Save these for next year!
Our elem. librarian is planning to have some parents come in to read, but
she also devised this contest where she constructed a "Seuss" hat made of
a clear cylinder and a felt brim and filled it with red and white M&Ms.
The object is to guess how many M&Ms are in the hat. The kid who gets
closest gets the candy for his/her class.
*********************
I've been at schools who were visited by the Cat in the Hat (NJEA members).
********************
I'm having the kids all make hats and everyone in the building will wear a
hat (a Cat in the Hat hat stapled onto a headband). I have guest speakers
for every class. I made up packets for all of the teachers. I'll be doing my
lessons around Dr. Seuss all week and I've put up bulletin boards all over
the building.
*******************
We are having a contest which incorporates "Library Lovers Month" with
"Read Across America" at our library. By homeroom, everytime a child
reads a book and sends a paper with their name, homeroom, book title,
author, and number of pages, they receive 25 mileage points. If they
include a short summary and opinion of the book, they receive a bonus
50 mileage points. The lower grades (K-2) can submit a picture about
the book in lieu of a written summary. The books must be on their
grade/reading level. We are traveling from Ocean City, Maryland to
Sacramento, California by way of US 50. We have placed maps for each
grade in the library so they can see their progress. The contests runs
the entire month of February and the winning class will be announced on
March 1. The prize is an ice cream party and movie. Competition is
fearce! One 4th grade class with 27 children read more than 80 chapter
books in the first week and a half! The teachers are even
participating.
**************************
I haven't gotten much farther than
dressing up like the Cat and serving birthday cake. I was thinking of doing
some kind of a matching game from
the celebrity book pics on the NEA page with the stars kids had heard of and
their favorite children's books.
Another thing I'm planning is to use Styrofoam cups and draw red stripes on
them and make a cardboard base
for a hat rim. Have candies in them that the kids get after they do their
celebrity match up and other quizzy
things. That's where I'm headed. Plus I wanted to do an all school time for
the reading oath that is also on the
resource page of the NEA website. I'm going to blow up the favorite kid and
teacher lists too so the kids can
see them.
**************************
go to our website and check out what my school is doing. here is the link:
http://www.lumberton.k12.nj.us then click on "F.L. Walther School" link and
then on the read across America link.
****************************
Today, our mayor declared next Friday, Read Across Laurel Day. Our
students were photographed with her and an article will run in our local
paper.
Each of our teachers has chosen a book and decorated their door,
bulletin boards, walls, etc. We will have guest readers come in
throughout the day. We are having an assembly that morning and 2 of our
second grade classes will act out "The Sneetches" while one of the
teachers reads it out loud.
Our coach will have games during the PE time that include: Green Eggs
and Ham Spoon Race, Fox in Socks Sack Race, etc.
One year I even made a 6 foot birthday cake out of chicken wire and
paper. (I'm not that industrious this year!) That year our cafeteria
department served green eggs and ham for breakfast.
****************************
I asked teachers to let me know the titles of their favorite books. I
printed out pictures of the covers from amazon site (don't start yelling at
me about copyright) and taped them on a poster board and gave each a number.
I made a list of the teachers' names and put a blank beside each one.
Students can come by the library and pick up an entry form and take a look
at the pictures and either try to guess what book goes with what teacher or
take the form around to the teachers and ask and fill in the number beside
the name. (Some teachers will tell, some won't.) We are giving prizes on
RAA Day for the most correct answers. We are a new school and the students
are getting to meet some teachers, and vice versa, they did not know before
in this way.
*********************
Between the principal doing a
story in each room and your slide show slide and my activities in the
library, things are looking up. Instead of Styrofoam cups, I'm using red
plastic cups and gluing white stripes on the red instead of using
markers for red stripes for my cat in the hat candy holders. I am
reconsidering candy and thinking pretzels. Cheaper too.
*********************
For Dr. Seuss' birthday this week, I read one of my old-
time favorites, Bartholomew and the Ooblek to grades 1-
3. Many of my students were not familiar with this one.
When I read books with lots of dialogue, I change the
voices for each of the characters - so for the royal
magicians I used a really low, mystical, monotone
voice. One student commented during the story: "Those
guys sure have strange voices, don't they, Mrs.
H?" It seems he was so immersed in the story, he
didn't realize "I" was "those guys." I loved it!
************************
Our pre first class made darling cat in the hat hats Friday. They took a
cheap paper plate and cut the center out so it looked like a donut. Then
they stuck white paper up through the center and glued it in a circle, then
added a strip of red, then white, then red, then on the top put the cut out
part of the paper plate for the top of the hat.
************************
I've been using a really nice game that can be purchased through Amazon.com.
It is a board game, but I've revised into a combination "Who wants to be a
millionaire, and several other games. I.E. they can phone a friend, or do
50/50 or poll the audience, if they don't know the answer. It is:
Dr. Seuss Trivia Game in Collectible Tin Box
by University Games Price: $19.99
University games has some other Dr. Seuss games available at their site:
http://www.areyougame.com
Type Dr. Seuss into the search box and see the many games available.
**********************
We made Cat Hats for everyone provided by NJEA and Saturn car co. Guest
readers from the local University visited in each classroom. Finley, the
Riversharks baseball team mascot visited. Evening Family story time from 7
to 8 pm with three teachers reading books, a fake bonfire, and cookies and
juice. Friday everyone came dressed in back shirt and pants. We added the
hats we made, and red bow ties. Too cute! Assembly with University
president reading Cat in the Hat while filmstrip illustrations were
projected on a screen, class presentation of Chicken Soup with Rice and
Junie B. Jones, and a visit from Captain Underpants and the Cat in the Hat.
Then prizes were given out. Books and software donated from Scholastic book
fair, and a few other items were wrapped and presented to fifteen kids whose
names were drawn from our Cat box.
Karen DeFrank, LMS
Bullock School
Glassboro, NJ 08028
kdefrank@glassboro.k12.nj.us
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