Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Seuss here, Seuss there. Seuss EVERYWHERE!

This week, one of the things my class of Kinders learned was that, Ms. C loves Seuss books!  We did not stop our Seuss fun with Read Across America Day.  Rather, that was part of our kick off.  Here is a little of how we celebrated Seuss.  (Still working on remembering to take more photos, you may have to use a little imagination.)

My favorite Seuss book of all is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day.  This book was written by Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith.  I emphasize to every class I read this to, that Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith helped write this book by using Dr. Seuss's notes and thinking like Dr. Seuss.  Doing this sets the stage to have your students work like Dr. Seuss as Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith did. 



My students illustrated a teacher that they think could teach at Diffendoofer School.  Lane Smith and Jack Prelutsky had to create additional teachers (who teach silly things like smelling and laughing) to fill in Dr. Seuss's notes.  After students illustrated his/her teacher, they named the teacher and what that teacher teaches.  Of course, in true Seuss style, the subjects and teacher names rhymed!

How do you celebrate Seuss without a little science experiment?  Seuss and science?  It's true- it's not the first connection people usually make.  Until you remember about a little boy named Bartholomew Cubbins from the Kingdom of Didd, where Oobleck rained from the sky.  First, I showed my class the process of how to use water and an eye dropper to slowly add water to the cornstarch.  We determined that a small plastic spoon (from the cafeteria) full of cornstarch took 5 eye droppers full of water to make Oobleck.  Students each mixed a cup of Oobleck and were given time to play with the substance.  I really wish I had photos of what the tables (and let's be honest, the floor) looked like afterward!  Since the Oobleck in this story resembles more of a green silly putty we made silly putty later in the week.  Students used the ball of silly putty to make letters during Word Work (Seuss inspired Daily 5).

We used There's a Wocket in my Pocket for non-sense rhyming.  The first part of this project was to create a creature who rhymed with 'pocket.'  Students were given a half sheet of paper for this.  After coloring the creature students cut out the creatures.  They were given the direction that it was OK to cut around small parts (we have been working a lot to cut right on the lines).  Completed creatures were traded for a pocket on which they completed the sentence: "There's a __________ in _____________'s pocket."  Student glued pockets on three sides, leaving the top open.  Students then decorated the paper where the pocket was attached.  Later, I taped string to the back of the creature and then inside the pocket.  The  projects were displayed with the creatures peeking out of the pockets.  

As for The Cat in the Hat, we took on two projects.  First, we made hats by using cut outs of the cat's hat and attaching it to a band of red construction paper.  Students used a red crayon to create a red and white AB pattern on the hats.  Simple and Kinder-cute!

Our second project was for math.  Students were provided with a blank hat cutout (which they cut out), two different colors of paper (which they selected), and a form for writing an addition equation.  Students cut strips from the two colors of paper and arranged an AB pattern on the hat.  Students then counted the number for each color and put the number in each of the boxes, writing the total in the last box.  To help associate the numbers with their work, students outlined the boxes in the coordinating color. 

We also used our buddy time last week to read Seuss books.  Our big buddies were great sports tackling all those rhymes!


We did so much Seuss that I may have missed an activity or two!  I hope some of these ideas are useful for someone.  
 



Happy Seuss'ing!





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