. For an added challenge students can chose an animal or object and write from their point of view.


Serving dirt pudding with worms on top just seems like a logical end to our writing and reading unit on characters. This is also a great way to provide a treat for students who may not celebrate Halloween, and it just so happens that I have two students who don't this year. I love telling my students that they are going to eat dirt pudding with worms!! When they realize it's food they are greatly relieved and excited to dig in.


 Dirt Pudding Recipe + Book Connection {FREEBIE}



I have included a letter home requesting parents to donate or help with the Dirt Pudding supplies. The letter is in both English and Spanish and includes this easy recipe with pictures of the items needed to make this treat with your students. Click here or the picture to download.

Since our school has quite a few students who don't celebrate Halloween we also hold a Storybook Festival where students may only dress as characters from books. During the Storybook Festival parade they must carry the book their character is from. Here's a pic from last year's festival with my awesome third grade team and one second grade teacher. We decided to dress as characters from Alice and Wonderland!



Next up is an old favorite updated into a fancy new product.  Before my students would write a fact family on similar candy corns I made, then they would color them. I still have this option but I wanted to move away from my old and plain triangle flash cards. I'm very proud of these flashcards as I took what I learned from Nikki Cassava from Melonheadz' Illustrating this summer and finally applied it! She led the Rock Your Own Clipart workshop at the TpT conference in Las Vegas this past summer. After updating my hand-drawn candy corns with a unique design, I uploaded them digitally and colorized them using Sumopaint.com. Very easy to use and FREE!

The Candy Corn Multiplication and Division Fact Family Flashcards and Practice, contains over 150 flashcards that include facts 0-12. It's a new and colorfully themed take on triangle fact family flash cards! It's 20% off in my store through the 15th, or like my Facebook Page which you can do through the my single Rafflecopter after this pic. (Through the 16th)

 Candy Corn Multiplication andDivision Fact Family Flash Cards


These are a hit in my own classroom centers, and students can't wait to finish up their math work so they can use these! They are organized by facts so you only need give students the flashcards they have been introduced to already. Students quiz themselves or others by covering a digit with their thumb.

They can also make their own flash cards using the black and white masters provided and write in the middle the corresponding fact family sentences for additional practice. An added bonus is when students color them in they can be displayed in your classroom as both a decoration and evidence of Common Core math work.


Or maybe try your luck at winning this new product or anything else you might want from my store. All you have to do is like my Facebook page via this Rafflecopter.  

A Rafflecopter Giveaway


Here's a sweet selfie with me and my favorite candy. 



Sorta fancy and not typically for Halloween but Lindt's truffles are so good and who needs a holiday to indulge? I love their new dark chocolate alongside my old fave the white chocolate truffle. These just melt into deliciousness when you pop them in your mouth, and they brighten up an exhausting or trying day at work. (Sometimes I can't wait until a break or 2:40 and my students see me get one and ask, hey what about us?) I keep one bag in my drawer and one at home with some of each.

I'm also giving away a product of your choice from my store in the the 2-5 Giveaway Pack below. I hope you continue to hop a long at the end of the post to all the other wonderful bloggers. And you can re-pin this image below for 5 entries in the raffle. 




 Halloween Blog Bash by Teaching the 2 Step
*Now through the 17th due to previous Rafflecopter Link issues that have been fixed.


K - 2 Giveaway Pack





A Rafflecopter Giveaway



2-5 Giveaway Pack




A Rafflecopter Giveaway


Secondary Giveaway Pack




A Rafflecopter Giveaway


 An InLinkz Link-up
   





4 comments:

  1. LOVE dirt pudding; we have it all the time!
    Thanks,
    Lori

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    1. Thanks stopping by Lori. My friend said her grandma used to make it for her when she was growing up and that she would put crushed Oreos on the bottom, then vanilla pudding and more crushed Oreos on top sans gummy worms which she hates. It don't like the worm either. Lol. The kids love this treat but one bite is good enough for me.

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  2. Your candy corn flashcards are a great idea! And I totally started playing with Sumopaint. Thanks!
    Lisa from Created for Learning

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    Replies
    1. Glad you like Sumopaint. I haven't been able to justify spending on Adobe yet so I researched this alternative and was surprised. Not to mention I only learned how to edit photos with is at least 15 years ago.

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