"Not I!" Said...

I have been the worst blogger, both intentionally and unintentionally.  When the plate is full this is the first thing to be neglected and as week after week passed, my perfectionist self neglected it because of my imperfections.  A colleague encouraged me a little less than a week ago to get back on the saddle and write - so here goes.

At times, I shy away because I feel guilty that I do not know the number of every single house bill that affects education. In reality, I feel like the athletes who are blocking out the media before the big game. In my world, every day is a big game.

We are knee deep in the fourth quarter. I had a parent ask me today if I am ready for summer.  I said, "my body is but my heart not so much." She told me I could say yes and it would be okay.  But it is the absolute truth - I've been planting and sowing seeds since August and this time of year is when all these growth spurts happen and I am selfish and want to reap the benefits of all the behind scenes planting, watering, sunshine, and transplanting in some instances.

A little one that has struggled all year with emotional regulation and still needs me to prod him along on most of his work.  When we were working on plant labeling.  I said "tear the bag and put your dirt on the paper".  A few minutes later, he said, "there the dirt is on the paper."  Well played, it's all these moments that make the planting meaningful.  And yet, sometimes all the labors of love that go into one moment are lost in translation to everyone making decisions regarding planting.

They all grow immensely in different ways.  The ones whose growth is reflected in assessments, I worry about a little less.  The ones who I can tell you countless stories of things they can do now that they could not do in August or even January, I worry about them a little bit more.

We have been reading various versions of The Little Red Hen as we work on comparing and contrasting story elements and mapping them out.  We listened to Cook A Doodle Doo and made shortcakes. 

My littles blew me away with their connections far beyond the story content.  They were talking about the characteristics of the pig, dog, and cow (in most versions) and how they didn't want to be like them.  Others said, you know it reminds me of Cinderella because they made her do all the work which  led to a conversation about the difference between folk tales and fairy tales that was not in the plans.

I felt immense pressure to get this bread right the day after we had been heart broken about our chicks. Failure is hard for all of us but I take it hard. I have been thinking all week about the why's behind that - because I know they need to see me deal with things don't go my way - even the bigger things.  The daily mistakes I can model well but I have a hard time when my plan or vision is tested.

The girl who loves everything to be clean thinks that learning is messy. I knew at this point that the bread had not risen accordingly but followed through to see what would happen. I can pin point the mistakes we made - timing is everything and I put that yeast in when the mixture was still too warm because we had specials to get to on time.

Sometimes the end product is not always pretty but it's more about the content and the experience.  I am pretty sure the Pioneer Woman would have cringed at the sight of our rolls.  However, they were ours and we owned them.

The best part (and hardest part for my type A) of teaching is that I get to learn lessons or be reminded of lessons along the way.  As I mapped out my general plan of this unit of study, I got out the incubator after taking a year off due to a bad hatch two years ago mid a hard season of life.  I told myself it had to be better but began to really worry last week as day 21 approached and not a peep was heard. I called the source and they came out to candle the eggs which had stopped growing day 10.  On the way to work that morning, I had told myself I was done and that I had failed.  But when she asked if I wanted to try again, I found myself answering yes.  When I picked my class up from lunch and had to share with them about what had happened, I also told them about my change of heart.  One little one said, "because we don't give up" and in a nutshell that's why my perfectionist self who was a lot heart broken signed up for a second round that could very well have the same outcome.

At the end of the day, not everything that can be counted matters and not everything that matters can be counted.  If I am being honest, sometimes I feel just like that Little Red Hen. "Who will help me educate these children?" and my governor and legislature continually respond with actions that say "Not I!"

The Brain, Background Knowledge, and Literacy

In November, I had the privilege of attending the National Association for Education of Young Children's National Conference in Dallas.  When I was selecting sessions, it was not my intention to attend sessions related to brain development and research but that is where I found myself more than once.  

