Every once in awhile, there are those blog giveaways that I really, really, really, really want to win.

The Owls are hosting one of those giveaways right now. But I'm not eligible to win. And that makes me all sorts of sad.

But you can win! And that should make you all sorts of happy!

We want you to be ready to head back to school. True, it's hard to leave beaches, pools, rafts, lazy days, and fruity drinks behind, but we're giving away so much good stuff that it should help ease the transition a little bit :)

First up, you can win one of three gift cards to help you get your back-to-school shopping done over at the Owl-ways Be Inspired blog. One winner will win $100 to Amazon, a second winner will win $50 to Target, and winner number three wins $25 to Walmart.

I'll provide the link at the end of the blogpost, because I think there's a few things here you'll want to win as well...

I love bright new borders and crisp construction paper as much as the next girl, but what I really need to head back to school is coffee. And lots of it!

I'm giving away a $15 Starbucks gift card to fuel your mornings and an ADORABLE {as in, my most favorite travel mug ever} Ban.do coffee mug to house your latte with an extra shot of expresso. And in case you overslept, despite the coffee in the cute travel mug, I'm giving away $15 to my TpT store for any last minute back to school resources you might need!

To enter to win, just use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to enter over at the Owl-ways Be Inspired blog to win one of three gift cards AND to see what other fabulous prizes the other ladies are giving away. SERIOUSLY. It's GOOD STUFF!

Giveaway ends at midnight on Saturday, July 25th!

Good Luck!

Halle

This is Your Year: GIVEAWAY!

2015. It's your year! We owls are here to help you make it happen with a pretty awesome giveaway on the Owl Blog and many separate giveaways on many of our own blogs!

If you came here from Owl-ways Be Inspired, you probably already entered to win a $100.00 Amazon gift card.

{I'll cross my fingers for you}

But I think I have a pretty sweet prize to offer up as well!

While perusing Etsy for baby headbands Christmas gifts, I came across the MOST DARLING shop for all things printable.

Seriously. I immediately ordered two sets of stationary for my grade partners and favorited everything else in her shop, including the sweetest, cutest, most adorable {yet totally grown-up} owl stationary.

How perfect.

You can enter below to win a set of the personalized owl stationary from The Fox and the Teacup. It comes with 12 cards, envelopes, and seals/stickers. It's darling for any time of year but is practically perfect to use as thank-yous for any Valentine's gifts you might receive from your little guys and gals.

Enter using the Rafflecopter below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

...and don't forget to head over to Owl-ways Be Inspired to enter for your chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card and see what the other owls are giving away...I happen to know it's some fabulous stuff!

Click the picture to head over the Owl Blog

Good Luck and Happy New Year!
~Halle

St. Patty’s FREEBIE & Giveaways Galore!

Happy Sunday!  The sun is {finally} shining here and it’s above 45 degrees for the first time in a long time!  I’m about to go outside with Georgie and soak it all in, but I have a few things to cross of my To-Do List first.

Said To-Do List:


First on my To-Do List is to show you my new St. Patty’s Day Math Centers!



I’ve covered rounding, telling time, and counting coins with this one.
Oh, and number stories.  But that’s no surprise.  I always throw in number stories.  Who doesn’t need practice with number stories?!





All centers come with:
*Student Directions Sheet
*All Center Materials
*Recording Sheet
*Answer Keys

Each center also comes with an extension sheet that addresses the same skill as the center your students participated in.  Use it as a review sheet after they complete the center, in small group instruction before or after centers, or as homework.  They’re great to have on hand to see if students really “get” the center!

You can grab them from TpT by clicking any of the pictures above {or click here}.  If you want to win them, keep reading!

I also created a few FREEBIE math practice sheets with a St. Patty’s Day theme:

{Click the picture to grab them for FREE from TpT}

Skills covered:

*Number Stories {I think I have a number story addiction!}
*Even & Odd
*Double Digit Mental Addition/Subtraction

Okay, that’s two things off my To-Do List!

Want to win my St. Patrick’s Day Math Centers?  It’s easy!  You just need to leave a comment on my Facebook Post! 

Start by liking me :) {On FB I mean!}

{Click the picture to head to Facebook}

Once you’re a FB fan, leave a comment letting me know what you do to celebrate St. Patty’s Day with your class.

And last, but certainly not least…

My friend Rachel over at The Tattooed Teacher is having a 1,000 follower giveaway!  You can win some pretty amazing prizes, including $25 to spend over at TpT or my Spring Comprehension Sheets!  Yes please!!

