Getting Seuss-y With It!

Hello Buddies!

The Reading Buddies absolutely LOVE Read Across America Day. At our school we celebrate with a  day of reading and by wearing our pajamas to school.  Any day that I can wear pajamas to school is OK in my book. 

We start the day by having the kids explore the many works of Dr. Seuss and complete a "Reading Passport" as they document their journey through the collected works of Dr. Seuss. I move all the desks out of my room and the kids bring in blankets and pillows in order to get comfy. The Reading Passports are a great way to start the day, it's calming-which is a good thing this year as Kelly and I have a combined 39 2nd and 3rd graders. (Remember, I used to bring independent and responsible 5th grader to our activities, but those days are gone!)

After some buddy reading time I read aloud Kelly's FAVORITE Dr. Seuss book. I have read this book aloud for the last 10 years on Dr. Seuss Day because it is Kelly's favorite. (I read my favorites Oh the Places You'll Go and Hoorday for Diffendoofer Day earlier in the week.  

We carried over the skills we have been working on in our TCRWP Reading Units of Study and analyzed Horton's Character Traits. After documenting the text evidence, we wrote long about Horton's trait and analyzed a trait that we have. 

After all that hard work we took a min break and watched the Warner Bros. version of the Horton cartoon. The kids loved it and it was a nice break for everyone, (exhausted teachers included).

Love this picture of my co-teacher, para, and I using some Seuss props from the first grade across the hall. 

It was a fun, but exhausting day! Hope everyone enjoyed their Seuss Celebrations and, of course, READING!

Bye Buddies!
-Damien

Grinch Day Technology Glitch

The other day Kelly and I joined our classes together for "Grinch Day".  

With Kelly teaching 2nd grade and having 1/2 of her 1st grade class last year we had to come up with a whole new day of activities.  Particularly if we wanted to avoid the dreaded 
                              "We did this last year".

So after a week of e-mailing, texting, pinning, and chatting about our ideas during recess we had a plan.  The plan involved me creating a 42 page SMART Board day to anchor our lesson, read the story, and show some video clips.  If I do say so myself, it was pretty cool.

Two days prior to this lesson my mounted projector was acting a little weird.  The tech was notified and then it stopped.  (Can you sense where this is going?)

Fast forward to Grinch Day where Kelly's students arrive and I have 43 students in the room awaiting a great day filled with Merry/Grinchy activities.  I turn the projector on and...

               -buzzing!

                              -blinking!

                                             -flashing red lights!

                                                                            -Nothing!

My projector light bulb blew.  I had no way of conducting the days lessons and had 43 kids staring at me.  The tech guy, a nice guy who is thoroughly overstretched by our district, was nowhere to be found.  When the custodian called he said he couldn't be to my room until much later in the day.  We have no spare bulbs (though I requested them many times) and no one has ever been taught how to change the bulb. 

So I did what any resourceful teacher with 43 kids would have done-took matters into my own hands.  With 43 kids watching (and Kelly snapping pictures) I stole a projector bulb from the computer lab.  I climbed up on chairs and desks (in my Grinch Day attire-complete with PJ pants) and started taking apart my mounted projector.  Within a few minutes I had figured out how to take out the old bulb, replace a new one, and put my projector back together.  

Notice how annoyed I look in this picture. 

Just a normal day for a teacher .

Thoroughly stressed out and annoyed, Grinch Day was ready to begin. 

Anyone ever have any serious technology glitches that you had to solve yourself-PLEASE SHARE!

Earth Day, The Lorax, and a little Dirt!

For Earth Day Kelly and I fully embraced everything LORAX!


We started by reading the Dr. Seuss tale about a little orange creature who "speaks for the trees".


The day before we got together to examine the story.  We completed character analysis activities on both The Lorax and the Once-ler using an activity I created for my SmartBoard.

Using the SmartBoard to drag character traits to the appropriate
character. Some character traits are shared by both characters. 

Reading Buddy pairs used photocopied excerpts
 of the story to find character traits and support
 from the story. 

We had the Reading Buddies identify a character trait and write support from the story.  I modeled an example on the SmartBoard to make sure my first grade friends knew what was expected of them.


