Holly Bloggy Christmas Link Up!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a wonderful day with your families!  I also hope that my Holly Bloggy friends were able to wait until yesterday to open their gifts!  Sarah and I had so much fun organizing this and seeing all of the neat gifts everyone exchanged.  Over the next few days, we will get up all of the pictures we have.  But we also want to hear from you!  I've seen a few of you already post about your awesome partner, so please link up so we can all read about it and ooh and aah over your gifts!

I know a few of you still have gifts that are MIA.  We are working on it!  Feel free to shoot us an email; we are reading them and working on getting in touch with everyone as time allows during these busy holidays!

Please make sure you link directly to your post about Holly Bloggy Christmas, not just to your blog in general.  Make sure you include a link to this post and Sarah's blog {http://kentuckykindergartenkorner.blogspot.com/} in your blog post about Holly Bloggy Christmas.  Also, if your partner is a blogger, please make sure you include a link to their blog in your post!

Winner!!

We have a winner!!

Congrats to Lisa G. over at Connecting the Dots: A Kindergarten Blog!  Please send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get your copy of Little Lilly's Polka Dot World!

Make sure to check out Little Lilly Polka Dot's website, it's been recommended by Teachers First as a valuable resource for kindergarten teachers and parents!  It's also just plain adorable!
Just some Holly Bloggy housekeeping...we've received several emails of pictures and are so excited about what everyone is going to open a week from today!  If you haven't sent in a pic, please do that soon!  Also, if you haven't mailed your gift yet, please let us know {you aren't going to be in trouble!!}.  Several have emailed wondering where their special package is.  Thanks again for participating and we are so excited to hear about what you received from your partner.  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com. 

Holly Bloggy Giveaway #8

I'm late.  I know.  Life is crazy.  Crazy!  {I'll bore you with the details tomorrow.}  But better late than never right?
Without further ado..Holly Bloggy Christmas is in its eighth week of giveaways!  I can't believe it has flown by so quickly.  I'm super excited about this one!  I want to introduce you to the cutest little character... Little Lilly Polka Dot.  You guys know how I feel about polka dots!  Little Lilly lives in a fabulous polka dotted world and it's just so stinkin' cute!  Check her out here.

Wendy Grimm, the author and creator of Little Lilly Polka Dot is giving away a signed copy of her book!

To enter to win a copy of this super cute book, please do the following:

- Follow her blog here and leave me a comment to let me know.

- Like her on Facebook and leave me a comment to let me know.

- For fun, what is your favorite polka dot item?  I have so many polka dotted things but my favorite ones are definitely my dishes.  Who can resist some cute polka dot plates?  Now, even though they're polka dotted, I still dread washing them...  Share your favorite polka dotted item in the comments!

Since I'm late posting this, the giveaway will end Saturday, December 17th at midnight.  I will post the winner on Sunday!  Good luck!

Winner!!

Whew!  Busy day!  So sorry I'm just now getting to post, but we have a winner of the Schoolgirl Style giveaway...

Congrats to Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade!  Look for an email from me with your goodies!

Holly Bloggy Giveaway #6

Oh my, how time flies!  We planned 9 giveaways leading up to Christmas.  This week is #6.  That means Christmas is dangerously close!  I'm so excited, but I just realized I haven't bought a single present.  Not one.  I should probably get on that.  Anyway, moving along...

You guys are going to be so excited for this one!  Melanie from Schoolgirl Style has offered up her absolutely adorable Holiday Gingerbread Party!  It includes: a pennant banner, food labels, gift tags, cupcake toppers, a parent letter, an invitation, and 9 different center ideas with crafts and activities for an adorable gingerbread party.

How cute?!  I know all of my Holly Bloggy friends are going to want to win this one!  Here's how you can enter (this giveaway is for Holly Bloggy Christmas participants only):

-Follow Schoolgirl Style on Facebook and let me know in the comments.
-Sign up for her newsletter/follow her website and let me know in the comments.
-Just for fun...do you do any fun gingerbread activities with your students or your own children?  Share your ideas!

This giveaway starts now and will end at midnight on Friday, December 2nd.  I will announce the winner on Saturday.  Good luck to everyone!

Winner of #4 HBC Giveaway...and some updates!!

Congrats to Julia of Loving & Learning in Pre-K!  She recently started her blog, so head over and check it out!

