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

Off and Running with Dr. Seuss

Our Seuss week is off and running. It was a rocky start, but we're finally on a roll. I was scheduled for jury duty, so I planned activities that didn't require a lot of extra work for my assistant and sub. I found out I had been excused after everything was set. One of the small group activities was to make a class counting book like "Ten Apples Up On Top".  The kids used a "people craft stick" to trace, then decorate and put the appropriate number of fingerprint "apples"  on the figure's head.

Not a bad literacy activity.....EXCEPT....I'd forgotten we'd made the same book in September for apple week! Ugghh!

"If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too." ~Dr. Seuss

I usually decorate our class door with a Cat In The Hat  outline that the children cut out and decorate. This year, I made stencils from old file folders for the Cat's face and gave them small squares of red and white construction paper to make hats from. The funniest thing was I used a very wide marker to outline the stencil to help guide them. Several of my friends wanted to "help" me and cut off the black part they thought I'd forgotten to cut off! Don't you just love helpful? I get a kick out of how they are always trying to be one step ahead!

I love the faces on these!

Several weeks ago, I was showing a few friends how to put a little pastel colored chalk on the cheeks of people and rub it a little to make rosy cheeks. One of my guys said he had to make some cheeks and got out the chalk.

Math Fun
I made these fish cards for  1 Fish, 2 Fish Red Fish, Blue Fish. I'll feature pics later of the red and blue fish with the upper and lowercase alphabet on them. This set features the numeral, dots, or the number word.

I made these fishbowl math mats from recycled binder covers. I read about this idea last year to recycle old binders by cutting off the sides. I frequently make math mats to correspond with our themes, but we don't have a big school laminator and sending out items for lamination is costly. I usually use contact paper to provide some sturdiness, but the mats don't last very long. I just slipped the mats, or fishbowl cut out in this case, into the binder cover and viola! a sturdy math mat!  The children took turns rolling the dice and placed fish on their fishbowl.

Literacy Fun
We've been practicing making words and Dr. Seuss makes this a lot of fun. The kids feel free to be silly with words just like the master!  We've been making words in large and small groups.

Our puppet theater has a couple of new friends. I think these were Christmas stockings at one time, but the kids discovered these Cat in the Hats and have been using them as puppets. Who am I to tell them differently?

We've also been singing "Green Eggs and Ham" by The Learning Station on their cd: Literacy In Motion. Click here and scroll down the page to hear a ample of the song. The kids love it!

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one." 

Tomorrow we celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. We plan to read Wacky Wednesday, the Foot Book and Fox in Socks and wear our wackiest socks with Seuss hats we made. We'll also participate in "Read Across America". Our fun will continue all week. We'll try to read as many Seuss books as we can. I think even if we read all week, we'd never get them all read, but it will be fun to see how many we do read. On Friday, we'll make green eggs and ham. And guess what we'll read?


        

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."   I Can Read With My Eyes Shut