Dr. Seuss is On the Loose!

Hi friends!  I hope this isn't too late for Dr. Seuss' birthday.  This post will contain places to find games, links to people reading books, freebies, and some ideas that worked in my kindergarten class.

Let's start with games, because our kids just love them and so do we!  I found some really great games on the PBS Kids web site.  The games are fabulous for pre-k or kindergarten in my opinion, because the characters are giving the students directions and they're really easy to follow.  I just found this site today!  I'm very excited to try them out tomorrow.  Some of the games cover skills like mapping, visual-spatial, size sequencing, position, shape recognition, and rhyming of course.  Seussville is also cool.  The games on that site are dealing more with coordination, but there are also some really nice activities in PDF format that you can print out for your class.  For first grade there are some rhyming and alphabetical order pages in the Cat in the Hat booklet.  For pre-k and kindergarten there are some mazes and coloring papers.  I'm going to try the rhyming sheet with my middle and top kids; I don't think my low kids would be able to do it.

There's a Wocket in my Pocket is a really cool Dr. Seuss book that I never read before.  I'm really not sure why, because I think it'll make an excellent writing prompt.  I'm just going to give the children the sentence frame "There's a _____ in my _____." and have them complete it using their imagination (for example, "There's a melevision in my television.") and then have the children draw a picture of that.  I'll then put them together to make a class book.  Here is a link to a video of a nice reading of the book:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlmyfyjc7hM.  Did you know that this is the shortest Dr. Seuss book?

We also read Green Eggs and Ham, and I made a comprehension graphic organizer for the kids to distinguish what was in the story and what wasn't in the story.

Graphic Organizer Green Eggs and Ham by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

The students really enjoyed the reading of Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?  They just got so into it and how to make the sounds!  I think this is an excellent book for ESOL children.  I want to add sound effects to the experience - I'll probably make that CD over the weekend.

I made this guided reading book to help the kids remember what books we've read this week.

Dr Seuss Book by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

We also watched the video of Horton Hatches The Egg and had a great discussion about responsibility.  The children were really upset at Mayzie, but in the discussion she still thought it was her egg.  It was very interesting!

Here is a fact sheet about Dr. Seuss that you might find helpful, so that you don't have to spend time looking up all of the information yourself.

Dr Seuss Facts by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

I would really enjoy hearing about the things you do for Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Continuing Cupcakes

Wow!  My kids really got into the book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.  We went around and made up our own story, and my little darlings were just coming up with so many creative ideas - I'm so proud of them!  I can't believe that this is the same group of kids from the beginning of the year who couldn't speak a whole sentence of English.  Here is another freebie that I used to go with the book.  I like making and using these papers because they help me find out if my kids truly are remembering details from the story.

Graphic Organizer Cat Cupcake by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

Also, I've been concentrating so much on teaching reading, listening and speaking that I haven't been doing as much with creative writing as I should.  I mean, we did make Valentine's Cards for our friends and family, and that gave them an opportunity to write sentences, but I want to move away from the children copying sentences and get more into completing sentence starters.  So, today I made this sentence starter for the book that they really loved last week.

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake Writing Prompt by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

I'd love to hear about writing ideas that all of you have.  Please, if you can, leave me a note below!

Cupcake Freebies and More

Book Cover of "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake"

I don't know about you, but I think books by Laura Numeroff really work for teaching cause and effect.  I found some great ideas for the book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake on the Mouse Cookie Books web site.  There's a really nice activity kit that includes a dot-to-dot paper, and matching pictures to words, fun games for the kids to play, and more.  I've been watching "Cupcake Wars" on TV lately, and it's really affected my choices of things to make for my class.  When I realized this, I thought "Why not blog about it?"

So, I'm going to start off tomorrow by giving my children this warm-up where they have to color each cupcake based on the color word:

Coloring Cupcakes by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

During morning message, I will ask the students to do a turn-and-talk and describe their favorite cupcake: what it looks like, smells like, and tastes like.  I will also sing "Do You Know the Cupcake Man?", sung to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?".  ;-)  And instead of saying "Mulberry Street" at the end, you can say the street that your school is on.

I'm going to use this guided reading book when I pull the kids, to teach more sight words.  I wish that I could have them decorate the cupcake like I've done in years past, but we're not allowed to use food in the classroom this year.  :-(  I will have them also make-and-break the word "will" with magnet letters (that's our new sight word this week) on magnetic white boards.

My Cupcake Face Book by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

When they work at their tables, I'm going to have them do this follow-up sight word coloring paper:

Sight Word Coloring Cupcakes by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

If you like this sight word paper, I sell a package of these on TPT that you might want to check out.

In math, we're doing addition right now.  To really grab my students' attention I'm going to use plastic cupcakes that I bought in a bakery set to model what I want them to do, and then I will give them this cupcake addition paper to check for understanding:

Addition With Cupcakes by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

Lastly, I'm going to put a cupcake tin with some Play Doh, along with some plastic candles, in math center so that they can practice counting by ones and skip counting by twos.  So if they're skip counting by twos, they would put two candles in each cupcake.