Then we had a debate about two famous Dr. Seuss villains-The Grinch and The Once-ler.  We had previously gotten together in December for celebration of Grinch Day and spent a day discussing and dissecting that story. So, we asked the kids: "In your opinion, who is the worst villain, The Grinch or The Once-ler?"  


Quite a debate occurred with quite a few reasons given and supported from the story.  In the end, we seemed to agree that The Grinch was the worst villain because he set out to hurt people on purpose, where the Once-ler caused his destruction accidentally.  Our Lorax SmartBoard activities is available or purchase at our TPT Store


in the afternoon we got together in Kelly's room to create decopage cups and plant our own land of the Lorax.  We used plastic cups and some watered-down glue to attach tissue paper to the cup and then coated the tissue paper with glue for a final coating.  Once that was completed the kids colored paper Loraxes and Trufflula Trees and mounted them on popsicle sticks.  The next day, once everything was dry we planted grass seed and the effect was quite wonderful. 

A Reading Buddy pair working on their pots. 

Coloring the decorations that will be placed in their
Land of the Lorax

  

Two finished products

Kelly's Lorax bulletin board

My Truffula Trees and personal Lorax writing tasks. 

I took pictures of my kids with The Lorax Mustache
so they could protect their trees. 

About two weeks later we have grass growing in our plastic cup pots.  The kids were thrilled to see this and Kelly's couldn't wait to take their Lorax Lands home so they could "cut the grass and watch it grow again".

This was another FUN and EDUCATIONAL 

Reading Buddies Activity!

Damien and Kelly

The Reading Buddies

Dr. Seuss Book Bar Graph

Hello bloggers!
Below I shared a googledocs document that is great to use on Dr. Seuss Day or during a Dr. Seuss unit of study.  The students survey each other on their favorite Dr. Seuss Book and graphed the results. After the graph is created there are some questions that require the kids to analyze the data they have just collected. Lastly, they convert the bar graph into the tally graph.

Math and Reading hand-in-hand, it doesn't get any better than that!

-Kel

Dr. Seuss Books Bar Graph

Read Across America Day/Dr. Seuss Day

At our school Read Across America Day starts with door decorating the week or two weeks before depending on how big your idea is.  Our ideas, are usually big.  

This year Kelly's first graders read Big Al by Andrew Clements.  They examined the author's message and each kiddo made their own school of fish. 

How cute does this door look?

My fifth graders and I always read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by the phenomenal J.K. Rowling.  This year we created platform 9 3/4 complete with the Hogwart's Express.  I took pictures of the kids and they used their face to create the first year students that are boarding the train.  This is a little more than a door decoration as I am known for going down the hall with my Red Across America Day decor. 

The Hogwarts Express pulling out of the station. 

Hurry! The train is leaving without us.

On Read Across America Day our first and fifth grade class AKA The Reading Buddies spend the entire day together in my room participating in Dr. Seuss activities.  After a round of Sneetches Bingo we send the kids on a Green Eggs and READ egg hunt.  Each egg is filled with a Dr. Seuss title.  The kids go with their buddy to Kelly's room to find the egg and the corresponding book and then head back to my room to lay on their blanks and READ!

Next, we play Dr. Seuss Bingo.  This is a power point template that I found and created using the works of Dr. Seuss.  We read Horton Hatches an Egg, The Cat and the Hat, The Cat and the Hat Comes Back, and Yertle the Turtle throughout the week before Read Across America Day.  Kelly and I share the books between our classrooms taking a few minutes to make sure we read and discuss each book with our prospective classes.  The final category is all about the man himself, DR. SEUSS.  

Our Jeopardy board projected on the SMARTboard, though a screen works just fine.  

Kelly quickly created this display as a visual reminder for her class.

We had some extra time this year so Kelly (Ms. Always Prepared) had this coloring game where the kids rolled dice and colored in the corresponding number of The Cat in the Hat hats.  So simple, but the kids loved it!

One of our parents (on that Kelly had in first grade who has now worked her way up to me in 5th) made these wonderful cookies!

The day ends with a movie on the ceiling, that's right, on the ceiling! The kids lay back, relax, and enjoy The Sneetches and Green Eggs and Ham.  At this point Kelly and I are so exhausted that this is the best way to end the day. 

Another GREAT day for the Reading Buddies!
-Dam and Kel