Click the picture to head over and enter:

Enjoy what’s left of the weekend, friends and don’t forget to enter the FB Giveaway!

~Halle

Spring Comprehension Passages Are Here! {Giveaway}

Well, they’re finally here and boy have these puppies been a labor of love.  I had a lot little bit of writer’s block going on.



Just like the Winter Passages {which I am still using, and plan on using through February...because after all, it is still winter!} there are 12 original stories written by me {9 fiction, 3 non-fiction}



As you can see, all stories are spring related, and some are holiday related {St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Earth Day}.





I’ve included a FREEBIE when you download the preview just in case you’re on the fence.
 


Click any of the pictures above {or HERE} to grab them from TpT…

Now, on to the good stuff!

I’m giving away 3 copies of these passages, and you have two chances to enter:

1} Leave a blog post.  You can tell me why you’re most looking forward to spring, or anything else you want to tell me.  Just talk to me, people!
2} Share these passages anyway you’d like; on Facebook, Pinterest, or a blog post.  Leave a comment with the link to your share.

It’s that simple!

And just in case you can’t wait {or you never win anything, like me!}, this unit is on sale in my TpT shop until tomorrow only. Anddd….the Winter Edition is on sale for $4.00 now too!  That's $2.50 off...  You can definitely still get a lot of use out of them AND get them at a reduced rate to use ALL WINTER next year! Yay!

And for those of you who already bought the passages {man, you’re quick!!}, or for anyone who buys them and ends up winning after all, I will give you a copy of my March Math Centers instead!  {Shhhh...they’re not even in stores yet!}

Here’s a sneak peek:

Giveaway ends tomorrow night when I go to bed!  

This giveaway is now CLOSED!  Thank you to everyone for participating!

Okay, now get going!!! Good Luck everyone!!

Halle

A “Perfect Pair” Giveaway

We slightly surpassed 300 fabulous followers a few weeks ago, and I’m not about to let that go uncelebrated!

We went all out for our 200 Follower Giveaway a few months ago, and while this giveaway isn’t as grand, I think it’s just as great!

I present to you a “Perfect Pair” Giveaway!



I’ve selected 4 items from our TpT shop, and paired them with the perfect children’s book.

{I think there’s a theme going on here}

Perfect Pair #1: My Reading Comprehension Passages {Winter Edition} unit is one of the newest in our shop.  It’s my latest pride and joy because I wrote all of the stories in it {brushes shoulders off…}.  In all seriousness though, my kiddos really, really, really need practice with this skill…especially going back into the story to answer the question.  These are perfect for classwork, small groups, centers, homework, and even assessments!  They are tried and true in my own classroom full of 2nd graders, but I think they’d be great for 3rd Grade too! {I’ll be back later this week to really get my brag on tell you about them.}

The book “The Story of Snow” by Mark Cassino is a great non-fiction book all about snow!   It’s the perfect addition to your classroom library!

Perfect Pair #2: My communities unit teaches all about suburban, urban, and rural communities using imaginary pen-pals.  There are so many fun activities in this unit, and it incorporates friendly letter writing too.  Win-win! 

“Roxaboxen” by Alice McLerran has made an appearance or two on this blog because it is one of my very favorite books ever!  {It doesn’t hurt that it’s illustrated by my very favorite, Barbara Cooney}  I use it when I introduce communities in my classroom.  It doesn’t correlate directly with types of communities, but it’s a great addition to any community unit and classroom library.  You want this book!

Perfect Pair #3: “Random Acts of Kindness with Mr. Hatch” is the first ever item I uploaded to TpT.  Mr. Hatch just got a big makeover in anticipation of Valentine’s Day.  I added some new sheets & activities and reformatted old ones.  I’ve decided my class will continue Random Acts of Kindness beyond the Christmas season, and this unit is a great way to do it come February.  Plus, I just had to make something to go with this book.  It is so darn cute!

“Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch” is the Valentine’s Day book if you ask me, but the message that Eileen Spinelli sends is so important, you can use this book any day of the year! 

Giveaway #4: “Love Is…” is a student created mini-book that has students explain what love is using similes. {example: Love is as warm as _________}.  There are many different sentence starters, a cover, and an about the author page.  A perfect writing and grammar activity for February}

I love all of Diane de Groat’s books.  “Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink” is no exception.  Read it to your class AFTER they make their books though, so they don’t get too silly on you!

Good stuff, huh?

