My First Linky Party and a 50 Follower Giveaway

I started blogging in February and have enjoyed every minute of learning about blogs and discovering wonderful blogs to follow. I just reached the milestone of having 50 followers!  I am excited, so I have decided to host my first giveaway. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Some other fabulous giveaways going on:

1) Ms. Klohn at Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher is giving away a copy of Daily 5 and Cafe for the upper elementary book study of these two books. This giveaway is what motivated me to give away an Amazon gift card because I know that I intend to order these two books.

2) Lisa at Learning is Something to Treasure is also having a fabulous 200 folllower giveaway with products from 9 bloggers.

3) Jessica at Mrs. Stansford's Class is having a 300 follower giveaway. You can win everything in her TpT store.

I would love to do one of these big giveaways after a little more growth.  Let me know if you would ever be interested in donating to a large giveaway or if you would ever be interested in using one of my products in a giveaway (ideabackpack@gmail.com).

In addition, I have decided to host my first linky party. On Friday, I had a blog post about how I am interested in creating thematic teaching units for grades 3-6. I would love to know how you are using thematic teaching in your classroom. How do you plan your themes? How long do you spend on a theme? Do you start by finding good read alouds? What do you look for when you search for thematic resources? I especially would love to hear how people use themes in older grades. Happy blogging!

Have a fabulous week!