200 FOLLOWERS = EXCITING GIVEAWAY

My blog has reached a milestone of 200 followers. Wowzers. I am so excited. I remember watching the follower list last summer and getting crazy happy when my followers reached double digits!
I have learned so much from blogland. Blogging has honestly and truthfully impacted my teaching (sounds like a cliche).
Okay-I thought long and hard about my giveaway. There are so many awesome sauce giveaways going on right now...inspiration hit while I was reading about the Daily 5 book study. I implemented Daily 5 two school years ago and love it.
One of the kids' most favourite activities is Listen to Reading. Listening centres, however, can be e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e BUT I found this little device on Pinterest and immediately decided it would be the answer to my Daily 5 prayers. I have many books on cd that I have transferred over to MP3 players. I have also enlisted my family to read poems into Audacity on my laptop and then put these on my MP3 players as well. The third way that I have built up my Listen to Reading centre is to buy 4 "cheap" (you know-the ones they put on for 1-2 dollars each) picture books from Scholastic each month. I then read the story into my handy dandy computer (Audacity program) and voila. I've managed to create a pretty good listening library at a relatively inexpensive cost to myself.

Problem=more than one kiddo listening to the MP3 player at once...solution=The Belkin.

The Belkin works with IPods (it is sold at the Apple store), MP3 players and cd players. It would probably even work with a computer. This little beauty allows up to 5 people to listen to one device at once!

It has received rave reviews and I do like to research this type of new agey thing ;)   I don't own one YET but will be giving away one to a lucky winner!!  Yes, that's right...the winner of my giveaway will receive the 

Belkin Rockstar Multi Headphone Splitter

But wait...there's more...

The winner will also receive one TWO items from Grade One Doodle Bugs tpt store! Your choice!

Kim has ah-mazing resources, many of which are free...go check her out when you have a moment. She is the bomb-diggedy.

Hmmmmm.....did I say ONE winner?? Guess what? I meant TWO winners...Yup to celebrate TWO hundred wonderful, love 'em, hugs to all, followers I'll be giving away TWO prizes. TWO Belkins, and TWO tpt choices from Kim's store...

So, what're you waiting for?? Enter, enter, enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

PS If, through some blogging miracle, my blog reaches 300 followers and Kim's reaches 100 followers during this giveaway, I will add ONE MORE PRIZE PACKAGE!!!  Promise!

Listen to Reading Solution

Last year, while implementing The Daily 5, I had to rethink my Listen to Reading rotation.  I have a standard 6 person listening centre, but really wanted something more portable for the kids to use. MP3 players to the rescue! I bid on 4 Mickey Mouse MP3 players on Ebay and got all of them for $40 including shipping/handling. 

Brand new MP3 players!

Next, I had to figure out how to get more books on cd so that they could be added to the MP3 players. Hmmm...Scholastic Book Clubs. Each month, they offer at least one book for between $1-$2 so I ordered the specials for a few months. Perfect, now I had books.

My next task was to record someone reading the books so that they could then be put on the MP3 players. Audacity is a free, highly recommended program that can be used for recording. It even includes special features (which I didn't use).  I bought a $12 microphone from Staples and was ready to go.

Lastly, and key to the whole process, the kids were asked to practice one of our new books so that they could record it onto Audacity. This worked really well. Kids practiced until their reading was perfect. We then recorded it, changed the recording into a MP3 format (super easy) and then put 5 books on each MP3 player. Each MP3 player was numbered 1-4. Books that went with the player were given matching numbers and then each set was put in a sturdy Ziploc bag. 

The kids absolutely loved this whole process. I ended up buying cheap headphones for the kids so that each of them had their own.  We also used Leap Pads, computers and 3 Discman's that I purchased from Kijiji for $10/each. This year, I plan on having my fellow teachers read poems into audacity to then burn to cd or put on my MP3 players. The poems will be kept together in books that I bind myself using my binding machine.

What do you do for Listen to Reading in your class?