What are you doing for Dr. Seuss Week?

I can't believe February is almost over and March will be here next week!  In fact Thursday, March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday.  Our school will celebrate this beloved children's author with a full week of Seuss-like fun!

• On Monday, students will wear a hat and bring their favorite Dr. Seuss book to read during reading.  Our principal will read The Cat in the Hat to each grade level.  
• Tuesday will be crazy sock day and we will read Fox in Socks.  
• Of course Wednesday will be Wacky Wednesday, and all the children will dress in their wackiest of outfits.  
• Thursday students will wear green for Green Eggs and Ham.  
• On Friday, we're all wearing our favorite college shirt along with reading Oh, The Places You'll Go book.   

Dr. Seuss's birthday coincides with Read Across America Day, so I really wanted my kiddos to have as many books written by Dr. Seuss as possible.  I was so disappointed when I found that I only had 7 or 8 in my classroom.  So I went to our media center and found only 2 that were not already check out by students or teachers. With only about 10 books, it didn't look like we were going to do much Dr. Seuss reading at all... and then I had an idea!

I would make QR codes linking to books that could be read with an iPad!  I worked on this for several days and when I was done, I had 20 books linked to videos which showed the words, in most cases, on the iPad screen, as well as the sound of someone reading the story aloud!

As you can see, last year my kiddos enjoyed traditional books 

as well as our new access to read alongs with our brand new QR Codes!

My students were so engaged and excited to get to read so many great treasures by Dr. Seuss!  We actually used these all throughout the week.  If you are interested in checking out the set, you can click on the link below and download a preview.

Here is the set of QR Codes with twenty books by Dr. Seuss.

If you want to see the fun Dr. Seuss-inspired math activity called 

Name and Number Cat in the Hat,

 click on the link in this sentence. 

Dr. Seuss Week

Well, today was Read Across America Day, the day to celebrate the birthday of that illustrator and author, Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss.

• On Monday, students brought their favorite Dr. Seuss book  to read during reading.  
• Tuesday was crazy sock day and we read Fox in Socks.  
• Of course today was Wacky Wednesday and all the children dressed in their wackiest of outfits.  
• Tomorrow, Thursday students are to wear green for the Grinch, or their favorite Dr. Seuss shirt.  
• On Friday, we're all wearing hats and reading The Cat in the Hat.  

I made a set of QR Codes with twenty books by Dr. Seuss. 

I used these along with our iPads and a tub of about 10 classroom Dr. Seuss books to rotate around the students during independent reading time all week.  The kids have had a blast!

This morning our principal dressed up as the Cat in the Hat and two of her sidekicks helped out as Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Here are a few pictures as they entertained the whole first grade.

 

In math, we have been working so hard to learn all the combinations of numbers one to ten, so I came up with this activity to give them a bit of fun as they practiced.  I called it the Name and Number Cat Hat.  I decided to do this during math rotations so I could work with just four or five in a small group.

I wrote each student's name on a white strip that served as the rim or base of the hat.  I gave them a large sheet of black construction paper and a stack of red and white 2 in. x 6 in.  rectangles.  I took a bag of snap cubes and instructed the children to count the letters in their name, and then pull out that same number of snap cubes from a bag I showed them.

To make the number combinations, we started with all of their cubes on one side of the black paper and none on the other.  Then they recorded a number sentence on a red rectangle to begin, like 0 + 6 = 6.  Next, the students moved only one block to the other side of the paper, picked up a white rectangle and recorded that number sentence, like 1 + 5 = 6.  This continued until all the cubes were on the other side of the paper and all the number combinations were recorded.

It was a great day!

The Sunday Scoop

Hello everyone.  I'm linking up with The Teaching Trio for The Sunday Scoop.  I've spent my Sunday afternoon finishing laundry, shooting hoops with my own children, and relaxing in front of the TV a bit.  Looking at the week ahead, here are a few things on my plate. 

If you have not thought about Read Across America day yet, it's right around the corner.  You know... Dr. Seuss's birthday!   To make sure all of my kiddos have access to plenty of Dr. Seuss books, in addition the traditional ones I have in my classroom library, I've made a set of QR codes for 20 of Dr. Seuss's favorites books.  If you want a set, click on the title or image below.  Simply print, and scan with a device that has a QR code reader.  You can download those from free from the App Store.  

QR Codes:  20 Dr Seuss Read Alouds for Read Across America Day

What was your favorite Dr, Seuss book as a kid and why, or even now?  I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Are You Ready for Read Across America Day?

We are just a little more than half way through February, but its time to start planning for the events coming next month.  In less than two weeks, March 2nd, it will be time to celebrate NEA's Read Across America Day, in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday.  Read Across America Day started as a way to motivate kids to read. We celebrate football with pep rallies.  We gather together to remember that Character Counts.  Why not do something to get kids excited about reading?  Those were the very thoughts that got this party started in 1997.

With the release of the new found Dr. Seuss book this year, there are lots of new resource ideas.  You can download this Read Across America activity guide from NEA's website.

Dr. Seuss books have been family favorites in our house for years.  Here are some of our favorites.  With the birth of our first child, my brother-in-law started us on a ever-growing collection of Dr. Seuss books.  For early readers, The Foot Book and One Fish, Two Fish... have repetitive and predictable texts.  However, before our children were ready to read, they loved being read to.  My oldest daughter and son loved for me to read Are You My Mother,  They loved their father to read Go, Dog. Go!  Their favorite part was the dog party at the top of the tree! My favorite has always been Green Eggs and Ham.  I just love the rhyme and the ending, when Sam realizes in fact, that he does like green eggs and ham.

Growing up, I'm sure you had your favorites.  I wonder if they were our favorites too...

I've listed our family's top 10 Dr. Seuss books here.  

#1 Go, Dogs. Go!

#2 Green Eggs and Ham

#3 Are You My Mother

#4 The Foot Book

#5 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

#6 The Cat in the Hat

#7 There's a Wocket in My Pocket

#8 Ten Apples Up On Top

#9 The Sneetches

#10 How the Grinch Stole Christmas 

And now we have the newly found book titled What Pet Should I Get?  I was so excited when I realized this was a great book to launch our Opinion Writing Unit.  It spurred great conversations about which animals would make the best pets and why.  My students loved it!

Our library has a limited number of these classics, and I'm sure every teacher in our school will want them for their classroom.  So to make sure my students have access to them I created QR codes for 20 of these great books!  If you are not familiar with a QR code, it is a code that can be scanned by a QR code reader app, which is available as a FREE download here for an iPhone or here for an Android device.  Or you can visit your app store on your device.  You simply use an iPad, iPhone, or other tablet style device to scan the QR code.  For my QR Codes: 20 Dr. Seuss Stories for Read Across America,  a video will appear with someone reading the book.  These videos include the words to the books, so students can read along,  not just be read to.

Grab your copy of QR Codes: 20 Dr. Seuss for Read Across America from my TPT store now, so you'll have time print them and laminate to last for years.

So on March 2nd, during reading, and at a few other key times during the day, our focus will be on celebrating the wonderful stories brought to us by that wonderful American writer and illustrator Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Here is the official Dr. Seuss site, which features games, printable activities and information about Dr. Seuss himself.

If your school has a subscription to Brain Pop, Jr., click here for a great movie about Dr. Seuss.  If not, here is a more lengthy biography video from You Tube, without ads, but I suggest you view it first. Its about 10 minutes long.

In the comments section below, I would love to hear what Dr. Seuss stories were your favorites when you were growing up or even now.