100th Day

It is always fun to celebrate the 100th day!

We do so many things. 

• How many times can I write my name in 100 seconds?
• How many times can I write my initials in 100 seconds? (more fair!)
• 100 exercises to the music by "Jack Hartmann" Count to 100.   Click to: Check out the CD
• Listen to 100 pages!
• Challenge - "Can  you read 100 pages?"  The class was crazy motivated to do this.  Really quite easy when you think most picture books are 32 or so pages.
• Fill in 100's chart.
• Flip a coin 100 times.
• Count to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's.  Then backwards.

I normally do a lot more, but our school celebrated our 75th birthday.  So we had to do lots of activities on that day.

We loved it.  This year we also tried to see what we could "make" with 100.  I cut out the numbers using the die cut and gave a set to each student.  I turned mine into a "Red Flyer" wagon.  They had a great time.  Here are some examples.  It was the first time I tried and will definitely do it again.  They are a pelegrin falcon, a fish and a unicorn.  Not bad, right?

 

Dr. Seuss

Hooray for Dr. Seuss!

You either love him or you don't.  My husband never really enjoyed reading these varied rhyming books.  I love them!  In class we celebrated reading a different one every day.

We read "The Cat in the Hat" and "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back."  We compared the two books and did a venn diagram.  I don't know, "Would you tell your mother?"

One of the boys in the class was the "Star of the Week" and chose "The Lorax" as his "read aloud."  I had my own copy so I held my copy up for the class to look at while he held his handy for reading.  It was perfect actually because I could help him with tricky words... and pause for discussion.  That is a long book so it took two days.

The class had homework to answer some comprehension questions.  And then we had fun.  I had seen on the web a format for "Lorax" "Mustache."

I  copied one, cut it out on yellow paper, attached it to a stick... and took a picture of each student holding it up to their face.  It was so fun.  Most interesting was how some studends really felt funny... almost embarrased when they saw the pictures.  In the end, they all loved the transformations!

I made my own drawing of the "Lorax" standing on a stump (minus the head- so easy really.)  You can  use Power Point - "insert" then choose "album".  I uploaded all the photos.  You can choose how you want the photos... 2 per slide was perfect size.  Print and then cut them out and glue them onto the picture.  We added speech bubbles...  "If I was the Lorax, I would say..."  Made an amazing bulletin board in the hallway.  Here are some photos.

We also had special guest readers.  Several teachers came to read and one of our administrators read the "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins."  We were told to wear hats for the special reading.  Great fun and terrific Dr. Seuss book if you are not familiar. 

Lastly, I had some stationary with a picture of "The Cat in the Hat" in the bottom left corner.  The class was invited to draw their own picture of the what it would be like if they got to "play" with "The Cat in the Hat."  It was quite impressive.  Having his picture right there on the page game the class freedom to try to draw him.  Hope you like the pictures.  We are planning to read more Dr. Seuss books for the rest of the month!

We love Words.

In our classroom we just love words!  We like finding "Delicious" words, celebrating when we find our vocabulary words in books we are reading...

We have "Code Red" words (one word focused on each week which is then posted to our word wall and outlined in RED.  They are usually words the class is often misspelling and I want that to stop!)

 "W.O.W." Words  (word of the week)  - words I find to be just plain fun to say and hear.  "Wow" words are not expected to be memorized or learned to be spelled correctly.  These are words I just want to expose the class to hearing.  I get them from a fabulous book a great mom gave me a few years ago. 

Here is more information about the book.  Some recent "WOW" words include skeddadle, humdinger, and lollygagging.  This led to learning the word for the longest word for a place in the United States.  It is a name of a lake in Webster, Massachusetts.

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. 

Can you stand it?  My class went crazy.  It is fun to try and pronounce, guess syllables!!!

How do you celebrate words in your classroom?  Let me know!







Leap Day

We had fun celebrating Leap Day.  I love teaching the class how to use your knuckles to remember how many days are in each month.  I know there is that great rhyme.  For some reason I could never remember it.  And it is so long!  Using your knuckles is so much easier.  I created a document that explains it.  The students really get it!  Hope you like it, too!  And, it goes with my motto,  "Smarter, Not Harder!"

Knuckle Calendar to download the document.