Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss! (and Me!) (U, 18, Orange)

Our theme this week was "Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss" and we focused on the letter U, number 18 and color orange.

We read this week:  The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
                               The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss
                               One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
                               The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
                               Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Our question of the week was "Who is your favorite Dr. Seuss Character?" We've read some Dr. Seuss already this year, so I quickly reminded them of the different characters that we have met.

For our theme of the week, we had so much Seuss-y fun. On Youtube, I found some of the original movies, so we watched The Sneetches (beware- they say "stupid" which prompted a discussion about not-nice words), and The Zax. I saw that there are also the original cartoons of Green Eggs and Ham, and Horton Hears a Who. We also watched The Lorax, and Horton Hears a Who. We stopped centers a little early and split each movie into 40 minute sittings before lunch. the kids LOVED the special movie treats.

The kids were so great and really enjoyed celebrating my birthday AND Dr. Seuss's.

We balanced like The Cat in the Hat. It was fun to have them try balancing on one foot while doing all sorts of silly things with their hands. We jumped and hopped on one foot, and even tried to dance!

The kids each decorated a Cat Hat with crayons and tissue paper. I love the individuality!

After reading "One Fish, Two Fish..." we went alphabet fishing! I love when I get to use a project more than once. It makes all the time making it so much more worth it! I wrote the capital and lowercase letter on each fish, and when the children "caught" one, they had to tell us what letter it was and think of a word that starts with it.

Each child got to paint a Truffula tree for our class mural. I even made a vine while getting it ready!

We made and ate green eggs and ham!! It was so fun!

The Cat in the Hat even came to visit with us!

We talked about the color orange, and we sang "We love orange"

"We love orange, we love orange,
yes we do, yes we do.
Crunchy carrots so good to eat,
Juicy oranges, oh so sweet!
Pumpkins ready for trick-or-treat,
we love orange."
 (C) Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com
I got it from here!

When we focus on a color I love to do "color hunts" in our classroom. Each child takes a turn to walk

around the classroom and bring back something that they found that is orange. Here is what we found. 

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 18.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Uu from this book.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter U. It's really cool to see the children thinking about what they want to put in their journal. They love these books and always want to go through them when they're finished writing for the day.

We turned a U into a Unicorn! This book is great.

This book has great pages for helping the kids work on the letter recognition of both the capital and the lowercase versions of the letter, and they are always a little different, which is great!

My kids did a great job of turning shapes into an underwater picture! I cut out the different shapes for them ahead of time, they picked three, and then let their imaginations run wild! It came from this Letter of the Week book.

From this Alphabet on Parade book, I got the idea to have the kids practice the concepts of "over" and "under". I drew and umbrella and 12 small pictures for them to cut out and glue either over or under the umbrella. I let them pretty much do their own thing on this project and then tucked it away in their portfolios.

From Sounds Like Fun, I got the idea to buy little paper party drink umbrellas and say different vowel sound words. Anytime they hear a long or short u sound, they had to put up their umbrellas! So fun. Bonus, they got to keep the umbrellas and were thrilled!

For our alphabet wall we made urchins! (I know it's a bit of a stretch, but the kids went with it and loved it. That being said, I had to make an ocean portion of our wall, which will come in handy when we make whales!

Here are the words we came up with this week!

I was not the only birthday we celebrated this week. Yum!

I know I put a lot of updates on here about our pumpkin plant from the Halloween post, but it has not yet ceased to amaze me with it's growth! We are still getting new shoots... and this week, we got our first blossom!!! Really for a project that was so easy to do, the kids just filled the pumpkin with dirt and as they started to decompose I planted them under dirt, we are fascinated every day!

Up next week: "Shamrocks" and a focus on the letter Vv, number 19, color green and circle shape.

Weather! (T, 17, Purple)

Our theme this week was "Weather" and we focused on the letter T, number 17 and color purple.

We read this week: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
                               Little Cloud by Eric Carle
                               Duck by Randy Cecil
                               The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons
                               Bear's Busy Year by Marcia Leonard

I got this huge box and decided to bring it into school to make a puppet hut. The kids colored and decorated it and then I put it in the library center so they could play with the puppets. They were so excited about it!

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite kind of weather?"

For our theme of the week, we paid extra attention to the weather depicted in each of our stories this week. Even though we do the weather report every morning, I asked the kids, "what is weather?" because I wanted to see what they really thought.