Also...a few reminders about Holly Bloggy Christmas:
- In order to participate in the giveaways, you must be a participant!
- All partners have been emailed out.  If you still haven't received yours, check your junk mail and then email us at hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com if you still can't find it.
- There is a $15 limit before shipping.
- Remember to snap a picture of the goodies you're shipping out and email it to us before you stick it in the mail.  We want to showcase all of the holiday cheer!  In your email with the picture, please include your blog address if it applies.  We will do a post on Christmas with all of the pictures and we want to link to your blog, but whew! I can't keep real names and blog names straight!
- Stick it in the mail by December 5th so it doesn't arrive late!
- On my Holly Bloggy Page, you will find a short little form to fill out to let us know your gift arrived.  We want to keep tabs on it so no one goes without Holly Bloggy Cheer!  Just head over there and type in your name to let us know you received your gift.
- Absolutely NO PEEKING!  :)
- Feel free to post about all of the fun and thank your Holly Bloggy partner after Christmas!

If you have any questions, just let either me or Sarah know!  Don't forget to head over to Sarah's blog on Monday to check out next week's giveaway!

Holly Bloggy Giveaway #4!

Here we are...just a few weeks away from Christmas and ready for the fourth HBC Giveaway!  This week we're ready to help deck your halls...

The Wise Owl Workshop has some crazy cute Christmas signs!

How adorable?!

To enter:

1. Head over to Wise Owl Workshop etsy shop and add her to your favorites.  Leave a comment to let us know what your favorite item is!

2. What is your favorite holiday decoration or decorating tradition?  Leave a comment! 

OK...giveaway starts now and ends Friday at 11:59pm.  I will announce the winner on Saturday!  Good luck and have a great week!

We have a winner!!!

Congrats to Mrs. L from Life With Mrs. L!  Send me an email and I'll get you hooked up so you can get a jump start on your holiday cards!

Don't forget to check out Sarah's blog next week for our next giveaway!  Thanks to all who are participating in and sponsoring Holly Bloggy Christmas.  It's going to be lots of fun!

Holly Bloggy Giveaway #2!!

I'm so excited to announce our SECOND giveaway!  (There are still 7 more, can you believe it?!)  If you have not yet joined Holly Bloggy Christmas, check it out.  Sign ups for participants and sponsors end Monday, October 31st at midnight!  You won't want to miss out...the giveaways only get better and better.



This week we are offering you a chance to get a jumpstart on your Christmas cards!  Christmas is coming...  Fast.  And we want you to have super fabulous Christmas cards!  Jennifer Mecca Designs is offering one lucky participant a digital card design.  Her cards are absolutely adorable!  She will customize it with your photos and text, then email you a proof to upload and print your cards anywhere (Walgreens, WalMart, Shutterfly, etc). 

You have 3 chances to enter to win this fun prize!

-Visit Jennifer Mecca's etsy store and leave a comment here to let us know which Christmas card is your favorite.

- We want to know: When do you usually send out Christmas cards?  Are they ready to be mailed on December 1st?  Or do you send out "New Years Cards" because time slipped away?!  Leave your answer here in the comments.

-BONUS entry Sunday and Monday only: Blog about Holly Bloggy Christmas and our giveaway, letting people know that time is running out to join in the fun!  Leave a link to your post in the comments.  Since sign ups end Monday night, this entry will only be accepted today and Monday! 

This giveaway starts now and ends on Friday, November 4th at 11:59pm.  I will use a random number generator to select the winner.  The winner will be announced on Saturday, November 5th.

Good luck!

A little fall fun!

Is it really only Wednesday?!  I swear, yesterday feels like forever ago.  And I'm still nowhere near ready for tomorrow. 

But even though my stack of school work is taller than I am, I wanted to share a little fall freebie with my friends! {Blogging is so much more fun than grading papers.}  This is going in my math stations next week as a little review of the ways to represent numbers.  There's a good chance I'll make a worksheet to go with it, but I haven't gotten there yet... {you understand, right?}

Cut them apart and the students match up the different representations of the number!  Quick review, fun, and cute!  Click here to grab a copy.

Oh, and a little funny to get through the rest of the week:

So I have my little kinderfriends lined up and ready for the hall when all of a sudden, this teeny tiny little one with glasses that slide off his nose ALL.DAY.LONG. and the sweetest, softest, most precious and hilarious little voice runs up to me...

"Teacher!Teacher!IleftmyjacketI'mgoingtogogettit."  {That is totally how he talks. All strung together and rushed and breathy.  Hilarious.  And yes, I still have 2 friends who call me teacher.  Even though I refer to myself in the third person eleventy million times a day.}

"Wait.  Where exactly are you going?"

"Tothebaffroom..."  {with one foot out the door...}

"Why is your jacket in the bathroom?"

