Dr. Seuss Week Over && Out

Our week of seussical fun ended yesterday (insert tear here). Adding a little spunk into the school week is always an awesome motivator to get up out of bed at 5:30- -ok, ok 5:50 after the snooze button has been given some love a few times. Here's the outline of our week of dressing up:

Monday- -My Many Colored Days (Wear multi colored clothes)
Tuesday- -Hop on Pop (Wear a tie or scarf)
Wednesday- -Socks on Fox (Wear crazy socks)
Thursday- -Green Eggs and Ham (Wear a lot of green)
Friday- -The Cat in the Hat (Wear a crazy hat)

My friends this year weren't as into the dressing up as my friends from last year, but the ones that did participate were absolutely adorable. I can't share any pictures of them (privacy rules && nobody has time to get in trouble for that) and I was so busy trying to finish up this year's yearbook that I didn't take any pictures of my outfits. Soooo today after I manage to get a shower (and look like less of a bum) I'll be adding some to my little piece of the web.

I did mention in my last blog that I was going to share a little about our adventures in descriptive writing and my embarassing  amazingly cool collection of beanie babies. I forgot to take a picture of my storage tub packed with stuffed friends (I've made a mental note to take one on Monday morning), but I can share the basics of our writing project. On Monday we started talking about adjectives. We talked about our five senses and how we can use them to describe objects. Then the  brainstorming party began- -and oh how much fun it was. Of course my boys were all about "slimy" and "stinky"...and I wouldn't expect anything less from my group this year. After we created an impressive list of adjectives, we talked about ways to describe us and they got busy describing themselves in their writing journals. They did an awesome job. . .they blew me away with their accurate and detailed descriptions. On Tuesday we talked more about adjectives and the beanie babies were dragged out of their hiding spot. It sounded like  THE Justin Bieber was in my room with the amount of screaming and cheering that erupted when the storage tub came out. I took a few out and we talked about how to describe them. I showed them how to find the name of the furry friends (which was the coolest thing E.V.E.R. to them. . .a stuffed animal with a name already given to them? What???). Then I randomly picked one and as a whole group we created a descriptive writing piece about that animal. On Wednesday they got to pick their own friend and write a descriptive writing piece about that animal. Their writing for this was some of the best that I have ever seen them produce. Even my friends that typically struggle with writing complete sentences NAILED it. On Thursday we had a Guidance lesson in place of our writing lesson. The lesson just happened to be about "being a good friend" which is something some of my friends struggle a lot with. It tied in more perfectly than I ever expected because they had to DESCRIBE what made a person a good friend. Of course it went in one ear and out the other for the ones that needed it the most, but such is life. On Friday they each got a Seuss themed cupcake and we were going to describe it, buuuuut Friday's are always super busy. Long story short, we ran out of time. . .so we just ate them instead. Maybe next year??

Moving on to more math stuff.  My measurement unit --The Greatest Show on Earth: Non-Standard Measurement Fun" is now available in my TPT store.


I didn't go with my original "Seuss on the Loose" for fear of being sued (again, ain't nobody got time for getting in trouble). This will include the measurement cards, a recording sheet, and an additional recording sheet for the Cat in the Hat craft I talked about once upon a blog ago. To measure the cards you'll need Swedish fish for each student and unifix cubes. Warning: Swedish fish are delicious and if you have no self control like me, you may want to purchase an extra bag (maybe even 2) so your kids can actually have some to measure with. The Cat in the Hat craftivity is really easy to prepare for. You'll need construction paper (black, red, and white), black markers, glue, and googly eyes. The only patterns that I gave my friends were a large circle and a smaller circle. The ears, hat and whiskers were up to them to create. In the classroom version my students used "Thing 1/Thing 2" squares to measure their hats. However, going back to the "copyright" issue I've changed the TPT version to either have them measure with Swedish fish or unifix cubes.

I'll be back tomorrow to blog about the upcoming week. It's my birthday week! I can't believe that I'll be 28 on Friday. . .how did I get so old so fast?? One of my classroom traditions is to get each of my kids a birthday card. All of the students get to sign it and they take it home. I also put a paper balloon cut out on the door (complete with a curly ribbon string). The cards are the 99 cent ones so I spend a little over $18.00 to give them a birthday momento that they can hold onto longer than a piece of candy. Apparently it's something that's really stuck with them because one of my sweet girls jumped the gun and brought me an early birthday card on Thursday and a lotion set on Friday. Maybe 28 won't be so bad! Until next time live, love, teach! :)