Pin It to Win It from www.pinterestmama.com #1: Willow Play Kitchen

Hello Readers! 

If you were directed here by http//www.pinterestmama.com or if you came by way of @pinterestmama on Twitter, you are in the right place!

It's me! I am @pinterestmama and www.pinterestmama.com is my new venture!

What is Pinterest Mama all about?

Well, let me tell you:

Pinterest Mama is a place you can use as a go-to source on how to make the most of your Pinterest experience. For those who are already familiar with Pinterest, you know how awesome it is!
I'm un-offically the world's biggest Pinterest fan and want to help you make the most of your Pinterest experience.

But for those who are not yet familiar with Pinterest, here is the exact quote of what Pinterest has to say about themselves from their own website (This is the exact quote from their own website):

"Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. "

"Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."  Source: www.Pinterest.com 

Simply stated, Pinterest is an awesome place where you can Dream BIG!
You can dream - pin - plan - organize - make a reality!
So my thought was to create a place to share ideas on how to make the most of Pinterest.
There are so many possibilities for using Pinterest!
Well, as an intro. of what Pinterest can do for you, here is a beginning idea for those of you who love giveaways:

Giveaway Prize:
Willow Wooden Play Kitchen and Metal Utensils Set.
Perfect for a an unschooling family, or a Waldorf - Play Based - Reggio Emilia  - or Montessori inspired classroom or homeschool!
Also would be great for a nonprofit that works with young children!
This is just a gorgeous set, has two shelves for storage, is made of pine and is 37" tall 22" wide and 12" deep. No ply wood or MDF. Solid, sturdy, and handcrafted.
The Willow Wooden Play Kitchen retails for $250.00
The Stainless Steel Cookware Set retails for $22.50
So, the prize package is a wonderful prize worth $272.50!!!
Wow!!!

Here is the thing:

You have to either pick this up locally or make plans for shipping or pick up. 

This package does not include shipping or packing.

If you live somewhere that is not close to where we are near Tampa, Florida, then if you want to win, you will have to make your own arrangements as far as how this awesome prize will get to you! You could pay to have it shipped or you could make arrangements for it to be picked up on your behalf if say you have relatives or friends planning to head to Florida during the next few weeks.

A little on the back story of this lovely set:
Had purchased this set thinking that it would be something neat for some friends of mine, but the shipping was going to be somewhat cost prohibitive.
So when I contacted Pinterest, purchased www.pinterestmama.com and set up @pinterestmama, decided that what might be a great way to get the word out about Pinterest would be to give this away to a lucky winner!!!

Update: 

This giveaway is now closed. Comments are now closed.
The winner, as determined by Random.Org, is comment #19, submitted by tlb.

Congrats to tlb!

tlb said...

Would Love to Win! Enjoy your blog!! and pinterest looks very informative and Fun for all! Willows products quality look wonderful and play stands could be used for so much imaginative play, Thanks!

Drawing started 11/10/2011 and ended 11/25/2011.
Winner, tlb,  will be notified on or by 11/28/2011 following the review of all submissions.
Winner was chosen randomly via Random.Org


Some Disclaimers are here, but for the complete disclaimer post, please click to read here.

Contacted Pinterest and have permission to go as Pinterest Mama, @pinterestmama and www.pinterestmama.com as long as it is very clearly stated that I am not an employee of Pinterest.

Also contacted Willow Toys and have sent them a link to this giveaway!

Here are some photos of Big Bro and Little Bro in our kitchen with this lovely prize! 

 

Wouldn't this be awesome to win???

Fabulous Willow Kitchen Set!

Stainless steel utensils set is in this bag.

Gorgeous Willow Play Kitchen!

Stamp from Willow showing that it is authentic.

My goal is for all of you to want to Dream BIG...
Follow your heart and pin what makes you happy and what you feel passionate about as far as creating - visualizing - and learning for your family and for yourself.