He thought for a second and slowed down to tell me: "Well, I took it off so I wouldn't get poop on it."

All I could do is nod and point out the door, giving him permission to retrieve his unpoopy jacket.  I don't think I want to know what exactly was going on in that stall for it to be rough enough to take off his jacket.  Ohhhh, the children...they keep me laughing.

PS: If you're not signed up for Holly Bloggy Christmas.  Do it!  Now!  The first of NINE giveaways ends this Friday and you must be a participant to enter.  Check it out here.

 

Oh boy, oh boy!!!

Hey everyone!  "Geez" is all I can say about my week so far.  Seriously.  Am I the only one who is just absolutely drowning in this year?  So much work, so little time.

BUT--- there's no time to even think about things that are less than amazing because this week kicks off the ever so fabulous Holly Bloggy Giveaways!  Sarah and I are so excited!  We have well over 60 people signed up to exchange gifts and lots of AH-mazing sponsors who can't wait to stuff your stockings with their wonderful teacher resources.  If you haven't already signed up as a participant or sponsor, you won't want to waste any time.  Monday, October 31st is the deadline!  And all of these crazy awesome giveaways are for Holly Bloggy-ers only.  I don't want anyone to be left out!

Now on to our first giveaway!  A super cute teacher banner from Whimzy Creations.  Check it out!

Aww, precious, huh?!  Sarah is hosting the giveaway this week, so head over there for all of the details on how to enter.
And to think...there are still 8 more weeks of these superfab giveaways!!  I can't wait to share the rest of them with you guys!  Good luck!

Holly Bloggy Giveaways!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... 

Who am I kidding?!  It's still October.  And the only place that looks like Christmas is Cracker Barrel and Hobby Lobby.  But that's a start.  And, I mean, I did have some frost on my windshield this morning...  That counts, right?

Even though we haven't quite hit Halloween yet, Sarah and I are ready to spread some holiday cheer!  If you haven't already heard about our super fabulous Holly Bloggy Christmas gift exchange, click here to read all about it.  Then come back.  Don't worry, we'll wait for you.

Ok, now that everyone's caught up, we have something crazy awesome in store for you.  Are you ready??

9 WEEKS OF GIVEAWAYS!!  Forget about the 12 Days of Christmas!  The 9 Weeks of Holly Bloggy Giveaways is where it's at this holiday season.  Starting next week, we will have one giveaway a week until Christmas!  There will be different ways to enter each week, but you must be a Holly Bloggy participant and/or sponsor to win.  We have over 50 teacher bloggers signed up to exchange gifts and several awesome sponsors who can't wait to fill up your "virtual stocking" with teaching goodies, but you know how it is...the more the merrier {especially when it comes to gifts}.

Now, one of the best parts about Christmas is the suspense.  So Sarah and I want to keep you guessing, but sweet Sarah made this cute slideshow to give you a sneak peak at what's ahead in the coming weeks.  Our very first giveaway will be next week over on Sarah's blog, Kindergarten Korner.  Head over there and make sure you follow her so you don't miss out on the announcement!

This scrapbooking design created with Smilebox

I hope all of our participants are as excited as we are!  And if you want in on all the fun, shoot us an email at hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com.  The deadline for signing up is October 31st.  We can't wait to announce all of our giveaways and see what everyone gets from their secret pal on Christmas morning!

Halloween Freebie, etc...

I've enjoyed two rainy days at the beach...  Of course that's how it would work!  But I'm hoping for prime beach weather today!  The sun is trying to peek out as I'm typing...

I wanted to share a little Halloween freebie with my bloggy friends!  It's a little game called BOO!  I cut out all the addition problems I want to use and put them in a bucket (think Halloween pumpkin bucket) along with the BOO! cards.  The kiddos take turns drawing a card.  If they can solve the problem, they get to keep their card.  If they get it wrong it goes back in the bucket.  Whenever they draw a BOO! card, they have to put all of their cards back in the bucket.  They love it!  Now...I like to recycle this game again around different holidays, so the addition problems aren't themed, but the BOO! cards are.  (Around Thanksgiving they become Gobble!).  Just a way for me to conserve my cardstock!  Grab your copy here.

I also wanted to share a new blog I discovered during my rainy days here at the beach:  Cole's Little Pups!  Mrs. Cole actually teaches in a neighboring district.  It's so cool to meet people on here who live so close!  She teaches kindergarten and has some super cute ideas on her blog, like this fun game hammering initial sounds.  I'm totally adapting this for some math concepts!  Looks like so much fun.

From http://coleslittlepups.blogspot.com/

 I hope you'll head on over to her blog and check her out!

