Get Ready for Kindergarten with Dinosaur Train! (Super Prize Pack Giveaway)

August is “Get Ready for Kindergarten Month”! Heading to kindergarten can be a stressful transition for children, even if they went to preschool. In most cases, they’ll be getting accustomed to new surroundings, routines and expectations! However, many things can be done to help prepare children for this big milestone in their lives. The Jim Henson Company and PBS KIDS have included some fun ideas from the award-winning Dinosaur Train website at www.pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain that will help children familiarize themselves with and build upon some specific skills, while at the same time enjoying their favorite characters!

Practice reading and speaking. Help your child practice the letters of the alphabet while learning, speaking and singing about the diversity of dinosaurs that once lived on Earth with the “Dinosaurs A to Z song.” Have fun learning about letters and dinosaurs HERE.

Learn about color. Help your child understand, investigate and make predictions about the science of color, using household basics like food coloring, clean food jars/containers, colored markers and a cookie sheet. Click HERE for details.

Develop fine motor skills such as coloring, cutting, drawing, buttoning, zippering, and building. With Buddy’s help, you can practice some of these skills while making a Stegosaurus Puppet! Click HERE for details.

Practice gross motor skills such as running, jumping and throwing. Try “Playing Dino Ball Your Way” to improve these skills -- and get some exercise, too -- by inventing the rules for an imaginary game and then playing it! Find details HERE.

Explore size and scale. Using illustrations and physical markers, kids can measure out size differences in large dinosaurs to understand their size and scale! Check out the activity “Even Bigger Than T.rex!” HERE and have some fun while learning about size.

Now, here are some “Get ready for kindergarten” shopping ideas to help build on some of the above skills or just for play and fun:

DINOSAURS A TO Z from Golden Books by Andrea Posner-Sanchez; illustrated by
Terry Izumi.

Meet 26 dinosaurs -- one for each letter of the alphabet -- in this Dinosaur Train™ alphabet book. Buddy, Mr. Conductor, and the other Dinosaur Train™ characters from the hit PBS Kids® animated series introduce dinos from Apatosaurus to Zigongosaurus! Young paleontologists-in-training will love learning cool facts about 26 amazing dinosaurs. This awesome non-fiction book with a sturdy padded cover makes a great gift! Ages 3-5; SRP $11.99; 30 pages. Available August 9, 2011.

DINOSAUR TRAIN COLORING PAD & MARKER SET from Crayola Mess Free Color Wonder

With Crayola Mess Free Color Wonder, the inks are clear, and colors magically appear only when the markers meet the special Color Wonder paper. Kids are free to unleash their imaginations and love the way each marker magically reveals a different color on the special paper. Moms love the fact that Color Wonder inks will not appear on skin, walls or carpet, so there’s no clean up involved. Age: 3+. SRP: $7.99. Available now at Walmart, Target, Toys “R” Us, Kmart, Kohl’s, Meijer.

MEGA BLOKS Dinosaur Train “All Aboard the Dinosaur Train!” from MEGA Brands

All aboard the Dinosaur Train! Have your little dino-engineers join Buddy and Tiny on their adventures through the Age of Dinosaurs with their tour guide Gilbert aboard the Dinosaur Train! Build and rebuild the authentic Dinosaur Train with two observation cars, opening doors and replica brown roof as it pulls into Pteranodon Station to pick up a new group of passengers. Make sure children have their tickets ready so they can visit the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous time periods and meet all kinds of cool dinosaurs with Buddy, Tiny and Gilbert! Ages 3+ SRP: $32.99, Available now at Amazon and Toys “R” Us

Features:
• Buildable Dinosaur Train and Pteranodon Station!
• Mr. Conductor sticker and big red wheels that really spin!
• Includes Gilbert, Buddy and Tiny figurines!
• Combine with other toys to mix and match pieces and build your own adventures with Buddy and his family on the Dinosaur Train!

MEGA BLOKS Buddy from MEGA Brands

Give your little Dinosaur Train fan the chance to join everyone’s favorite T-Rex Buddy to meet, explore, and have adventures with all kinds of friendly dinosaurs aboard the Dinosaur Train! Sit bobble head Buddy in his Dinosaur Train passenger car and get ready to find out all about his favorite prehistoric friends with the included fun and informative dinosaur fact card! Ages 3+ SRP: $6.99, Available now at Amazon, Kmart and Toys “R” Us

Features:
• Buildable Buddy passenger car and scenery block!
• Includes bobble head Buddy figurine! Give him a shake!
• Includes fun dinosaur fact card that teaches all about different types of dinosaurs!
• Combine with other toys to mix and match pieces and build your own adventures with Buddy and his family!

DINOSAUR TRAIN APPAREL from Kids with Character!

Dinosaur Train’s summer line of shirts and pants/shorts sets are great for back to school. Look for NEW Dinosaur Train apparel coming in August and September at Kohl’s and Kmart.

Finally, get ready for an all-new season of Dinosaur Train this August with “Dinosaur Big City,” which premieres on PBS Kids on August 22; and the DVD release of Dinosaur Train: Dinosaur Big City on August 23 (SRP: $14.99)!

Follow The Jim Henson Company:
www.facebook.com/hensoncompany
www.twitter.com/hensonparents

Follow PBS Kids:
www.twitter.com/pbskids
www.facebook.com/pbskids

GIVEAWAY

We’re having a very special Dinosaur Train Back-to-School Giveaway on Susan Heim on Parenting! One lucky little person will receive the following four products (described above):

1. DINOSAURS A TO Z from Golden Books
2. DINOSAUR TRAIN COLORING PAD & MARKER SET from Crayola Mess Free Color Wonder
3. MEGA BLOKS BUDDY from Mega Brands
4. APPAREL 2-piece or 3-piece set from Kids with Character (randomly chosen; size 4)

To enter, leave a comment sharing your best tip for making a smooth transition into kindergarten or back to school. You must do this to enter the giveaway.

After fulfilling the mandatory entry above, you can earn optional, additional entries if you:

- Follow @pbskids, @hensonparents and @ParentingAuthor on Twitter. (1 entry for each up to 3 entries; leave 3 comments)

- Tweet about this giveaway. You may tweet up to 3x a day. (Please space them at least an hour apart.) Leave a separate comment with the URL of each tweet. (1 entry per tweet) Tweet

- Like PBS KIDS on Facebook. (1 entry)

- Like The Jim Henson Company on Facebook. (1 entry)

- Like Susan Heim on Parenting on Facebook and/or follow on Networked Blogs. (1 entry for each; leave 2 comments)

- Subscribe to Susan Heim on Parenting via email, RSS, Google Friend Connect and/or Kindle. Leave a comment for each subscription method. (1 entry for each subscription method for up to 4 entries)

- Place a button for Susan Heim on Parenting on your blog and/or a text link on your blog roll. Post a comment with your blog’s URL. (1 entry for button; 1 entry for text link)

- Enter another current giveaway on Susan Heim on Parenting. (1 entry per giveaway entered)

One winner will be randomly selected from the qualified comments received by Wednesday, August 17, 2011, at 11:59 PM ET. Please leave an email address on one of your comments if it’s not available on your Blogger profile. Winner must respond within 72 hours or another winner will be drawn. Contest is open to US and Canada residents only.

CONTEST CLOSED. Congratulations to the winner: Janet W.!



DISCLOSURE: I was not compensated for this review in any way. This giveaway is provided for the enjoyment of my readers.