Reggio Emilia Wednesday: Environment as the 3rd Teacher & Giveaway #5

One of the key tenets of the Reggio Emilia approach is that the environment of the child is the "Third Teacher"...

How Dear Hubby and I have interpreted that for our family and our boys is that our home should be inviting, comfortable,  and somewhat orderly with a wide variety of materials to encourage the boys to think, to create, and to expand upon their interests...
We also have to think of the larger picture in terms of "thinking globally and acting locally"...

Since we live in Florida,we need to keep in mind the environment that our boys are in contact with day-to-day...we might try to explore other climates and other environments but our day-to-day is here...pretty tropical, sunny much of the time, loads of flora and fauna to explore.
What we are not in contact with day-to-day is the cold, snowy environment during winter time that Dear Hubby and I grew up in, went to school in, etc.
We have not been in a snowy environment in over four years.
Little Bro was a tiny baby the last time we were in a cold, snowy place during winter time. 
Little Bro really, truly does not have a concept of snow. He actually refers to Parmesan cheese as "snow". When we have gotten photos from friends showing their children playing in the snow, he comments how it looks like they are having fun playing in foam. Why foam? Well, in Celebration, Florida, which is a reasonably short road trip from where we live, they cover part of their shopping district with white foam during a few weeks in December. Then, children can play in this foam, can take horse drawn rides on the streets, all the while surrounded by this fake stuff that is similar to shaving cream. They go all out and even have cotton batting on some of the roofs to look like snow...still looks like cotton batting, but they do at least try to make it look like a northern wintry scene.
When Little Bro has seen picture books depicting children wearing scarves, he routinely will say something about "the rope around their neck" or "the extra sleeve they hang on the hooks when they hang up their jackets"...
He does not automatically distinguish mittens from gloves, snow pants from overalls, and could not properly explain how a toboggan works, what snow shoes do when you put them on your feet, or how plastic bread bags can be of any help if you plan to go sledding.

I have had to do a bit of a shift since we have lived here, for my childhood environment is so vastly different than my sons here...

 Also, have had to work to get up to speed about what you can and cannot do with a palm frond, how you should not walk across the grass in your bare feet and whatever you do, you should not roll on the lawn, as it could either contain fire ants or if it is in the winter, when St. Augustine Grass goes dormant, it turns into the most prickly feeling stuff and is like stepping into a pile of splinters...ouch!!!

So, how does a northern mama who grew up used to "lake effect snow" and "wind chill advisories" as regular winter happenings deal with this environment so that this environment can be the third teacher for her southern born sons who view anything below 70 as "sweater weather"???

Well, simply put, I have to learn about our Floridian environment as the boys learn about it too...and so does Dear Hubby. 

Well, hope that you have enjoyed this Reggio-Emilia inspired post...

If you have a post that you would like to share that deals with having to shift your thinking to make your children's environment their third teacher, please add your linky. 

Or, if your children have been working on a Reggio-Emilia inspired project, please be sure to share. 

Would also love to hear from folks who try to integrate Reggio Emilia into their Montessori programs or Montessori into their Reggio Emilia programs, or any combination of these.  

For starters, I am adding the Linkys from last week, in case any of you missed these...but hope that we will get some new link ups from my readers. Am also linking up some neat information about a program that is going to be offered soon in Illinois. The presenter, JH Helm, highlights Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Godly Play, and Project Based Learning, so I found it to be an interesting read and if we lived close enough for me to easily attend, I would wanna go for sure...if any of you live or can easily travel to attend this workshop, sounds pretty cool...may wanna check it out for yourself.

Also, am providing a Linky to the Learning Materials Workshop Blog, as Learning Materials Workshop is  endorsed as an Official Reggio Emilia Resource. They have started to do workshops in conjunction with AMS. If you contact them and order from them, please tell them that you were directed from a Linky on Sunrise Learning Lab. I love their products and would love, love, love to be able to attend one of their workshops. Their Linky to the blog is in the Linky section of this post and the link to their Reggio Emilia inspired store, is in the Links in the link bar above the header of my blog. Learning Materials Workshop makes the most interesting beautiful looking block sets that I have ever seen. In addition, they sell other wonderful resources about the Reggio Emilia approach to learning.