Over the last nine and a half years, one thing that I have really found myself interested in is the building of background knowledge and oral language.  When I first began teaching, right out of college, letter knowledge and letter sound association were a major focus.  Over the years, the focus has shifted some to sight words and fluency.  The ultimate goal for any child related to literacy is to comprehend the story which in all those other things are components of comprehension.  However, I might be going out on a limb when I say this but I really believe that background knowledge and oral language are two keys to developing children who not only can read but enjoy it so much they will choose it over other preferred activities.

I have always known how important background knowledge has been but the transition of a teacher who is simply teaching phonemic awareness and phonics to the teacher who now also focuses on comprehension began somewhere in the middle of this nine and a half year career.  Even as adults, we have mechanisms for filing away new knowledge or finding where to place that knowledge where it can be easily accessed.  The journey through the last few years is how to help five and six year olds do that.  Would I tell you it begins with a child's background knowledge and oral language?  I do believe that children remember those things we teach but the content is much more powerful when it is connected to a file that already exists.  While my journey has been partially about that, the bigger issue for the population that I teach is what to do to help them organize information they have into files and how to give them information for the empty files.  All while meeting the different needs of the variety of learners in the classroom. 

The beginning of the journey began with the age old way of teaching a letter a week and focusing content around that specific letter.  Around year 4, began to realize this approach did not work for the advanced part of kindergarten classes and it most certainly did not work for the strugglers.  As my state was forcing time quality analysis of our teaching time, my biggest epiphany was that spending 26 weeks to introduce all the letters was a waste of time.  Even average children did not benefit from this.  Why was I devoting 26 weeks and the focus on instruction on the alphabet?  I knew that some letters children pick up quickly and others like that dreaded letter u can take multiple antics or instructional periods.  All letters of the alphabet were not created equal.  I wish I could go back to those first two kindergarten classes and change the instruction that I gave those groups of children.

For the last few years, alphabet knowledge has not been the "focus" of literacy instruction.  That is not to say that I do not teach letters of the alphabet, letter sound correspondence, phonemic awareness, or phonics because I absolutely do.  It just happens that I do not focus on one letter a week and do not wait until that magic moment to teach those letters that are so difficult for some children to grasp while others have already mastered them.  I have had several conversations with colleagues in my building and colleagues across my district about this.  I am not saying that for those teachers who still use a letter a week approach that they are bad teachers.  I just feel as though my own practice outgrew it years ago.  It does not mean that I am not continually reflecting on the choices I make because I am, all the time. 

I am a member of the International Reading Association and receive The Reading Teacher regularly.  There are some months where I simply glance at the articles and other months where I am drawn into the content.  The most recent publication has an article titled New Insights About Letter Learning.  I flipped to it almost immediately.  Before reading it, I pondered about what the content would say - would it support my decisions over the last few years or contradict it.  Teaching is hard - decisions are made and sometimes you make them with to the best of your ability but you have no idea if they are the right ones.  I constantly wonder about instructional decisions and practices that I make.  Am I making the right calls?  It is easy to get in the habit of doing something just because you have always done it but that is not what is best for children or for your growth as an educator either.

The article confirmed my knowledge about letter of the week which also supports the time I spend developing children's filing systems in their brains.  When I was at NAEYC, many of the conversations or research is discussing about how different children are today.  They are coming to us without the resources to do things that as "schools" we expect them to do.  For example, my kindergarteners struggle with perspective taking and self control.  Those are both functions of the brain that are not being supported in the early years which is causing those children to in turn struggle when they come to school. 

I am teaching in a world where the expectations have grown and the children that I am teaching are not coming as equipped to meet those expectations.  Where does the responsibility fall?  I will take on as much of it as I can while being true to the children that are in my classroom each year.  I still believe in pushing children to meet those expectations but also in giving myself some room that I cannot be responsible when children do not always meet those expectations.  If my responsibility is to the children and the relationship that I have with them, then I believe that too goes back to background knowledge. 

All children come to kindergarten eager to learn even if the tools they are carrying in their tool box are not all the same.  The struggle continues to be how to equip them as necessary not to just be successful in room 29 but in first grade and in life.

