Dr. Seuss Week

I feel so terrible that I have not blogged in a LONG TIME! Things are very very busy at school. Even though I have been blessed with a wonderful student intern who has been teaching all day long for the past few weeks, I am sitting at my desk buried in paperwork and working on the school yearbook. My intern told me last week that she doesn't know how she will be able to teach students, plan lessons, grade assessments with specific feedback, and complete the extra paperwork that teachers are expected to do. My answer to her was that you leave it at school when they day is over and spend time with your family. The paperwork will still be there the next day. Now that I am a mother of three, my day is just as busy when school ends. There is homework, baseball practice, supper to cook, dishes to clean up, laundry to fold and put away, and so on. My children need my attention when we get home.

Anyway, last week was Dr. Seuss week at our school AND science fair judging. Students in K-2 complete a class project and students in grades 3-5 complete an individual project. I let my intern do the class project with the kids. Her first project didn't work out well so she scrapped the idea and did a different project. Needless to say our class won 1st place in first grade! The kids were so estatic! Here is their project:

 



As far as Dr. Seuss, we did crazy and wacky things in our school everyday. One thing we were asked to do is decorate our classroom door with a Dr. Seuss theme book that included writing. Well, my favorite book is If I Ran the Zoo. Many times that is how I feel with my precious first graders at this time of the year! I read the book to the students and point out the unusual animals in the book. When we finish, students get to create their own unusual animal using markers, feathers, wiggly eyes, poms poms, glitter stickers, and anything else I can fine. I cut out the animals and glue them in an styrofoam tray and use yarn to make bars. The animal looks like it is in a cage. Students then write about the animal. My precious ones worked hard this year and then I decorated the door while my intern was teaching. The doors were judged and WE WON for first grade! Our class received Dr. Seuss pencils and two packs of paper. Here is our door:

I placed their animal writing on the wall next to the door. This picture was taken on Wednesday afternoon and several students were still working on their animal writing.

 

Have a great week! I will be busy working yet again on the school yearbook this week! I have been posting flipcharts on TpT lately that includes word work center activities with word families and high frequency words. You have to have ActivInspire on your computer in order to be able to use the flipcharts. Most of them are $1 each! Check them out!