Also, for today's Whole Lotta Love Giveaway:

Neat plane construction kit from Alison's Montessori. 

Disclaimer: 

Plugged the Geometric Solids and Plane Figures from Alison's Premium Quality Line  during the time frame of this giveaway, as they deserved to be plugged and I was just thrilled to have won them from Montessori for Everyone! 

Am providing links to Alison's Montessori Premium Line as well as Montessori for Everyone because I was impressed at how professionally this giveaway was conducted and how cool it was to win from them!

I did not have to give one of the plane construction kits away, as they actually mailed both kits for my sons, but since we have been so blessed to have won the beautiful Premium Quality Geometric Solids and Plane Figures from Alison's, I wanted to share the love and give one of the two plane construction kits to a public follower or subscriber of my blog to just say thanks for being a reader of Sunrise Learning Lab. The opinions I have expressed are my honest opinions and this is something that I chose to do and was not asked or required to do.

Update: 

The winner of this giveaway, as chosen by Random.Org,  is comment #2, Jennifer. 
Congrats to Jennifer!

Here is part of Jennifer's comment:

Well, if Big Bro loved it, I have a feeling my Ryan will love it as well. He's so mechanically inclined... LEGOS, blocks, even sculpture... he absolutely loves building with his hands! As for the environment as a teacher, we'll we've go about 3 inches of snow and counting outside... so my FL-born boys are learning about environmental differences as well...

This giveaway had ended and comments on this post are now closed. 

Product Tests as Terrific Tools (Plus a Tiny, Tasty Giveaway!)

 Product comparison tests are truly terrific multi-sensory tools for learning, as they allow a child to:

• Hone in on their senses

• Develop a sense of their likes and dislikes

• Establish the concept that there is not a right or wrong or good or bad answer for personal preferences

• Recognize and respect the uniqueness of those around them

• Identify environmental print and product packaging 

• Identify the concepts of product placement and marketing 

Since childhood, I have enjoyed testing out various products, from my days when my family and I were toy testers for Marx Toys.
In my early teaching days, I started to integrate product tests into our day to day, if it naturally fit in with what we were doing in our classroom.

Would puposely buy different brands of school supply items to see which ones the children preferred...from glue sticks to crayons, from early readers to math games, from paint brushes to scissors...

When I first started, it was more for my own satisfaction to see if the more expensive products really were preferred by the children and whether or not their opinion of a product correlated with how well that product actually worked.
Then, I got into doing some very simple taste tests, as it occurred to me that not only could the product testing help me to determine which items to order for my class, but also, which items were preferred for snack time, etc.
And so it continued...popcorn, yogurt, cookies, snack crackers, and so on...

Then, I began to tie in product testing with particular themes that were being covered in the classroom, so for instance, when we were doing a unit about teeth, I had the children do a toothpaste taste test. Each child was given three teeny tiny tastes of toothpaste, each on its own tipped toothpick that I had already painstakingly prepared. This was a workout even though I only had 16 students at the time, but I wanted to be certain that  every child would have the very tiniest taste from a very pristine tube of toothpaste that had only been handled carefully by me.

This really was an interesting experience though...
Doing this little taste test really seemed to hit home with my students.
They enjoyed the experience and got into describing which one they preferred and why they liked it.
At the time, I had several second language learners in my classroom and to give them a hands on activity that had them give their opinion really seemed to be empowering to them as well as to the other children.
In my single adult years, I was in different clubs, including a few wine clubs. I both hosted and attended wine taste tests, along with chocolate taste tests during this fun, foot loose and fancy free time in my life. 
Flash forward several years and go to the time when Dear Hubby and I were newly dating..
Lo and behold, I had met my match, as he loves to do product testing, especially taste tests, too!
This was one of the first signs that we were meant for each other, as we both think it is fun to do taste tests and other sorts of product testing...