I really love the learning and development that goes on during December.  It is all about finding ways to embrace their excitement and translate into learning and things they will remember.  In our classroom, we story map various versions of The Gingerbread Man using our whiteboard.  My favorite part of mapping out the versions is the conversations that it promotes.  

We used a Venn Diagram to compare The Gingerbread Girl.  The work is all theirs but the writing is a mix of shared and interactive writing.  We had already stretched out the word fox in our other story maps so it was fun listening to them realize we did not have to stretch it out again and again because we had resources.  When we talked about the setting being the country, we talked about the ending try and used a little boy's name in our class to help figure out the tr.  The y having an /e/ sound or sometimes an /i/ is something we have been discussing lately and that they brought up when we wrote the word.

We also used a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast The Gingerbread Boy.  

We labeled the gingerbread man using interactive writing.

We looked at story sequence including the beginning, middle, and end with The Polar Express.  It always amazes me how excited children get over a 25 cent bell with a tag and ribbon that has been in the freezer.  Wouldn't life be so much better if we all approached it with that simplicity?

My favorite holiday story is How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  I really enjoy working on understanding how Seuss developed the character of the Grinch through the story.  We used one of my favorite graphic organizers to do this, a Venn Diagram.  My Winter party was themed around the story!

I began reading Mosaics of Thought and Teaching With Intention by Debbie Miller, author of Reading With Meaning.  I have read the second book before but sometimes the reread comes at the perfect time.  There are so many things on this career that are beyond my control (and my district's) but I believe if I focus on developing children who love books through the extension of building background knowledge then everything else will fall in place.  If I make intentional decisions where my students learning styles and backgrounds are accounted for then this will happen.  My resolution fr the second half of this year and 2015 is to focus on the things I can control and my children.  Someone else can worry about all the rest.

 

A Little Of This and A Little Of That

Tomorrow will be the 65th day of school.  The fact that I have not regularly spent time sharing about my tenth year by blogging is just one indication of how busy the year has been.  In August, I would have told you I was ready for anything, nine years under my belt, I had this.  

I should have known better.  Teaching is funny that way.  It is always different even when it is the same. So leave it to year ten to try and one up all the others by starting the year with 26 little ones enrolled in my class.  For some, that probably is not a big deal but for my district that protects small class sizes it was huge.  I did nine days with those 26 little darlings and I think I did it well, however, when I would walk down the hall with the longest line of little bodies, I doubted how I was going to have enough to give what every one of them deserved.  I am living in a world of criticism surrounding my career.  At the end of the day, I am the media, politicians, and others scape goat if anything goes wrong.  Thankfully, a couple days after school started we got permission to add a section of kindergarten.  Our fourth teacher began the Tuesday after Labor Day.  My body and my mind was ready but my heart was not.  I had to share children by letting them go.  While I think everyone handled the transition with grace, when a little one comes up to me during recess duty and asks "why did you give me away?", you just are never ready for those kinds of conversations.  

In the mean time, I am mentoring my new team mate, student teachers, and teaching an online graduate level class for a university.  There have been several moments of pause where I have wondered what in the world I have gotten myself into.  A week out from some of those commitments expiring for the mean time, I think they have been my reminders about how important this job is and what tops the list.  Interns become students too. While there are standards that I want my children to accomplish in our time together at the end of the year, if they leave with nothing else, I want them to know they are loved deeply.  In a conversation with a current intern, I told her that I hope future teachers leave my room knowing the importance of those relationships with children.  With everything on my plate, the meetings, expectations, and lack of enough time, I find myself continually going back to my relationships with children as my ulterior motive for sticking it out as a classroom teacher living in a sea of negativity.

