Dr. Seuss is Running Loose in Pre-K!

Earlier this week, I posted some of the preliminary activities (Off and Running With Dr. Seuss) that we'd done to prepare for "Seuss-a-bration" we have in my class each year at this time. There are just too many great books and too many ways to extend the learning to limit this theme to a day or two. We'll wrap up our unit on Friday, but have several Seuss books that the children want to hear that I know we won't have time for this week. We'll leave many of our learning games and mini centers open for a while, as well.

I was inspired by zakka life: Craft Project: Thing1 & Thing 2 to make these Thing 1 and Thing 2 clothespins for my class. I had only one pom pom that was the right color, and knew that I wouldn't be able to get to a craft store before the week was out, so I went ahead and put the darker pom pom on. Think I'll use these as a trial run and try again soon...or maybe next year. :)

Our Seuss bulletin board is up, ready to display all those Seussical creatures the kids are beginning to create.

I can't wait for this character to dry so I can add him to the board! One of my friends used some colored glue and odds and ends from our collage box. (There are 4 or five layers of paper glued underneath it! Too cute!

We are exploring new ways to work with old materials. I took these rhyming bingo cards and played some rhyming games with them. In one of the games, we looked at our neighbor's card and made a rhyme for one of their pictures. Then everyone looked on their own card to find a rhyme match. The game has changed each day, with each group. I like to let the kids suggest variations of their own so the games don't get so stale. I start by saying, "what if we did...." and usually the kids will offer their own suggestions.

We have really enjoyed discovering word families and making words in large and small groups.

 

In my earlier post, I mentioned these alphabet fish I made to correspond with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish as a matching game to pair upper and lowercase letters.

Our "up-cycled" math mats are in constant use. Don't you love it when something you discovered, by accident AND for free, is a big hit?

The friends have shown a renewed interest in the "Hop on Pop" and "Green Eggs and Ham" puzzles, as well.

Wednesday was Theodor Seuss Geisel's actual birthday, but it was also the birthday of one of my students. We did want to make sure his day was special, so we really didn't do the "birthday party" for Seuss. We decided to save making the green eggs and ham for Friday so we could spend a little more time with it. Instead, we wore our Dr. Seuss party hats.....

read Wacky Wednesday and Fox In Socks and showed off our wackiest socks.

The favorite activity of the day was trying to balance a collection of items from "The Cat In The Hat". I wasn't brave enough to give them a ball to balance on, but it was still a challenge to find a way to hold a cup, some milk (fake), books, fish, rake, a toy ship and little toy man. I was a wonderful way to watch them problem solve!

We can't get enough of the wonderful world of Seuss in our reading and listening center. The children have all brought their favorite Seuss books in to share. Even if we've read the story before, each book demands it's own reading. We have read so many stories ~ my tongue may be permanently tied! I don't mind, if it helps  them stay this excited about reading!

 

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one." ~Dr. Seuss