From chocolate chips to peanut butter, from turkey slices to orange juice, we have a fun time doing taste tests.
Now, maybe it is in our sons' genes to enjoy doing product testing, especially taste tests, but whatever the case, it is now something that we like to do as a family.
What makes prodcut testing so nice is that any person who does the product testing feels that their opinion counts, and that there is no right or wrong answer.
My sons are very different in some ways but yet, very much alike in other ways and doing product testing, taste tests in particular, helps to make them appreciate each other all the more.
If you have not ever tried to do product testing with your students, your family, or your friends, I encourage you to do so.
Obviously, since current times are far more litigious, if you do this with a classroom of students, whether a homeschool group, church group, or a school classroom, you would need to first ask for permission from your administration, along with the parents of the children you plan to involve in your product testing project.
You will want to explain that there is a reason for doing this...that it is not just something fun but that there is real learning involved in doing this...hopefully, lifelong learning for a child that they will remember taste testing or product testing something from when they were young...and that their opinions counted and that everyone is unique in their personal preferences.
You will also have to be extraordinarily aware of food allergies and sensitivities, as well as any regulations put forth by where you live on such tests with children. 
What I found was that with young children, it is good to try to stick to doing product comparisons with either two or three products.
As children get older, in addition to discussing personal preferences, you can also have them discuss concepts such as the marketing of a product and have them taste off brands / generics versus name brands...
...low fat or low sugar products versus their same brand equivalents...
or do a test of the refined version of a product versus the organic version, etc. Doing taste tests and product tests are also very fun to do with friends...if you want an ice breaker at a church event, or a mom's club, or a get together with neighbors, a taste test or a craft product test is a very non-threatening way to encourage communication...great ice breaker, if you will...
I have done chocolate taste tests, wine taste tests, and crafts supplies performance tests with friends...
all of these proved to be fun and we all learned something from doing these...we learned about each other as well as what were the real stand outs.
Well, hope that you will want to try to do a product test with your children, your family, or your friends.
All people, regardless of their age, race, gender, or background like to know that their opinions matter and what better way to drive home this point than to do a test like one of the ones I have mentioned?

Okay, now for a tiny, tasty giveaway...

To go along with Whole Lotta Love, here is Giveaway #3: 

A chocolate taste test to one lucky blog follower / subscriber!

Please note: The chocolates in the photo are not necessarily the exact choclates you will be sent...will have to check with winner about things like allergies, etc. as well if any particular brands cannot be shipped outside the USA...

To enter, please do the following:
1. Be sure that you are a public subscriber or follower of my blog.  
This giveaway is open to public subscribers or followers of Sunrise Learning Lab only. If you do not already follow or subscribe to my blog, hope that you will consider doing so, as hopefully, you will like my blog content.
 2. Answer one of the following questions:

• Have you ever done a product test? If yes, what kind of product did you test?
• If you have not tested a product before, what are your thoughts about giving it a try?
• If you have tested a product, were there any that took you by surprize...for instance, did you happen to find that you preferred an off brand or a different brand than what you normally purchase?

Well, hope that you will wanna enter this fun lil' giveaway!
Winner will receive a chocolate taste test, plus instructions on how to do the taste test with a group of students and then, a second one for grown ups (the second one gives you some suggestions for wine pairings to go with particular types of chocolates)...
Disclaimer: 
I was not asked by any marketing group to do this giveaway, nor was I asked to do this giveaway by any particular company...just thought that it would be fun!
The chocolates I will send you are not necessarily the ones from the photo with this post, as I will have to see about allergies you or your testers may have before sendng this taste test to you.  
By entering this giveaway, you agree to hold me harmless if a person were to choke on a bite of the chocolate, or were to have an allergic reaction or any other sort of issue related to the chocolate. The chocolates that will be sent to you will come from their respective companies in their original wrappers so there will be no question of the origin of the chocolates. All of the chocolates that will be sent out have met the standards to be sold commercially at stores in the U.S.A.
i am not responsible if the chocolates you receive arrive and show any signs of melting or freezing in transit, but will do the utmost here to send them in a way that helps to make them arrive as in nice of a condition as possible. 
This giveaway is open worldwide. 
The giveaway starts on 1/20/11 and ends on 2/3/11. 