Using ice, a plate, a glass jar and some very hot water, we made our own rain! We talked about the water cycle and how water is in the air all around us. Then we did this very cool experiment together as a class. As the hot water rises in the jar, it condenses on the bittom of the plate that is very cold and "rains" back down. The kids were fascinated.

Using some paint, straws and our breath, we made wind art!

We talked about the color purple, and we sang "We love purple"

"We love purple, we love purple,
yes we do, yes we do.
Purple grapes and eggplant too,
Purple plums and grape juice
Just for me and just for you,
we love purple."
I got it from here!

When we focus on a color I love to do "color hunts" in our classroom. Each child takes a turn to walk

around the classroom and bring back something that they found that is purple. Here is what we found.

Using only purple crayons, the kids made pictures that I then cut into "puzzles". I put them in baggies and put them out for a few days so the kids could put their friend's puzzles together.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 17.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see.

With my math boxes (check them out on this post- at the bottom), we counted out 17 items. Then I had the kids divide it into two groups. Using this worksheet that I made, we started doing and talking about addition.  They liked being able to make up their own groups to add.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Tt from this book.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter T. It's really cool to see the children thinking about what they want to put in their journal. They love these books and always want to go through them when they're finished writing for the day.

We turned a T into a Turtle! This book is great.

With some sugar cookie dough, the class made their own turtle cookies. (Once they baked, they flattened out, but they sure looked like turtles before they went in the oven!)

We acted out a poem called "Tired Turtles" from this phonics book. They love theses kinds of activities.
"Turtle is too, too tired today. (yawn)
But Turtle didn't run, and Turtle didn't play. (shake head no)
Turtle is too, too tired to talk (slump over tired)
Just because he took his turtle walk." (walk very slowly in place)

They made a book about a tiger getting ready for a tea party!

For our alphabet wall we made turtles!

Here are the words we came up with this week!

We had a special guest come to visit us this week too: Lincoln!

 Check out the pumpkins! We have what I'm calling little "bud pods"! I remain amazed watching this plant grow. It all started here, back in October.

Up next week: "Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss" (and me =]) and a focus on the letter Uu, number 18 and color orange.

Music! (S, 16, Black)

Our theme last week was "Music" and we focused on the letter S, number 16 and color black.

We read this week: Splat Sings Flat by Rob Scotton
                               Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
                               The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
                               Sitting Ducks by Michael Bedard
                               Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson

Our question of the week was "What can you make music with?" I was expecting this to be a little more of a challenging question, but it seems that my class has a good knowledge of instruments!

For our theme of the week, we danced a lot. Every afternoon we had a little dance party by the computer, which is always a lot of fun.

Using the different instruments that we have the in our classroom (tambourines, maracas and a couple drums) we made patterns. We started with our hands, clapping and hitting the floor to different patterns and rhythms, then we added the instruments. The kids liked trying to follow and name my patterns, but they really had fun making up their own, like an A,A,B,C,C,C,C,C,C,C pattern that someone made up. =]

We talked about the color black, and we sang "We know the Color Black"

"We know the color black,
We know the color black,
Tires, Crows and Licorice too!
We know the color black."
I got it from here!
After we learned the words, we named other things that were black and sang those too.

When we focus on a color I love to do "color hunts" in our classroom. Each child takes a turn to walk

around the classroom and bring back something that they found that is black. Here is what we found.

Diluting black acrylic paint to more of a watercolor consistency, we made nighttime pictures. The kids colored a picture at the bottom of the page, then used white crayon to make stars. Last they brushed on the black to make the stars appear. They were so excited to see the "magic" happen!

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 16.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Ss from this book.

They practiced recognizing the letter S.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter S.

We turned a S into a Snake! This book is great.

We played with our letter S envelope game. putting the petals on the sunflower. To see the entire
alphabet of envelopes, check out this post from a few weeks ago.

The children colored, cut and put together their own books about sunshine. When looking at them I could almost feel that warm sun!

We acted out a poem about a sunflower growing from a mailbox book. we started out as little seeds, and then grew big and tall. They wanted to do it again and again!

"A sunflower starts as a tiny seed. (crouch down small like a seed)

soil, sun and water are what it needs. (pretend to pat soil around feet)

A sunflower sprouts from something small- (kneel with arms out)

To something strong and straight and tall!" (stand tall, arms straight out)

I made sock cards for us to play memory with. That game has always been a hit in my class. They love any version of it, especially one with some crazy socks.

For our alphabet wall we made snails!

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Weather" and a focus on the letter Tt, number 17 and color purple.