Read Across America Week!

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.

One of my favorite weeks to teach is "Read Across America Week". We usually spread this out over two weeks, as there are so many great activities that we just can't fit them all into one week. 

We invite parents, grandparents, babysitters, school administrators and community members to  come in and read. 

We plan lots of fun snacks!

We play fun games that go along with some of the fun books we're reading,  like balancing beanbags when we read "Ten Apples Up On Top"

and balancing all the items from "The Cat In The Hat".

We made oobleck after reading "Bartholomew and the Oobleck". 

We have some really fun themed days to coincide with some of the books we're reading, like hat day to go with "Go, Dog, Go" "500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins"

and Crazy Sock day to go with Fox in Socks.

 Wacky Wednesday, things got pretty wacky in our room! The kids (and teachers) dressed as wacky as we could and there were many wacky things going on in our room, including shoes on the walls, chairs in the wrong places, the calendar was upside down, the flag was out of place and our bathrooms were switched! 

We took the "Read Across America" oath:
(reprinted from the Read Across America website)

I promise to read

Each day and each night.

I know it's the key

To growing up right.

I'll read to myself,

I'll read to a crowd.

It makes no difference

If silent or loud.

I'll read at my desk,

At home and at school,

On my bean bag or bed,

By the fire or pool.

Each book that I read

Puts smarts in my head,

'Cause brains grow more thoughts

The more they are fed.

So I take this oath

To make reading my way

Of feeding my brain

What it needs every day.

Debra Angstead, Missouri-NEA

and read the "Read Across America" poem:

(reprinted from the Read Across America website)

You're never too old, too wacky, too wild,

To pick up a book and read with a child.

You're never too busy, too cool, or too hot,

To pick up a book and share what you've got.

In schools and communities,

Let's gather around,

Let's pick up a book,

Let's pass it around.

There are kids all around you,

Kids who will need

Someone to hug,

Someone to read.

Come join us March 3rd

Your own special way

And make this America's

Read to Kids Day.

©Anita Merina

We take our reading seriously--it is serious business and serious fun! I hope that every child that moves up and grows on from my room leaves with a love of learning and a love of books! I read a lot at home and my own children are voracious readers. There is nothing like the adventures found in between the pages of a good book! 

Read on, America! Read on, World! 

 Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

My Many Colored Days

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.

We've been celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday in my class this week and have enjoyed a variety of experiences in connection with many of his great books for children. Today I'm sharing some activities we did in conjunction with "My Many Colored Days". It's really a great book and while, like most of his books, it does follow a rhyming pattern, it is primarily about emotions and how they relate to color. It is a great conversation starter about our different emotions and moods. 

We wore our most colorful outfits to school today and talked about all the colors we saw on each other. We dang a few songs about color before reading "My Many Colored Days". After we read the book and talked a bit our moods, we also talked about what emotions we think about when we see different colors. It was a good day for this conversation, as we had one or two of our classmates that we a bit out of sort today---two friends had been having difficulty making good choices and getting along with classmates, one friend was missing her dad who was away on business, one friend was happy that her grandmother was coming to visit and many of the friends were excited about some of the special events we had going on at school. 

I asked the children to think about how they were feeling at the moment. We looked at the pictures again and again. 

I set out a variety of art materials (colored pencils, tissue paper paints, chalk, crayons and markers) and asked the children to illustrate for me how they were feeling. 

Often when we draw, the children are concerned that they "can't draw people" so I have a variety of people shapes in the art center that they may use if they like.

Some of the children used chalk to draw their "Many Colored Day". 

A few used tissue and painted over the tissue with water. When the tissue dries, the tissue falls off and leaves a beautiful pastel patchwork.

Some of the children preferred to glue the tissue onto the paper.

Some of the children used colored pencils to draw how they were feeling.

Others used paint to illustrate their days.

Tomorrow, we'll go back and tell a little story to go with each picture and make each one a page in our own "Many Colored Days" class book. 

Be sure to check out some of our favorite Dr. Seuss book picks.






Looking for more Dr. Seuss ideas? Click this link for plenty of Dr. Seuss ideas on my blog, little illuminations. Look for more Dr. Seuss posts in the next few days---I've got several things that I'll be posting about our Dr. Seuss unit soon!

Or, check out my Dr. Seuss Pinterest board!





Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I love Dr. Seuss books and I have a boatload in my classroom.  My students love those books too, so despite the difficulty with copyright rules, This week I want celebrate reading, Dr. Seuss, rhyming, and all things silly.  It is not too late to plan your own celebrations.  My ideas are generally quick, and not to tough to pull together at the last minute.

First a little history lesson.  These two books are on my bookshelf at home.  Have you seen them before??

You may not have heard of them...but they both belong to Theodor Geisel.  Theodor Seuss Geisel, of course, is the given name of Dr. Seuss (a pen name he started using in college).  He was born on March 2nd, 1904.  He grew up in a time when Americans of German descent were hated and feared.  He experienced the hurt that this kind of prejudice creates.  He worked for a time in advertising, drew political cartoons, and of course he wrote children's stories.  His first was To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street.  A poem he wrote after crossing the Atlantic and mimicking the rhythm of the ship.  It took awhile for publisher to say yes and even then he was not an overnight success. Many of his advertising and wartime cartoon characters made another appearance in his children's books.  To learn more about his life try this movie:  In Search of Dr. Seuss.  It is a whimsical look at his life told through his books.

We are starting our week with a truffla forest.  These trees are made with foam pipe insulation (from home depot), yellow duck tape, and great big tissue paper flowers.  I made the flowers with tissue paper from the card and gift wrapping section at WalMart and pipe cleaners.  There is a great tutorial at Mrs. Lodge's Library.  Her instructions are easy to follow and you will have a forest in no time.

I will dress up like The Cat in the Hat himself with this simple costume:

I had the hat, so black pants, black turtleneck, white oval (I had some felt) safety pinned on, a wide red bow, and look at me....not too bad.  I needed some minions, little things 1 through 22.  A circle of white safety pinned to their shirts and a blue wig, and you would think we stepped out of a story book.

I used blue butcher paper for the wigs.  I just folded it in half, drew a line to show the kids where to stop, and added a couple of staples to stabilize the paper while my kinder kids are cutting.  The folded edge is the bottom, the open edge is the hair, students cut from the open edge.  When they are done cutting, I just fit it to their head and staple.

Now we need a snack...these red and white hats are quick and easy.

Having buddies to snuggle with and lots of opportunities to read make for a fun and exciting week.

I scour the thrift stores and at least once a month my husband brings me home a stack of books.  Here is what he brought me Friday.  They all seemed brand new or barely used.

Each day we will start our reading block putting sentences in the right order, sentences straight from the books we will be reading.   Stop by my facebook page to pick up these (or just write your own on 3x5 cards or half sheets of construction paper)

There is such wisdom in the words of Dr. Seuss.  Words adults can benefit from.

Here's hoping you have a Seuss-tasical week.  Even if the sun is not sunny, have some good fun that is funny from Terri at KinderKapers.  Don't forget to follow me on facebook to keep track of all our fun as the week progresses.