I do not watch the news religiously anymore, other than the weather.  I find myself frustrated at the media for their quickness to sell the negativity of this profession.  If they would only come to room 29 (or another room of their choice), it would not take long to be swept away by all the amazing things that happen, most of which you cannot truly appreciate unless you are in the trenches everyday.  One of my little ones, I will call him Johnny, came with no letter recognition, counting skills and very little background knowledge.  We are almost mid way through the year and he's still behind and it is so easy to get swept away by the stress of that.  However, he knows some letters, can count to 29, and backwards from 10!  I think I caught him off guard when he counted back for me and I looked like I might cry.  If this girl could do cartwheels, I would have.  I believe he knows how far we have to go.  He is very perceptve of what others are doing but even if no one has ever told the child how proud they are of him, I hope he recognizes it in my crazy excitement.  And all that stress, well I hope I carry it for him and for them all.  I hope anyone from the outside looking in never really understands the burden of all that stress.

It has taken me years to embrace outlets for the stress.  Some would say I am over the top and I will absolutely own it.  I am guilty.  Lately, I have thought is it too much?  I have had other teachers comment about it in terms of their children not getting the same experiences or feeling inadequate because they do not do as much.  Here is the thing, I am my daddy's girl in being humble.  My over the top has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else, it is an outlet for stress of sitting through meetings where despite the growth that is not always celebrated the focus is on what next?  Also, my over the top has more to do with my little ones than anyone else's.  If a bow on a bag is therapy and in turn demonstrates love for the littles, well then...  This job is about relationships and I think I am good at it, really good.  My over the top things I do is a part of it but so are the little details like how Susie might need more hugs on Monday because she did not get over the weekend.  I do not want to apologize for my ridiculousness, I want to keep on, keeping on because for some little ones it might be the only amount of ridiculousness they get.  I want kindergarten in my room to feel better than a trip to Disney World.  Disney World with more learning than you could ever imagine.

One of my favorite parts of October, the rotting pumpkin.  Lots of change occur in those weeks where the pumpkin is rotting.  This year, my littles predicted it will rot.  The pumpkin has begun to turn to liquid and sink in. We read Pumpkin Jack after making our predictions and before Winter break, we will read Mousekin's Golden House before revisiting our predictions.

One of my favorite Halloween stories is Big Pumpkin.  I bought this off Teachers Pay Teachers and we worked on the sequence of the story and our one to one correspondence.  My littles are struggling with it this year.  I bought witch fingers at a party store and they practiced with one before taking the book and witch finger home to practice.

Speaking of sequence, it is such a huge skill for comprehension.  At the end of the year, the little ones have to not only read the book independently but retell it, without help and in order.  It takes retelling continually all year long for children to be able to do this.  I love using Unifix cubes early in the year and moving to the retelling rope later in the year.  I like retelling the events of our day to practice this daily.  In my opinion, retelling also is key in understanding beginning, middle, and end.  Oh and I have been using clickers with kindergarteners to rate themselves as a part of my district's Marzano evaluation. We have a long way to go but sometimes you just have to jump right on in.

My kids really love to write.  So much so there have been tears when the writing center fills up during centers or inside recess.  We made a pumpkin for the library character contest and decorated the pumpkin like David.  We wrote letters to David Shannon and are patiently waiting a reply!

I love cooking pumpkin pie with the little ones.  

And embracing my love of football with them during Red Ribbon Week.  

And December!!  December planning and prep has been going on since Halloween was over.  The fun begins tomorrow!

My grandma gave me this Christmas cactus seven years ago.  Every year, I water it religiously, take it home during the summer months, and yet it blooms when it is ready once a year.  It is tedious taking care of it throughout the year without seeing the fruits of your labor.  Teaching is similar.  Therefore, I will keep watering away and waiting patiently for the blossoms.

End of The Year Balloon Countdown

May is a hard month.  Most teachers are drowning in end of the year assessments, paperwork, and schedule routines.  It is enough to make anyone crazy but those of us who have a type A personality, well it is beyond draining. 

The end of the year balloon countdown is as much for my own sanity in addition to keeping my learners engaged.  Last year, I used some premade activities from Pinterest.  When I began to think about the end of the year, I thought about things that I had not gotten to that I wanted to fit in.  Immediately, I knew I wanted to cook pancakes with this group.  From there, I just tried to think of activities to motivate them as well as extend their learning. 

