Back to School TpT Giveaway Winner and #BestYearEver Bonus Sale

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Back to School Blog Hop TpT Giveaway yesterday!  I enjoyed sharing some of my favorite Back to School items with you and reading your detailed feedback from the All About Me Freebie.  You guys rock!


Here is the winner of a $10 TpT Gift Card as selected by Rafflecopter:

Even if you didn't win...you can still score all your favorite Back to School items on your wish list for up to 28% off today during the #BestYearEver Bonus Sale on TpT.  Just make sure to enter the promo code: OneDay at check out.

You can save some more money today by collecting as many feedback credits as possible!  Not sure how? Check out this helpful diagram below!

Love this diagram made by @sracruzspanish that shows one quick way to save some money today during the #TpT #BestYearEver Bonus Sale! #Repost @sracruzspanish with @repostapp ・・・ Did you know that you can earn TpT credits by leaving feedback on your paid purchases? You can use those credits at checkout to save $ off your total! Here's how: 1. Go to My Purchases under the My TpT drop down menu (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/My-Purchases) 2. Sort your purchases by Needs Feedback 3. Click on Provide Feedback 4. Leave feedback by clicking on the letter grade and telling us what you thought of that resource 5. Once you are done leaving all of your feedback, you can go to your shopping cart to redeem your credits. 20 credits = $1 off your order.

A photo posted by Angela Willyerd (@angelawillyerd) on Aug 22, 2016 at 7:12am PDT

Back to School Blog Hop TpT Giveaway

I can't wait to make this your #BestYearEver by giving away a $10 TpT gift card for you to use during the upcoming TpT Sitewide Sale on Monday, August 22!  You'll have a chance to win up to $250 in TpT Gift Cards with this blog hop.  Sounds good, right?  

So how do you enter?  Read about my Top 3 Back to School Activities, complete the Rafflecopter entry, and then click on the Back to School Blog Hop button at the end of this post to be directed to the next post in the hop.  

Hurry!  The giveaway ends at midnight on 8/22.  The winner will be notified via e-mail by noon (EST) on Monday, so you will have time to fill up your TpT cart with lots of goodies on sale day!

Here are my Top 3 Back to School activities that I've enjoyed using in my classroom:

My first day of school is spent with my team getting to know our new crew for the year.  Interactive ice breakers are a great way to get the conversation started.  My favorite ice breakers include Would You Rather or Have You Ever activities.  Students have to make a decision by moving to one side of the room or the other when presented with different scenarios.  It is always interesting as a teacher to see how the room divides for each scenario.  You can also learn a lot about your students to see which students make an immediate decision or which ones linger in the middle to decide which way to move.  It doesn't take much probing to get conversation going in the classroom as to why the students picked what they did or stories about experiences they have had.  It is a great way to start building a learning community!  Read a blog post about 10 Back to School Ice Breakers Your Students will Love. 

My next few days of school are spent laying out the expectations for the year.  This can be super boring.  But, instead of just reading a syllabus, I like to surprise the students with an activity called the Cookie Lab.  First, the kids are intrigued that they will be doing a science experiment on the second day of school.  Secondly, no one objects to the idea of getting their hands on some cookies during class!  The Cookie Lab relates my expectations for work quality, effort, and work condition to this hands-on activity that makes learning the classroom expectations fun and memorable!  Read a blog post about the Classroom Expectation Cookie Lab.

An All About Me graphic organizer is a wonderful resource to have in your Back to School Teacher Toolkit!  I liked to use these with my homeroom / advisory group.  The graphic organizer is a nice way for students to communicate additional information to the teacher at the beginning of the year without having to get up in front of the class.  It is a perfect activity to use to fill shorter periods of time, like when you are waiting to be called down to the gymnasium for a beginning of the year assembly, during homeroom, or before/after lunch.  As an added bonus, these completed graphic organizers  make awesome Back to School bulletin boards. Grab this All About Me Graphic Organizer for FREE in my TpT Store!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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A Special Kind of Class for your next chance to win!