Dr. Seuss Book Fair

I started preparing for a Dr. Seuss-themed book fair last year.  Although the snow has kept us from doing some of the activities that we planned to do, I still have high hopes that the rest of  our Read Across America/Book Fair events will be successful. 

My plan for the One Fish! Two Fish!.. All for Books fundraiser went great with the Underwater theme that Scholastic has for the spring book fair.

One Fish! Two Fish!..

We will be celebrating Read Across America during the week of the book fair.  I am looking forward to the main event when students and staff dress up as a favorite Dr. Seuss character.  I haven't decided which character I'll be.  I also don't know which character our principal will be, but donations will determine which character he will be for our Book Character Parade at the end of April.  The donations will fund our AR incentives. The original plan was to have a door decorating contest.  Students, staff, and visitors would make donations to the door of their choice.  The winning class would get a book fair gift certificate for each student and teacher.   

Who will our principal be?

I ordered posters and a stand-up from Upstart to decorate the media center.  I used a display board to make a Thing 1 and Thing 2 cut-out for a photo op.  I have seen some great props for Dr. Seuss-themed photo ops on Pinterest. Students will get one of the bookmarks that were also purchased from Upstart, when they buy books. 

Reading is Our Thing!

We Know a Thing or Two About Books.

You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

Dr. Seuss

...Fun Is Good

We celebrated Read Across America by honoring Dr. Seuss. during the week of February 25-March 1.  On Monday, students and staff wore their favorite hat or crazy hair for The Cat in the Hat Day.

For the book, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!, the girls wore red and the boys wore blue on Tuesday.  Wacky Wednesday Day was the most fun, when students and staff wore their wackiest outfits.  

On Thursday, students and staff proved that I Can Read With My Eyes Shut, by wearing sunglasses.   

Cool Kinders

We finished the week by dressing up as our favorite Dr. Seuss character. “Cindy Lou Who”, “Cat in the Hat”, “The Grinch”, “Horton” and “Things 1 & 2” were part of our celebration. There was even one “Cat Inside the Hat”. 

 

Teacher Things

Pam I Am

The Principal Meets the Grinch

Several classrooms did Dr. Seuss themed activities.  In the library, students graphed their favorite Dr. Seuss book. Thanks to Cari Young at The Centered School Library, students also estimated how many goldfish crackers were in a fish bowl.  The winner was able to keep the fish bowl full of crackers.  Students, who came for book exchanges in the morning, had a chance to toss the “cat” into a hat. There were a few guest readers in classrooms.  Some students in one class were surprised and excited to see their former teacher who planned to read to them, during a Skype.  We had a small technical problem, but the teacher will be Skyping with the class on Monday.

Guest Reader

Pin the Egg on the Plate

Thank you, Cari

I Speak For the Trees

This week has been full of Seuss.  We were able to integrate writing, math, social studies, and science with Dr. Seuss books. 

Dr. Seuss Math

Some of my most reluctant students showed off their writing skills with their versions of some Dr. Seuss stories.  A favorite was There's Wocket in My Pocket.  Thanks to Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants, my students were able to imagine a pocket creature that rhymes with pocket.  Students also wrote about their favorite Dr. Seuss books.  Our Thing One and Thing Two Glyphs were too cute.  It was my fault that they glued the hair on wrong, but they are still too cute.  Kimberly Edgerton's directions for the Dr. Seuss glyph were clear, but I failed to make a sample before the students did the activity. The students learned that a glyph is a display of collected information in the form of a picture instead of a graph.

We used One Fish! Two Fish! Red Fish! Blue Fish! to graph Gold Fish Crackers and to do nonstandard measurement.  We also used Oh, the Places You'll Go! for nonstandard measurement.  Marlana at Li'l Country Kindergarten provided a 100 chart picture of The Cat in the Hat.

Using toy cars to measure our paths

During our discussions, we made connections with modes of transportation when we read Oh, the Places You'll Go!  After watching a Sneetches video, students made a text-to-text and text-to-world connection with Freedom on the Menu and the civil rights movement.  I usually save The Lorax for Earth Day, but since I was The Lorax, and the movie started today, I just had to read it.  Thing One was quick to make a connection about how we need to take care of the Earth by planting trees and stop being wasteful.  I shared that the reason I choose to dress up as The Lorax is because my birthday is on Earth Day.

I Speak for the Trees

There was so much to do, that we weren't able to finish our Oobleck.  The students who were able to make Oobleck today, also had to mix colors to make the color green.  That was not intended to be part of the lesson, but the students were able to witness some problem-solving in action. I might as well get a big bottle of green food coloring so we can finish this project and be ready for St. Patrick's Day.

The whole school celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by dressing up and decorating bulletin boards.  Teachers switched classes and read a Dr. Seuss book. I enjoyed visiting kindergarten, because I was able to see who might be in my room next year. 

Fun in a Box

Thing 1 and Thing 2 (a team member and I) had fun playing phonics & sight-word games, reading Dr. Seuss books, making Green Eggs and Ham, and modeling a Dr. Seuss inspired writing activity.  The Cat in the Hat had fun in another 1st grade class.  We will continue with more Dr. Seuss activities tomorrow and Friday.

Yes, that's Justin Bieber reading to our 1st graders.  The boys were not impressed. The girls went crazy.  Thing 1 used her best Valley Girl accent to express her excitement (Funny!).

My daughter read Green Eggs and Ham while my team mate and I cooked.  My grand-daughter enjoyed eating green eggs. 

After making a clover with Whoville on it, the students listened as a helper read Horton Hears a Who. 

I found this Dr. Seuss flipchart last year.  It was perfect for this year.  Yesterday during our CASA (Collaborating Around Student Achievement) meeting, we discussed doing more activities with nonsense words. 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We started our Dr. Seuss celebration by reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  Then we sorted and graphed Goldfish crackers.  After coloring in the graphs, the students answered some questions about the information.  They ate the crackers as they worked.