Day 10:  Popsicles in the Park

The plan was to enjoy popsicles outside for snack.  I asked a parent who was assigned to snack that day to send popsicles.  It was only fitting that it rained on this day. 

Day 9:  Dance Day

A dance artist was scheduled to be at my school and we would visit them as a part of a schedule rotation.  In addition to this, we listened to music in the classroom while we worked.  Thank you, Pandora.

Day 8:  Picnic in the Outdoor Classroom

My school has an outdoor classroom that we had just planted in a couple of weeks before.  My kindergarten grade level enjoyed lunch outside.  My class loved this!  After they finished eating, children played Duck, Duck, Goose. 

Day 7:  Thunder Thursday

Thunder Up!  I owe my sister-in-law for this idea.  Back in April when I was brainstorming things that I could do, she mentioned this.  It was perfect for so many reasons.  So as the Thunder made the playoffs and did not always play as well as they could have, I got a little nervous.  I really wanted them to be in the playoffs while we celebrated.  Apparently, the team knew this was important because Thunder Thursday was actually a game day!  The children dressed up in their Thunder gear.

For snack, I had planned to make basketball snacks (round cheese and crackers) and then we had blueberries and whip cream to look like a rain cloud.  They loved it!

I am not a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, but I can do it, at times.  Realizing that it was game day, I thought I would have the children "predict" who would advance in the series.  We also read a non-fiction book that a little one had checked out from the library and told me that we should share it on Thunder Thursday.  

 

My favorite part of the day was after reading the non-fiction book, we were talking about something and one of the little ones mentioned Kevin Durant's MVP speech.  He had won the MVP a few days before.  The little girl (yes, girls like sports too!) mentioned how he talked about his mom.  The best part of the speech in my opinion had nothing to do with him mentioning his mom.  Kevin Durant works hard and is a star.  There were so many times at recess this year where little boys aspire to be Kevin Durant.  So in a world where everyone is out for their own ambitions and success, it was nice to mention how Kevin Durant mentioned everyone of his teammates in his speech because he recognizes how much they contribute to his own success.  It was a great conversation for my little class who struggles with being egocentric.

Day 6:  Our Future Is Bright

You can read more about this day, here.

Day 5:  Somewhere Over the Rainbow

I am a Summer baby.  It has its perks but it also has its downfalls.  I always include Summer birthdays on my May snack calendar.  As I was planning the snacks, one of my little ones reminded me that we needed to celebrate my birthday.  I brought cupcakes and there was a rainbow on top.

We also had t-shirts from the beginning of the year with each child's name written on them.  Each child wears these during the school day, during our short first week to help everyone learn their names.  I thought it would be fun to tie dye!  We tie dyed these shirts to wear on the last day of school.  I will totally do this again but it made me nervous dying with five and six year olds.  I used squirt bottles so they actually got the opportunity to squeeze the dye.  It was memorable for many reasons including the fact that the only things that were dyed were our shirts!

 

The worst part of the tie dye was rinsing!  Next time, I will not do it before school for the day!

I did not love the end product but there's always next year.  The kids loved it!

 

Day 4:  Pancakes and Pajamas

I love cooking with children.  Pancakes are super easy and I usually do it while we learn about Eric Carle.  This year, a student teacher taught as we studied Eric Carle so it did not happen.  We listened to Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle and my children made so many connections to the Little Red Hen study.  We also listened to Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola and used the pictures to tell the story.  We voted on whether or not we wanted regular pancakes or polka dotted pancakes (chocolate chips).  One of my little ones before casting his vote says, "if I get chocolate chips, can I still have butter and syrup"?  

Day 3:  Kick Off Your Shoes

This would have been easier if we had been in our classroom for longer lengths of time.  They loved it though!  We listened to Pirates Go to School and talked about bossy r.  I had "hid" ar words around the classroom and children went to find them to bring them back to the carpet.  We used strategies to say the word and place them on the map.

We had a relaxing snack at the end of the day.  

 

Just another day in paradise...