Update: 

2/3/11: The Chocolate Taste Test Winner, as chosen by Random.Org for this Giveaway,  is Comment #4, Martianne, who commented:

So I giggled at your warnings and disclaimer... And, I love this giveaway as we are all chocoholics here. Plus, I find your post coincidental as we were celebrating a feast day with oranges here today and, if snow had not prevented all trips out, I had planned to get different citrus fruits to try a little taste test with my kiddoes - who are soooo picky! So, your post inspired me.Now, your questions:* Have you ever done a product test? If yes, what kind of product did you test?Many food and drink ones and some school supplies, but only once or twice officially.* If you have tested a product, were there any that took you by surprise...for instance, did you happen to find that you preferred an off brand or a different brand than what you normally purchase?
Not as of yet...Thanks, again!

This giveaway has ended and comments on this post are now closed.
Congrats to Martianne!
 

Reggio Emilia Wednesday: Pipe Cleaner Fun and a Giveaway, Too!!!

We Play: With Pipe Cleaners!

For Reggio Emilia Wednesday (which we actually completed here yesterday on Tuesday), we have something that is really more of a craft versus an actual fine arts project...but since it was completely conceived by my sons to do this project, it actually falls somewhere in the middle.
 They were not given any direct instructions of what their project should look like or how to weave the pipe cleaners back and forth.
They have done many Montessori style weaving projects as handwork in our home and for those sorts of works, the technique of actually weaving by going in and out in some sort of orderly fashion is important (process), in order to end up with an actual woven piece of cloth (product).
But for this, as is true with many Reggio Emilia projects, the main focus was on the process...namely, the process of using and experimenting with pipe cleaners on a new medium, the piece of bath mats. The boys were able to not only decide freely how they were going to integrate the bath mat pieces and the pipe cleaners but also as to the size and shape and orientation of the pipe cleaners and the bath mat pieces.

They were not given instructions insofar as "here is a work for you to try to replicate a particular animal"...
Instead, it was left totally open ended with them in the lead trying different techniques with the pipe cleaners as they saw fit.
There was not a control of error for this, as there normally would be if it was a Montessori work...they were just allowed to play and enjoy the freedom of doing whatever it was that they felt like making with the pipe cleaners...
Both ways of using pipe cleaners provide a child with the opportunity to develop skills...
Both ways offer a child a way to practice fine motor skills and practical life skills (handwork)...
But, keeping it open ended allowed them to work on visual-spatial skills, higher order thinking, creative expression, and metacognition.
When we started the day, both seemed to show an interest in the large quantity of pipe cleaners that we happened to have in our home...we have an ample supply of pipe cleaners, as the boys had recently picked out packs of them in the Target Dollar section recently...
We also happened to have some scraps from a bath tub mat that had big enough holes in it to poke the pipe cleaners through the holes.
Big Bro got the idea to make "a coral reef as well as a sea monster and sea monster hair"

Little Bro decided it would be fun to make "some fish, a stripy tiger, a snail and a snake"...

They really enjoyed bending the pipe cleaners, trying out different configurations, and seeing how the pipe cleaners worked with the bath mat pieces. 
All in all, they had a great time making their creations.

