In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter

There are 100 fantastic reasons to enter for this prize!

It's May, and if you're a teacher you are probably up to your ears in end of year craziness.  Testing, report cards, awards ceremonies, field days, more testing, preparing your room for the summer, parent meetings, staff meetings, and all the other things that come to a head as the school year revs up for the final few weeks.  You could use a break, some chocolate, more caffeine and a moment to breathe.  A $100 gift card wouldn't go amiss either, would it?

I've joined up with a fantastic group of educators again this month to give away exactly that: $100 to spend on TeachersPayTeachers, where you can find just about every teaching resource you could dream of.  Good luck everyone!


- Paula


GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher,  That Library Girl, Planet Happy Smiles, Teacher Gameroom, Kim Heuer, The Chocolate Teacher,  MM Bilingual, KB3Teach, Alphabet Publishing Books, Chocolate 4 Teachers, The Froggy Factory, Leah Popinski, TheBeezyTeacher, Kamp Kindergarten, Walk with Me a Second, Bailey's Corner, It's Kinder Time, A Plus Kids, The Best Days by Julie Santello, Digging Deep to Soar Beyond the Text, Sandra Naufal, Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten, It Happened in 3rd, Teaching Superkids, Star Kids, Jackie Crews,

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 5/13/18 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But wait, there's more!

 Head over to my Facebook page to enter this drawing too!  I'm giving away a $10 TeachersPayTeachers giftcard AND $10 in resources from my TpT store! To enter this drawing, comment on this post with one resource in my store that you'd like. A winner will be chosen at random at 9pm Pacific Time on 5/8/2018. Remember to tag your teacher friends too!

This is what happens when you believe in yourself!

End of the school year stress got you crazy? Breathe...

I'm a pretty driven person.  I'm always juggling all the parts of my life, and if anything is going to get the short end of the stick, it's relaxation time - I mean, who has time for that? 

This week my son and daughter in law have been visiting, which has made me slow down, take lots of family time, and relax.  We saw this view on a lovely drive this week, and it's a beautiful reminder that no matter how hectic things can get, when I take the time to just breathe, I'm a happier, stronger, better person for it. 

11 FREE simple ways to learn in the natural world

With Earth Day fast approaching, and spring drawing us outdoors, this seems the perfect time to celebrate the natural world around us.  Here are a few of my favorite ways to celebrate all that nature has to offer.

1.  Stomp in puddles.

2.  No puddles?  Play with ice.  Or mud.

3.  Collect leaves and sort them by size, shape, color, or...?

4.  Collect natural materials outside, and use them to make mandalas.

5.  Sort natural items into things that are seeds, and things that are not.  You might find some surprises!

6.  Create temporary art.

7.  Make a tic tac toe board with sticks, and use rocks & leaves as playing pieces. Find sticks that look like letters.

8.  Lay in the grass and look at clouds.

9.  Look closely at the world around you.  Take a magnifying glass and a notebook, and see what you can observe about the critters and world around you.

10.  Play in the dirt.   Plant things.  Watch them grow.

11.  Take your inside learning outdoors.  Read books under a tree, practice patterns on the playground (up/down, left/right),

count everything,

look for shapes,

play I Spy, write your spelling words in chalk, or paint them with water on the sidewalk, practice numbers with hopscotch.

 Most importantly, think outside the box that is your classroom, put your neck out, and explore. 

Wishing you a glorious time outside!
xo Paula

$100 Gift Card Giveaway!

It's that time again - I'm participating in an awesome $100 TeachersPayTeachers gift card giveaway!  I don't know about you, but my shopping cart has 3 things in it right now, and my wish list is so long it's almost embarrassing - 95 things!  How fun would it be to just go splurge and get lots of those amazing resources right away?!  One lucky winner will get to do just that - enter our giveaway and it might just be you!


GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher,  TheBeezyTeacher, Kim Heuer, Digging Deep to Soar Beyond the Text, It's Kinder Time, The Froggy Factory, Roots and Wings, Jackie Crews, Sliding into 1st, The Chocolate Teacher, thejoyweteach, Samson's Shoppe, Little Owl's Teacher Treats, Learning Inspired, 180 Days of Reading, It's a Teacher Thing, Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten, Mickey's Place, Sarah Griffin, Right Down the Middle with Andrea, and A Plus Kids.

 

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 4/13/18 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Can You Name This Children's Book?

Can you name the book this quote is from?  It's a lovely children's book by a popular author, fun to use when you're teaching about animals, or as a lead up to Mothers' Day.  Scroll down to see the title...



It's Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? by Eric Carle!  How do YOU like to use this one with your students?  Let me know in the comments!