A Very Special Birthday Celebration! Photo Dump!

We had a great time celebrating a very special author this past week! :) This post is full of photos :) We used all of the items from my packet, March 2nd: A Very Special Birthday! Be sure to download a free copy if you're celebrating next week, or tuck it away for next year :)

We started the week by reading the Reader's Oath. This was our poem for the week. We read this everyday and we had the kids sign it if they promised to take the oath :)

 

We read The Foot Book and reviewed antonyms. We read the book once. Then on the second reading we went back and found all the antonyms for our anchor chart.  {Cara really has the BEST ideas!}

 

 

We read The Lorax and then wrote opinion/persuasive letters to the Once-ler, telling him how bad his decision was  persuading him not to cut down anymore trees. The kids were SO into this!

 

 

The next day, we checked our boxes, and guess what!? The Once-ler had written us back!!

 

We are all hoping that the seeds we planted are Truffula Tree seeds :)

 

We read There's a Wocket in My Pocket  and got to survey 15 friends to make a pocket graph.

 

 



 









We also did a little fun writing after reading the book {I forgot to take a picture, so this is a photo from last year, whoops!}

 

We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and did some more data collection. We also reviewed fractions. We loooove yummy activities :)

 



We read Green Eggs and Ham and wrote steps on how to make green eggs {idea courtesy of Amy}.

 

We read Bartholemew and the Oobleck.  While I was reading the book, Oobleck invaded our room! This year, instead of doing rotations, we had 8 volunteers come to our class {one for each table} and they investigated Oobleck at their table with their adult. They used the record sheet in my packet. Oh lord, did they have FUN!! And it was perfect having an adult to lead each table :)

 

That's me and my pretty momma :)

 

It was definitely a fun week for everyone :) I am ready to move onto our weather unit! Only 10 school days until Spring Break!! Woohoo!



March 2nd: A Special Birthday! {FREEBIE}

We have had a lot of fun celebrating a very special author this week! I will be posting all about our week in the next couple of days!

 

I know I am a little late for some of you {so tuck this away for next year!}, but if you are celebrating next week, be sure to download a copy {HERE} or by clicking the picture below! I am sure you all will be able to figure out which books to use with each activity, but if not feel free to ask! Please leave feedback if you download :) ENJOY!

 



Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

This post is long, and kind of random, but I hope you'll enjoy it!

Wow, what a week it was! We had so much fun learning with Dr. Seuss' books! This is one of my favorite weeks because I absolutely LOVE Dr. Seuss :) Now, my kids were VERY excited all week, especially with our different dress up days (crazy socks, hat day, Wacky Wednesday, etc.) And this teacher was exhausted by the end of the week!

I thought I would share some of the things that went on in our classroom this week!!

The kids decorated hats for homework, and when they came back Monday, they had to write a descriptive piece about their hat. I hung all the hats up, and they took turns reading their descriptions and then the class had to guess which hat was theirs!

We read There's a Wocket in my Pocket and graphed how many pockets each child had on. They each graphed the data and answered questions about the class graph. Then they got to write their own Wocket in my pocket stories :)

After reading Scrambled Eggs Super, we played "Scrambled Eggs!" I put eggs around my room, and inside each egg was some kind of a math problem (we included fractions, time, place value, etc.). They had about 30 seconds-1 min. to solve the problem and record their answer, and when I said, "Scramble!" they moved to the next egg.

After reading The Lorax, we wrote letters to the Once-ler trying to persuade him to not cut down Truffula Trees, and telling him why it was a bad choice. They were SO passionate about this!

I took pics of the kids with Lorax 'staches to go with their writing too. Here is me with my sweet 'stache :)

I made copies of our letters and mailed them to the Once-ler, and guess what?! He wrote us back!! :) AND he sent us some seeds to plant. We aren't sure what kind of seeds they are, the kids are hoping Truffula seeds, of course :) But they were SO excited anyway!

After reading The Foot Book, we worked on antonyms and wrote them on our feet (idea from Cara)!

The Cat in the Hat came for a visit :)

We fixed green eggs and tasted them. Then we tallied our data as a class, and turned it into fractions.

We made birthday party invitations for Dr. Seuss!

