Just call me...

The once a month blogger!  I had to get posted before May 1st.  That's right, MAY!!!  Anyway, here is a big ole pot of random for ya...

My End of the Year Classroom awards on TPT have been updated.  I added some new awards and took off the year, so you can use them again and again.  Click the pic to get your awards.

Moving on...
Our curriculum map had us doing plants FOR...EVER...  So I tried to come up with something fun for the kiddos to do with plants.  Here is a little poem I wrote and some Instagram/PicFrame pictures from when we did the activity...

This is what I used for 20 students:
2 large packages of shredded lettuce
1 package of shredded carrots
1 pack of cherry tomatoes
1 bottle of ranch dressing
20 bowls
20 forks
4 spoons (for ranch)
4 cups (for ranch)
4 plates  (to put the "plants" on)

My firsties LOVED it!!!


Finally, The Lorax stuff.   I know, I know.  I'm totally behind on the times, but maybe you can use it next year, or maybe your have an interdependence lesson coming up, and your kids loved The Lorax so much, you've just got to revisit it.  

We got to go to the movies to see Dr. Seuss' The Lorax after reading the book.  We worked it into our Science and Social studies standards.  This is what our first grade display looks like now that we are all finished:

The students created their very own Thneeds and wrote an advertisement to get people to buy them.

We also did a lesson on interdependence using The Lorax...

 And compared Truffula Trees to Real Trees...

Click {here} to get all the freebies.

I am hoping that this up coming school year I will be on the blogging track, and will no longer be a once a month blogger.  We are on that downhill slope to summer vacation!  How many days do you have left?

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

We still have two days left in our Seuss week but since it is his birthday I just had to go on and post some of what we've done.


We had already eaten eggs earlier in the year when doing a science experiment so we had a special kind of green eggs.

I posted earlier in the week that our curriculum has us cover persuasive writings in the media.  Here are a couple of the Green Eggs and Ham "Magazine Advertisements."

She said these are the Green Eggs you'd make for your man.  Oh My Goodness!

This is her skinny mom with her green eggs and blue ham.  :)

The next day, after reading the Cat in the Hat we designed a new hat for the Cat and persuaded him to wear it. 

This hat absolutely amazed me. 

 

We did a favorite books pictograph.  I got the "talking graph"  idea from the wonderful Mrs. Patton at Patton's Patch. 

 

 I didn't take take any close up pictures of what they wrote, but this is what some of them say:

"If Hop on Pop had one more it would be the same as The Cat in the Hat."

"One fish, Two Fish has the most."

"Green Eggs and Ham and ABC book have the least." 

The day we did this graph, One Fish, Two Fish was in the Buddy Reading Center.  I think that may be why it won.  :)

Here we are with our hats right before it was time to eat cake.  We've done some other great activities but these are probably my favorite (and I have homework, so I better go!!).  I hope everyone had a Seusstastic day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS!

Persuading with Dr. Seuss

     When I sat down with my friend CScope to do lesson plans for this coming week, I saw that we were to be studying various tactics that are used in Media for ELAR.  Since we're devoting next week to Dr. Seuss, I must integrate!  The first writing will be done after we read The Cat in the Hat.  Students design a new hat and then persuade The Cat to buy it.

     The next, I made to resemble a magazine advertisement, where the picture is on one side and the write up is on the other.  I guess it is kind of like those medication ads :).  This one will be done after reading Green Eggs and Ham.

Click the images to get the printable file, and start persuading with Dr. Seuss!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!: Read Across America Linky Party

Mrs. Parker is having a Linky Party for Read Across America, AKA Dr. Seuss' Birthday.  I love this day.  The first grade at our school always party it up for our favorite author's birthday.
We always start out March 2nd by reading Happy Birthday to You! By: Dr. Seuss.  Then, we use lined chart paper to create a list of materials we would need to put together the best birthday party ever.  

      Next we usually read the The Cat and the Hat Comes Back since we have already read The Cat in the Hat earlier in the year. After reading about the Cat in the Hat, then the students make a hat. Click to get the "Cat in the Hat" hat pattern.   There are several variations of the hat.  Students can use red construction paper to create a patter, just color the hat, or write different -at words in each section of the hat.  The way my students usually do the hat is to just color it, write their name on the "brim," and glue it to a sentence strip they have written a number of rhyming words on.

   One idea to celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday is to do a class writing based on one of his classics.  My class has done a rewrite of Green Eggs and Ham before (check it out).  When typing about using The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, it gave me the idea to talk about sequels and what happens to characters after the story ends.  So the Dr. Seuss book we will rewrite this time will be Wacky Wednesday.  Our title will be "Tricky Thursday."  If you are familiar with this book, a big part of it is the illustrations showing the topsy-turvey things that happen on "Wacky Wednesday."  The students will draw pictures to illustrate the scenes in the new writing.   Another good thing about this book is that Dr. Seuss wrote it under the name Theo. LeSieg, so you can use this as a way to introduce his real name.

Math

Click the picture to download a few Seuss math activities I made.   The students use the pictures to work out the problems.

   It is a tradition at our school that we end March 2nd with a cake.  I buy an undecorated cake from Wal-Mart or Albertson's (They just stick together better than one I make at home).  Then I cut the sides to give it the "Hat" shape and decorate it with red, white, and chocolate icing.

This isn't the best picture but you get the gist.