Day 2:  Treasure Hunt Thursday

My team and I put together a scavenger hunt for our classes.  Last year, we did this with book buddies but we decided that this year, we would do it just for our grade level with a few clues.  We decided on the places that we would visit and had specialists help.  Each class' clues were tied with different colors of ribbon and our last clue was tied with a gold ribbon.  We all started in different places so that we would not be in the same place at one time.  When we got to the last clue and the ribbon was gold, one of my little boys said "it means we found the treasure".  As their treasure, I had put together gift bags with student work, a slideshow from our year, and some summer learning ideas in a bag that was sitting at their table.  Once we got back to the room, they were allowed to wear eye patches and we made a pirate snack.  They loved this so much.  It was a hit!

Day 1:  Last Day!  Hooray!

We wore our tie dye shirts to our morning assembly.  The shirts that hung off at the beginning of the year because they were too big were suddenly more of an accurate fit.  My homeroom moms bought pizza for lunch so we ate lunch in the classroom.  We also made plane tickets and "flew" to the beach to enjoy our afternoon centers outside as a grade level.

The end of the year is stressful and sometimes I think that the balloons can be stressful.  There are things I learn each year about how to embrace the end.  I am not good at change so letting go is extremely difficult.  I always contemplate if I am making the ending harder on the little ones by counting down.  There are always children who struggle with the changes approaching as much as adults do.  I do not have the solution but I know when talking to families during our last week together that the children mentioned all the random things we did to celebrate our time together.  During our kindergarten recognition, a family that I did not have an extensive amount of contact came up to me and was sharing about how the little one (a boy) talked about all the cooking we did as well as the integration of sports.  For that little one, the planning and the details mattered.

A Person's A Person No Matter How Small

Have I mentioned how much I dislike Winter? Growing up, my grandma would always mention how in Oklahoma it can snow in March. Well this year, it did.  I believe my district has had more snow days this year than in the last three combined.

When I planned my Dr. Seuss author study, I knew a week was not enough but am thankful that I planned for him to last up until Spring Break after losing a couple of days.

We listened to The Cat in the Hat again. Children were asked if they would let the cat come to their house or not and we graphed our answer.  We talked about the reason why we would or would not let him come.  I knew the majority of my learners would let him come because it matches their personalities.  However, it was interesting to hear the reasons why.  We wrote a page for a class book. We also made a Cat in the Hat snack.

 

After listening to Horton Hears a Who, I sent a Whoville home with each child along with some family homework.  Their responses are all unique but having them share with their peers and justify their answer was so engaging.  In the world of Common Core, these learners have to be able to speak and listen.  As an early childhood educator, those skills have always been important but I think Common Core has influenced what we are speaking and listening about.

Before having children share, I looked at their work and was not wowed.  My wow moments came as they shared their thought processes and justification.  This little one told me if she made noise then the people of Whoville would not be heard.

 

This child told me and the class his idea was better than everyone else's so we had an amazing conversation through that.  The one thing I loved about this is that he told me that he spelled Whoville all by himself.  He said "did you know it was right there on the paper so I did not have to stretch it out".  This child is a more advanced reader but he struggles with fine motor tasks. 

 

This little one told us she would put it up high so her baby sister who is less than a year would not chew on it.

This little one gets up and shares that he would protect it from the Grinch.  When I asked him why that was important he said "well remember when we read about the Grinch and he was mean at the beginning of the story? I just thought he might try to steal Whoville".  I love the connections they made to their own life and other books.  Powerful!

 

My school celebrated Seuss with Wacky Wednesday.  Some of us dressed up as Star Belly Sneetches!  We listened to the story and talked through the lesson in the story.  

 

My school had its annual family fun night on Friday which was carnival themed this year.  For shack, we tasted different carnival foods and then graphed our favorite.  We even had a lesson on how to shell peanuts.

 

It did not surprise me in the least that their favorite was cotton candy! 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite author studies.  I live for this time of the year.  He has so many books with wonderful lessons but one of my favorite things is adapting lessons from year to year because it is so easy with his stories.  The books also just lend themselves to integration.  Over the past few years, I have had a student teacher who is implementing during Seuss.  This is the first year in about five where it has been all me.  I have had so much fun this past week and looking forward to continuing this author study for two more weeks until Spring Break!