They have done more organized crafty projects using pipe cleaners, such as making actual pipe cleaner animals. We have purchased several of the Martha Stewart pipe cleaner animal kits in the past and used them to not only make pipe cleaner animals but also to be the base for wet felted animals, too...
The pipe cleaner kits from Martha Stewart make wonderful shelf work for our Montessori mornings, as the kits have a built in control of error in that you can only make something based on the pieces that you have and instructions are provided that a child can use to compare and contrast how they made their work versus how the kit suggests it to be made.
There are loads of neat pipe cleaner projects that might be of interest to your family if your child enjoys using pipe cleaners like my boys do here...

Here is a list of links to some great pipe cleaner projects:
Martha Stewart Pipe Cleaner Creatures
Squidoo Pipe Cleaner Crafts  - Fun Activities for Kids
Pipe Cleaner Fun as Part of Playdough Playtime by Not Just Cute
Dr. Seuss Pipe Cleaner Fun by Wendy Piersall

Now, for Today's Whole Lotta Love Giveaway - Giveaway #2: Pipe Cleaner Fun Prize Pack

Giveaway ran from 1/19/11 thru 2/2/11. this giveaway has now ended and the winner has been contacted.

Disclaimer: 

I was not asked by anyone to do a pipe cleaner giveaway. This is just something that I thought would be fun, as it  is something that my boys have enjoyed doing so I thought that your family would like it too. 

This giveaway has ended and comments for this post are now closed.

Continents Boxes Blog Hop - Day 3 - Europe

Here are photos for Day 3  - Europe


Thanks to the following people for helping us to make our Europe continents boxes so nice:
The Grands, who shared some of their awesome souvenirs from their world travels...
Papa and G, who did the same...
Uncle Kevin, who gave us some nice photos and souvenirs of Italy, as well as some older lire featuring Dr. Maria Montessori on it...
Our former penpals in Italy who sent us some neat items from Italy, including photos, pen pal letters, little trinkets, and a bi-lingual calendar...
Various wonderful Swapmates who came up with some really neat handmade items...
Sandra and Karen, thank you both so much! I have some but not all of the photos of the items you sent to us on this post. Both really helped make our boxes more interactive, as  both came up with some amazing things for our swap!!! 
The egg wrappers, Van Gogh's work, and Stonehenge are some of the boys' favorites.
Lenka, from the Czech Republic, who sent us some nice items a while back in a different swap.


Our former neighbors from Lithuania, Virgis and Yolita, and their two lovely children, who not only sent us a wonderful box of chocolates (which is not in the photos, as we ate them almost immediately) but also invited us to various Lithuanian celebrations and meals in their home. They were lovely neighbors and have moved since we last were in contact...
If they happen to read this, we need your new address, as we would love to see how you and the children are doing these days...

Also, if you read through this post and have any additional items for Europe that you would like to swap, either electronically or else through the mail, we would be interested in swapping with you. We are still trying to develop our boxes for Europe, as many areas are very underrepresented in what we have, so if you look through this post and you have something that you would be willing to swap that is different than what we have, please let me know and we would be up for a swap with you. 
We would love items from any / all European countries, but especially items from those countries that we are still lacking. 
The photos do not, as of this morning,  include the following:

The animals of Europe, a  Stonehenge interactive work from an awesome swapmate, Karen, birch bark from Serbia, some of our children's books from France,  and our items items from Denmark.
Also,  a couple of my swapmates sent me some tea but I ended up drinking the tea, versus saving it, as I love good teas and just could not resist! Let the boys smell the tea bags as I steeped the tea bags, though, so they did get to experience that.
Will have to take additional photos of these items and will have to load them later in the day.
Well, any questions on a particular item in the boxes, please let me know...

Paper doll - Hungary

Postcard - Sarajevo

Flags of some of the countries in Europe from Karen.These flags are great!We have additional flags that go with our pin map flag work, but these are nice additions, as they can be used separately from the pin map work...

Paper doll, Russian Matryoshka (Stacking Dolls),  wooden music box from Moscow. The music box and the stacking dolls were picked up by the Grands on their travels. So glad that they shared these neat souvenirs with us!