I also hope you'll head over and check out the Holly Bloggy Christmas gift exchange!  If you haven't already signed up, you won't want to miss out.  We have lots of super fabulous bloggers who are already getting in the Christmas spirit with us!  Sarah and I are also planning some amazing giveaways for participants!  You definitely won't want to miss out on them!

Fall Fun!

I'm SO excited to be on my way to the beach today!  Thank God for fall break!  I definitely need some time to sleep in and relax.  And get a tan..   Let's face it though, I'll spend quite a bit of time planning for what I'm going to do after fall break.  But it's all good because I can do it on a balcony overlooking the ocean.  (I'm thinking I should move somewhere coastal, then all of my planning sessions can be done by the beach.)

I was lucky enough to be a quick commenter over at Castles and Crayons earlier this week.  She was kind enough to send me a copy of her super cute Spin and Graph {Apple} Activity.  It will be so perfect for my first graders when we get back from break.  They will love working with a partner to create their own graphs.  To give them more of a challenge, I'll probably have them create a couple of story problems about the data their graph displays.  Thanks again to Kelli for giving away a few copies of this awesome activity!



{PS: Don't forget to check out Holly Bloggy Christmas and join in our Christmas gift exchange!  We already have several participating!}

Holly Bloggy Christmas Gift Exchange!

I am so excited to let you guys know about a project that Sarah of Kindergarten Korner and I have been cooking up!  We both had personal blogs for friends and family for a few years before we started blogging about our classrooms.  Back when we were doing that, there was a fun blogger gift exchange called Pink Christmas where bloggers all got a secret pal and exchanged Christmas gifts.  Sarah participated but I was always too late for the sign ups!  Sooo…this year we want to do our very own Christmas exchange with our teacher blog friends!  We’re calling it a Holly Bloggy Christmas. 

Here are all the details:

-        Holly Bloggy Christmas is a Christmas gift exchange for members of the teacher blogging community.  Participants will receive a gift from another teacher blogger AND a virtual stocking full of teacher resources from our sponsors!  It is free to participate, but sponsorship options are available and all donations will go to support TOYS FOR TOTS!

-        Sign-ups begin NOW and will last until October 31^st.

-        In order to sign up, please send an email to hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com.  Copy and paste the questionnaire below into the body of the email and answer the questions.  We will send your answer to your secret pal, along with your address.  This information is TOP SECRET!

-        Sarah and I will put participant’s names into a bowl and draw names to match you with your secret pal.  By November 10^th, you will receive an email with the name of your secret pal and their answers to the questionnaire. 

-        Get to crafting and/or shopping!  Be creative!  There is a $15 spending limit before postage.  Before you place your gift in the mail, snap a picture and email it to us.  On Christmas we will post all of the pictures of the super fabulous gifts everyone received!

-        Send your wrapped gift in the mail (with delivery confirmation) by December 5^th.  This way it has plenty of time to make it to your secret pal!

-        Open your gift on Christmas morning!  NO PEEKING!  We will have a linky party for everyone to link up to a post about their gift and their wonderful secret pal!

Want to sponsor Holly Bloggy Christmas?

-        Sponsorship is $5  All money will go towards TOYS FOR TOTS!

-        Submit your donation via the paypal link in my sidebar.

-        Sponsors have the opportunity to send us a product (unit, game, worksheet, etc.) that will be placed into a virtual stocking that all participants will receive on Christmas!  This is a great way to gain some exposure.  Please submit your product in PDF to hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com.

-        Sponsors will also have their blog button or TpT/Teacher’s Notebook store button placed on the Holly Bloggy Christmas page of each of our blogs.

-        For every $5 donation you make, you may submit one product.

-        Email us at hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com if you have questions.

Holly Bloggy Christmas Secret Pal Questionnaire1.      Full name or your “teacher” name (for monogramming!)2.      Mailing address3.      Email address4.      Blog/Website/Store (so your pal can learn a little more about you – but you don’t have to have a blog to participate)5.      Grade level 6.      Favorite treat7.      Favorite colors8.      Not-so favorite colors9.      Give a little bit of information about yourself.  Married?  Kids?  Hobbies?

We are very excited and hope this will be a fun way to get to know each other better!  Please spread the word by posting about Holly Bloggy Christmas on your blog! Just grab the button in my sidebar! The more participants we have, the more fun it will be!

Please email the questionnaire by October 31^st if you wish to participate.  Feel free to contact me or Sarah if you have questions.  Make sure you follow both of our blogs since we will take turns posting updates and you won’t want to miss out on any important information!