Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Tiny Seed Craftivity

I just wanted to share a quick classroom update. This week we launched our plant unit. I used my Scholastic points to order a few plant observation gardens. What a bargain!  The students are working in teams of four to plant and care for their gardens. Keep your fingers crossed that the seeds actually grow.

This week we focused on plant parts and thier functions. We created this cute Eric Carle inspired craftivity for our spring bulletin board.
Check back for more updates about the great plant resources I use through out this unit.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Read Across America.

We just finished our  Read Across American Week . The whole school came together to celebrate our love of reading.  Here's how we celebrated at our school...
 We kicked off the week by decorating our classroom doors to mimic the covers of our favorite Seuss books. Unfortunately, my door didn't come out that great, but this beauty belongs to a friend of mine. It's one of the best doors I've seen. Way to go Sam and and Lauren!


Each day the children and staff were encouraged to show Seuss spirit by dressing in a different book inspired outfit. 
  • Monday: Cat in the Hat (Wear Red, Black, and White)
  • Tuesday: Fox in Socks ( Wear Silly Socks)
  • Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday (Wear Mismatched Clothes)
  • Thursday: Oh the Places You'll Go (Wear a Shirt you got on Vacation)
  • Friday: My Many Colored Days (Wear your Teacher's Favorite Color)
Monday we read Cat in the Hat and did a character description of Thing 1 and Thing 2.  My little ones are still having a hard time describing the intrinsic traits of characters so we practice this skill A Lot! During writing we made this cute Cat Craft. During our Mini-lesson we discussed if we would let the Cat in the Hat come in our house and why.

Tuesday we focused on Fox in Socks. We started morning meeting by having a sock fashion show. The kids loved taking their shoes off and modeling their silly socks. I even got in on the fun too. During reading we read the book and spent the rest of the day working on our rhyming skills. I threw together this quick easy craft. The children were provided with a sheet that had different pictures on them. They then had to find the rhyming pairs and glue them to fox's belly.

 
Wednesday we had a mystery reader come in and read Wacky Wednesday. The kids had fun trying to figure out my clues. We then spent the rest of the day focusing on wacky things.  During snack I read If I Ran the Zoo and we made a list of animals that you find in the zoo. During recess I encouraged the kids to use the blocks and plastic animals to build their own zoo. During writing I had the students work with a partner to create their own Seusstastic animal and describe it for our class book.

Thursday we had a snow day, but here's what I had planned. We were going to read Oh the Places You'll go and discuss vacations that we've been on. Then during Social Studies we were going to use the world map to locate our vacation destinations.

Friday we read My Many Colored Days. During science we did a fun color experiment using zippy bags and paint. The students were split into teams to complete the experiment. The students had to record what colors they were mixing and predict what it would make. They then compared their results with the other teams, and determined if their predictions were correct.

Well, that about wraps up Read Across America. I would love to hear how you celebrated. Don't forget to check out http://www.seussville.com/ for videos, games, and printables.