Christmas card and landmarks from Lithuania from our former neighbors.

Money from the former Yugoslavia from Sandra.

Ukrainian egg wrappers, lace,  pressed flowers from Serbia.

from Sandra.

Shells and nature items from near the Adriatic Sea. From a swapmate, Sandra.

Handmade wooden perfume bottle with perfume inside from Bulgaria. From a swapmate, Sandra.

Postcard and flier filled with photos from Belgium

Postcards from Switzerland and photo of little girl from Austria.

Van Gogh's bedroom activity from my continents swapmate, Karen.

Items from Norway and Sweden.

Items from Germany.We received some of these from a swap and some from our pen pals.

Items from the U.K.Thanks Papa and G. the bowl and tray will be used for practical life when we study Europe.

Items from Ireland.Thanks Papa and G. The little booties are handwoven and called Nellies.

Items from Greece.Thanks to the Grands for the souvenir and to Karen for the clay molds of the Greek coins.

Items from Italy.Some are from our pen pals, some from the Grands, and some from Uncle Kevin.

Items from France. Some of the trays will be used when we do practical life work and are learning about Europe.

Items from Spain.Thanks to Michelle for the Musketeer puppet. thanks to Papa and G for the pitcher and the little mugs.

Items from Holland and the Netherlands.Thanks to Juliette for the hand towel covered with tulips.

Well, hope that you liked the tour through our continents boxes for Europe. Also, so that you will know, some of the items double as containers for practical life. The seashells and nature items from the Adriatic Sea are staying in a plastic bag until we get ready to get into the Europe boxes and talk about the Adriatic and North Seas, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. When we get into talking about these, then we will transfer the sea shells and other items onto wooden trays. I will take photos of these later when we get to that point...

Continents Boxes Swap / Blog Hops / Giveaway

Honey at Mondorfment put together an awesome continents swap, and for this swap, I made items to go with Asia.
Honey has decided to host a blog hop so that folks will see what we made for the swap through her blog, so please be sure to pop over to her blog to see the other neat items that we swapped.

Honey is hosting a giveaway that contains a whole kit of what she made for the continents swap.

There is a link to the blog hop and giveaway in this post!

I really have to give a shout out to Honey, as she did a fabulous job with organizing the swap.

Also, some props to my fellow swapmates, as they sent just awesome things for our swap.
Such great gals in our swap group.

How The Swap Worked:
We all had to choose a continent or part of a continent to focus on for our swap.
I selected Asia, primarily because we have an excellent Asian market so figured that it would expedite putting the swap box together...

Made the Following:
An interactive Asian banner that can be used for several different works, including:

Language - naming the animals and spelling their names with the movable alphabet, putting the animals in ABC order, grammar command cards, ordinal numbers work, grammar  work - sentences and grammar work - parts of speech.

Tiny Japanese Lanterns - for language object or for cultural object in the continents boxes.

Pin map flags - for pin map work

Asian stick puppets (Sent these electronically...that was the other nice feature of this swap, as some of the items we made we sent via email. so the shipping costs went way down, as compared to other swaps I have done in the past...)

Interactive pages that can be done as either an art project or as a language / cultural work...

These pages highlight three customs from Thailand and integrate either works, such as the metal insets and the parts of a flower.

Recipes, info. packet, and  a finger play...

Then, bought some items for the swap...

Soup spoons

Asian Figurines of little Chinese boys

Decorative chopsticks

and a few other surprises...

All in all, this was a fab swap!

I got my box back containing all of the cool items my swap mates have made for this swap.
the boys dove right in and have been loving using the items from Antarctica this week. Will have some posts about what we did for Antarctica soon, along with the penguins work they did.

Looking forward to future swaps with Honey and the girls too, as this one was super!


Please be sure to check out the blog hop over at Honey's blog. Also, please check out the various links to other swap mates' blogs.

Happy Friday!