This is how it’s going to work:
*There will be 1 Rafflecopter, but 4 winners.  I don’t want to overcomplicate things!  Winners will get the prize in the order they are chosen.  For example, if your name is the second name Rafflecopter chooses, you win Perfect Pair #2.
*You need to be a follower of our blog to win this giveaway, beyond that there are many other ways to win! 
*This giveaway will run until Sunday, January 6th. 
*You can share this giveaway daily to have more chances to win!

Bloggers run giveaway to gain new followers, but also to thank the followers that are already with them.  So, thank you for being a follower of this blog!  I still can’t believe that there are people {more specifically creative, imaginative, visionary teachers like you} that read this blog and like my ideas!  A lot of times Sometimes teaching can be overwhelming and thankless.  This blog and all of you let me know it’s not always that way.

So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now go win something!!!

~Halle

a Rafflecopter giveaway

December Currently {and a QUICKIE giveaway!}

Well, it’s December.

When did that happen?



My Currenty this month is pretty self explanatory.  Basically, I love to buy Christmas decorations {on clearance every year…yay me!}, but the actual process of decorating overwhelms me, and it takes me forever to decorate my house.  So I’m a nut…that’s all :)

Go link up and get some RAK {Random Acts of Kindness} Inspiration!

Anddddd I decided I want to do a quickie giveaway!!!

You can have any item from our store as long as you comment below with a link of how you shared it.

This giveaway is now CLOSED.
{I go to bed early on Sundays apparently!  I'm pooped!}
I used the Christina Bainbridge method of choosing tonight's winner:
Lindsey, you win!  Check your Inbox!
Everyone else, thank you so much for taking part...maybe we'll do another one soon!
~Halle

Maybe you want one of our holiday units…

This can be a blog post, a FB link, a pin…whatever…just share the item YOU want however YOU want!  Easy Peasy!  I’ll pick a winner before I go to bed tonight. {PS: I live on the EAST coast}

Don’t forget to leave your email!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Halle

We Survived! {Plus, Giveaway Winners}

Well Sandy has come and gone, and she’s left a lot of destruction behind.  We were spared where we live in New Jersey, but we aren’t so sure about my husband’s family’s shore house.  The shore took a beating, and we’re not allowed anywhere near the house until further notice.

Atlantic City, NJ {Source: ABC News}

We’re slightly emotionally exhausted right now, and I am bracing myself for Halloween parties and parades on our first day back tomorrow {can you say chaos??!!??!}, but I did want to pop in and announce the winners of my Candy Bar Election pack!

Yes. I said winners!  There were so many guesses that I  felt bad people had to guess candy bars they normally wouldn’t have just to get an entry.

Teri won because she guessed Twix, and Twix rocks my world.  I’m obsessed.  Whenever I buy the candy bar, I tell myself that I’m going to only eat one.  Yeah, that never happens.

And Kirby Miller, you’re my second winner, because random.org picked #10, but you didn’t leave your email!!  Email me {acrossthehallin2nd@gmail.com} before tomorrow night, or I’m picking another winner!

That’s all folks!  Keep everyone from Sandy’s path in your prayers, there are many who were less fortunate than my family and friends, including thousands without power.

~Halle

Have You Voted Yet?

Not for our real president.  Although, I have heard early voting is the way to go. 

I’m talking candy.  Candy for President!!!!

We’re going to start gearing up for the election this week {provided school isn't closed foreverrrrrrr due to Sandy!} with my Candy Bar Election unit.  I am sooo excited, because I do it yearly, and it is buckets of fun! {Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for ALL the Candy Goodness!}

Pictured: Ballot Box Sign, Press ID Badge, Ballots {color & Black and White shown}, Voter Registration Card, Newspaper Article

By voting for Candy Bars, students learn all the elements of a regular election {you can even hold primaries!}, but without any influence of their parent’s political beliefs.  Plus, students KNOW CANDY.  Really well.  I’ve had students get as passionate about a Kit-Kat bar, as people do about Romney or Obama!

Here’s a peek at what else My Candy Bar Election includes:

To make this unit fit all grade levels, many of the sheets come in a less “cutesy” format too!





If you’re still looking for something for the election, hurry up and snag it by clicking the Preview Picture below :)



Now, if you can guess which Candy Bar I would vote for, you can win this guy for FREE!  I’ll email it to the first person who guesses correctly.  Don’t forget to leave your email. 

And here’s a HINT:  My favorite Candy bar is not mentioned OR pictured above {I couldn't make it too easy!}

I’ll be spending at least the rest of the day today and tomorrow hanging out with the hubby, catching up on TV shows {as long as we have power}, and reading a book or two, while we try our best to avoid Sandy’s wrath!

Stay safe, my fellow East Coasters!

~Halle