One of the first books we read was Yertle the Turtle.  I also love Seuss because of the history behind his books.  This one is about Hitler and although I didn't tell my class that, we did talk about what a leader is to give them a reference for Yertle and his power.we compared Yertle to our president, governor, principal, and the classroom teacher.  I chose to use a Venn Diagram to compare him to King Bidgood because my class loved that book.  It was amazing the comparisons they made.  

We also painted and made turtles for the hallway.  My class was begging to not be on the bottom like Mack but they said they didn't want to be on the top like Yertle.  They are beginning to amaze me with their connections they make even when it isn't right in the moment of a literacy lesson.

 

We read And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street earlier this year but I am all for reading the same book multiple times.  We listened to it again and wrote about something we might see on our way to or home from school for a class book.  This is one of my favorites because he did it independently!  I know you can't see thunder and we did have a discussion but I loved that he worked independently and was creative.  I am still seeing children struggle with the use of capitals and lowercase so we always talk about this and I model it but I think with time, it will come.  More than anything, I want them to be confident and love writing.

 

We also brainstormed a list of places we could eat green eggs and ham before we read the book.  After listening to it, we made a class book. I intentionally started the list before reading the book to get some variety on the list and hoping for some variety in the class books.

They are still building their confidence in themselves as writers (and illustrators) because many of them used car for where they would eat them. We also talked about the difference between in and on so we could add both of those words to the word wall.  

 

I loved this one! Can you tell we live in a football town? Another example of differentiation because the fact that this learner wrote the sounds for football was amazing for him.

This is an example of one of the little ones using the list to spell his word.  As you see, there are still a mixture of upper and lowercase letters but this child is using their resources and was independent.

 

A green eggs and ham snack for the same day we read the story! I prefer to cook on Fridays because while it is so much fun it also is exhausting!

 

We made oobkeck on Monday after I paraphrased the story.  They made some comparisons to the leader in this story to King Bidgood.  We spent "extra" time this week writing descriptive words to describe oobkeck.  One of the best decisions I made was putting it in a container inside the sensory table instead of directly.  It was disgusting by the end if the week and I decided to dump it and the container!

We made green eggs and ham on Friday for snack.  Each child got to crack their own egg.  Some had never had that experience before!  We added the food coloring and Velveeta before cooking.  We also talked about solids and liquids.  While they were eating the eggs one of my little boys said, "I have never had green eggs and ham before but this is amazing!"  It totally made my day!

We also had "pink ink" to drink or strawberry milk.  Same said child that loved the eggs was caught blowing bubbles in his milk.  There are times by Friday afternoons where I just have to laugh.  This was one of those times.  I laughed after I told him to stop!

 

Of course, we graphed whether or not we liked green eggs and ham.

We made at words after listening to The Cat In The Hat.  I might have been really excited when they pulled in the diagraph ch to make chat!

 

Then we made hats!  Our school is celebrating Wacky Wednesday and kindergarten is dressing up with hats and cat whiskers.

 

When they made their hats, they could use our list or make their own words.  The hats took multiple step directions and for the most part, we were successful! 

 

Here are our whiskers.  Using a Popsicle stick, they glued the whiskers on.  I used a hot glue gun for the pom pom nose.  We are requesting that children wear red or black on Wednesday to go with the hat and whiskers.

 

My school is decorating doors for Read Across America week.  I love this quote from Horton!  That is where my mind went.  We listened to My Many Colored Days which was published after Seuss' death. We talked about warm and cool colors and how they make us feel.  We used water colors to paint people.  They were asked to use warm or cool colors.  I love the way it all came together.  

 

Last summer, when Target had Seuss all over their dollar spot I stocked up.  I even made the goody bags and had it all ready and almost forgot!  I will send them home with children tomorrow.

What's your favorite thing about teaching Dr. Seuss?  What is your favorite Seuss book?