Wacky Wednesday

Backwards clothes and inside out?  A shoe on the wall and our schedule written backwards?  It must be Dr. Seuss's Wacky Wednesday!  What a fun book!  This Wacky Wednesday we took a close look at the book.  We put it up on the document camera so that we had a full view of all the wackiness.  We had to read the book in 15 minute chunks because the children were looking so closely for all the strange things hidden in each illustration.

We also made whirly birds to celebrate Wacky Wednesday.  On our whirly birds we wrote five important "wh" words: who, what, when, where, and why.  Then, we would throw the whirly bird in the air, as it twirled down we had to see if we could spell the "wh" word called out.  Wacky Wednesday spelling lesson for sure!

With all the wacky things going on we also had some time to be serious.  We read Dr. Seuss's story The Lorax.  The Lorax has an important ecology lesson that goes perfectly with our latest inquiry unit of protecting Earth's natural resources.  After we read the story, we had a little snack and pulled up a Popplet we made about protecting the Earth's treasures. 

The students used what we have learned in reading to write how they can help protect the Earth.  They did a great job!  They also illustrated their writing by coloring then spraying a coffee filter with water.  The sprayed filters turned into beautiful Earths.  Take a look at a few samples.

Fox in Socks Day

     For our second day of Dr. Seuss theme week we have the book Fox in Socks.  We read it despite the clear warning at the beginning of the book that the sentences can tie your tongue in knots with all the rhymes.    The children wore their craziest socks and we practiced finding and making rhymes.  We even did a fun sort of real words and nonsense words.  We also read Dr. Seuss's Foot Book, for feet go well with socks.  Check out these "Foxy" socks and cute feet!

Our literacy centers are filled with Dr. Seuss this week. Here are just a few. We have several books on our class ipods. The children are loving listening to them at "read along" center. I also have a collection of Dr. Seuss digital books for the ipad. The apps are the books with the option to have the books read aloud. The apps are on sale this week from Oceanhouse Media Books. I highly recommend! There is a magnetic letter center where students are assembling famous Dr. Seuss quotes. We also have a wacky letter game similar to Twister but with a Dr. Seuss twist. The kids have to put their hands and feet and EAR on different letters and sounds. So fun!

 

Such a fun day!  We graphed our socks and got lots of practice counting by twos.  And, with Fox in Socks, we just had to dance to "What Does the Fox Say?"  We had a special "One Fish, Two Fish" snack.  This Dr. Seuss week is a blast.  Can't wait to celebrate more reading!

 

 

Cat in the Hat Day

  Monday we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by participating in a school wide read in.  The first half hour of school all the students lined the hallways and just read.  Even the teachers and our principal dropped everything to read.  The Connected Ones brought silly hats and smiles to school Monday to celebrate Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat.  The first theme day of our Dr. Seuss week!  Dr. Seuss was a master at rhyming.  In his honor, we made rhyming hats.  Each student received a different word family on the brim of a hat.  They had to write a word in that family on each stripe of the hat.  We tried to make the hats as tall as possible by spelling more and more words.

 The students worked very hard on their rhymes.  I love how they used their tools.  Many students used word family sliders from around our classroom.  They also used the app Word Wizard.  Word Wizard is a moveable alphabet for $2.99.  The app says the words as the students build them.  It also lets them  know if words are spelled correctly.  So students could build and try words with the word family and check their spelling.  Awesome.  Many students found their hats were getting too big for their desks and had to move to the floor.  Our hard work is hanging up in the hallway.  We have several Dr. Seuss literacy centers this week.  One used rhyming hats similar to the ones we made.  The students chose a hat, read the words on the hat, then made a silly Seuss sentence using at least three of the words.

During math we played some Thing 1 and Thing 2 Bump, an addition game.  Students had so much fun with the game, they didn't even realize how much adding practice they were doing!

Later in the day, after reading both The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, we did our daily graph.  At the end of The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss asks if you would tell your mom about the adventure if it happened to you.  The kids answered the question in a graph; however, they didn't use their names....in case moms were going to see it!  Instead we used our "Thing" numbers!   Good news, most kids would tell mom!

We also read a little about Dr. Seuss and had some birthday treats in his honor.  We made ourselves into "Things."  Then we did a guided drawing of the Cat in the Hat.  The students were so careful and followed the directions carefully.  The drawings turned out fabulously!  Take a look at a few of the examples.

 We love The Cat in the Hat!

Read~A~Thon

We are half way through our Read~A~Thon! The children are so excited. I hope you are recording those minutes at home. We will be honoring the top three first grade readers, the students reading the most minutes. There is also a class trophy for the classroom that has the most students meeting the 300 minute reading goal. I have been telling all the classes that we are going to win! I may be slightly competitive! We NEED that trophy! Trophy and joking aside, this Read~A~Thon will only benefit our students. Extra at home reading makes a huge difference in academic success! Please work hard these last five days and READ, READ, READ! If I can support you in anyway, feel free to call. Don't forget to join us at Reading Club every morning this week 8:00-8:15 in the library. We had 75 students reading Friday morning! WOW!

Tech It Up

We just recieved a new tool called Osmo!  You have never heard children cheer and beg for more spelling like they do with this tool!  Watch them work as a team and try to fill in the missing letters to match the image projected.  The Osmo is so interactive.  There are three free apps that interact with the Osmo.  We have used the spelling/ making words game and the tangram game that has a geometry focus.  We can't wait to explore the tool more.

This week was incredible.  Mr. Wardell visited.  Mr. Wardell is the man that generously donated the iPads and other technologies used in my classroom.  He has been visiting and following our learning for the past three years.  This visit he visited all the kindergarten, first grades, and second grades at Eagle Cliffs.  Mr. Wardell also met with a group of parents to ask them what they have noticed about their children's learning.  He was amazed with the level of learning and use of the technology in our building.  He made yet another extremely generous donation.  He wants to make sure every Eagle Cliffs student kindergarten through second grade has access to an iPad.  We will all be teaching and learning in an optimal 1:1 learning environment.  So amazing.  If you are interested in how Mr. Wardell started this movement there is a video about our first year of this journey.  Click here.  We also have a site that the Eagle Cliffs primary teachers all contribute to: http://eaglesnestccc.weebly.com/.  We use this site for our own professional development and to share and celebrate our own learning.