Oobleck invaded our room on Friday!

Amy and I (with the help of SEVERAL parents and family members!) set up 7 different Oobleck experimentation stations! Was it solid or liquid??! This was SO fun for the kids. They FLIPPED for the Oobleck!

(Me and my mom at her station!)

We had a great week, but I am ready for a much calmer week next week :)

Dr. Seuss Week: Days 3-5

Day 3 of our unit was Dr. Seuss' birthday, and all birthdays MUST have cupcakes! :)

Our focus book for Day 3 was:

I just LOVE this book because it teaches SUCH a great lesson on preserving the environment. My kiddies were SO into this book and we had a fantastic discussion afterward. We discussed how the Once-ler hurt the environment, and the kids were really kind of mad at him for cutting down all the beautiful truffula trees and for hurting the animals' habitats! 

After we read the book I asked to kids to each write a letter to the Once-ler telling him why he should not cut down the truffula trees (great mini-lesson on friendly letter format!) They came up with the CUTEST letters to the Once-ler!

I took their letters home and mailed them to the Once-ler :) When I got to school the next morning, I checked my box, and guess what?! He wrote us back!! (We had some seriously express mail lol) The kids were soooo excited to find a big letter from him!

Inside the envelope he also sent us some Truffula Seeds to plant! We decided to go plant them by the fence on the playground.

I just LOVED this activity! My friend, Mrs. B, and I came up with it last minute the night before!! I am SOOOO glad we thought of it! Next year we want to have a little packet of seeds for each child to take home with a cute little note or poem attached to it :)

Day 4 our focus book was:

This book is great for reviewing nouns (even though they are silly ones!) We each graphed the number of pockets that each student in our class had. Then we interpreted the data in many different ways. We also worked on our flip books. I completely forgot to take pictures of these little activities! Boo!

Throughout the week, I met with each of my small reading groups. On normal weeks, the books we read are leveled, but this week was a fun week, so we all read

And really, what kid doesn't love The Cat in the Hat??! :)

We worked on our descriptive writing by designing a new hat for The Cat and writing a detailed description of it. I hung all of the hats up on the board and each child got to read his/her description. Then the class had to try and guess that child's hat based on his/her description.

During the writing process I told them that the goal was for their classmates to be able to picture the hat in their heads, and to be able to figure out which hat it was in just one guess. Some of them wrote the most detailed descriptions ever! This was a fun activity for my kiddos.

Day 5:

We read this in the morning and completed our flip books (posted a little ways down!!) You cannot read this book and NOT make oobleck! So in the afternoon we did a science investigation with oobleck!

We first discussed the differences between solids and liquids, and the kids had a great conversation going.

As a class we predicted whether we thought oobleck was solid or liquid based on what it looked like, and what we knew about solids and liquids.

I made a record sheet for the kids (which I am not quite sure how to load on here yet!). They predicted whether a cotton ball, yarn, a penny, a paper clip and a pipe cleaner would sink or float in the oobleck. Then they recorded their results.

 I had them stir the oobleck with a popsicle stick very slooooowly and very quickly and record what happened each time. They learned that when they stirred it slowly that it was easy and felt like a liquid. But when they stirred it quickly it was just the opposite!

Then they got to feel the oobleck. I had them poke it over and over again very fast-they thought it was a solid! Then I had them touch it very sloooowly-they thought it was a liquid!

It was soooo fun to listen to their discussions about why it was a liquid and why it was a solid. We never did figure out which it was!! Oobleck has properties of both a solid and a liquid!! It was a great science lesson!

**I strongly suggest having another adult (or two!) help you prepare the oobleck and help during this lesson!! Thank you to my former student teacher for helping!! :)**

Since the week is over, my kids turned in their flip books. They included rhyming pairs from each book, a sentence or two stating their opinion of each book, and a picture from the book.

And here is what my mini bulletin board looked like this week :) I included the Reader's Oath (which each child signed!) and we kept track of allllll the Dr. Seuss books we read together this week!! Very simple and not a lot of prep time :)

15 books in one week... not too shabby :) We have LOTS more that the kids want to continue reading next week, and I am soooo okay with it!      “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” --Dr. Seuss