I hope you enjoy these cupcake freebies, let me know what you think.  I love hearing from all of you!

Magic in Your Classroom

The last two weeks, I have really been stressed!  We've been doing a lot of testing, and I feel like I've had to let go of some of the magic that makes me love my job.  Well, enough is enough!  We're done with testing.  I want to bring my classroom back to that fun place where children are growing, creating and loving school.

For Christmas, a friend got me this magic touch-and-feel hat from EAI Education.  He also made me cute little bunnies with the children's names (including Braille).  I'm using this as my "equity hat", so I can pull kids out of the hat to answer questions, do jobs, or anything else I can think of.

Magic Hat with Rabbits

Here are two different levels of guided reading books specifically made to go along with this hat, but you could also just use them as standalone guided reading books.  I left them as PowerPoint files, so feel free to replace my students' names with the names of children in your class.

Magic Hat Book - Easy by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

Magic Hat Book - Advanced by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

If you're looking for more books about dragons, unicorns, princesses, etc., I have one advanced set on TPT and one emerging set on TN.

Finally, I heard a really nice cheer a few days ago.  It goes like this:  "Hocus Pocus, everybody focus!"  Doesn't that go great with the whole magic theme?

I'd love to hear your ideas about magical songs, books, or adventures that you do with your kids.

Resolution Solution Linky Party

Amanda Madden over at Teaching Maddeness is hosting a terrific linky party to encourage bloggers to choose (and stick to) New Year's resolutions!  I thought I would join in with some resolutions of my own.  Here goes:
School
1. I like to have one-on-one conversations with my students to learn how they're doing and what really interests them, so that I can make motivational books, worksheets, books, etc.  But it always seems like there's a time crunch, and there are a few kids that I just don't get to because they're really shy or hard to approach.  I'm resolving to start the New Year off by finding out a little more about those hard-to-reach kids.  I think in the end it will be very beneficial for everyone.
2. My second resolution is to help my four lowest students to learn their numbers to 20.  Sometimes I feel like I've already explored every option, but the truth is we know that there's always something else that we can try.
Personal
3. I have a difficult time relaxing.  I always feel guilty on weekdays if I'm not doing schoolwork all night.  My New Year's resolution is to take one hour a day to listen to a book, or watch an episode of "Chopped" or "Cupcake Wars" - these are my two new favorite shows!  :-)  They describe everything really well, and being blind, some TV shows are hard to watch.

Gingerbread Friends and More

"Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett

I'm not sure if all of you know, but Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett is the sequel to Gingerbread Baby.  It picks up where the gingerbread baby is living in the house that Mattie made for him, and he's happy except for when Mattie goes out with his friends.  So the gingerbread baby goes out into the wide world to find somebody to play with.  This is such a cute story!  He goes to a bakery and sees many decorations, but none of them are alive like he is.  When he comes back home, Mattie shows his love for him by baking him many gingerbread friends.  This book is really lovely for this time of year.

I always make gingerbread houses at this time of year.  Here is a little gift to you, if you'd like to use a guided reading book.  This is one of my children's favorite books, because they really feel like it connects to what we're about to do.  We discuss the sequence of building the house before we actually make it.  It helps SO much!  I think it's really important that kindergarten students have a clear picture of what we want them to do.  Years ago, I did this project without using the book, and I can honestly tell you the houses come out much nicer with the instructions.
My Gingerbread House Big 2

Another thing I like to do at this time of year is make sight words really fun and accessible to my kids.  So I made this Christmas tree where the children have to match the sight word ornaments to the words that are already on it.  I did it first in large group, and they went crazy for it.  They begged me to put it in the ABC center!  Since it's laminated, I did put it in the center, and they've been recognizing sight words all week.  Below are the ornaments in PowerPoint format so that you can make it your own.  What I did was cut a green tree from posterboard and put it on black backing for contrast.  Then I printed the white ornaments on sticker paper, cut them, and attached them to the tree.  Next, I laminated the finished tree and then put velcro above each of the words.  I printed the colorful ornaments, laminated them, cut them, and then put velcro on the back of each one.  Then it was ready to go!

Sight Word Christmas Tree

Sight Word Christmas Tree


I also wanted to tell you that I just put up Christmas Guided Reading Books and Winter Sight Word Board Games on TPT, and I think they're two of the best products I've ever made, mostly because they were inspired by the wishes of children in my class.  If you have time, take a look and let me know what you think.

Twelve Days of Christmas

Sometimes I struggle with how to make counting and sequencing numbers fun for my children.  I mean, seriously, how many times can we count to 12 in interesting ways?  Well, you all know that I love using music.  So, how about teaching your kids the twelve days of Christmas using this sequencing paper?
Twelve Days Sequencing

I made this paper to help my little cuties to be able to count each set with one-to-one correspondence.  Of course, I also play a version by Harry Belafonte.  There's also one by Burl Ives, and many others.  This song really brings back sweet childhood memories for me.  There's also a very cool version of the Twelve Days of School by Dr. Jean which uses the melody from the Twelve Days of Christmas.  So, why not do a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the different things in the songs?  Think of all of the Common Core standards you're covering:

K.CC.2:  Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1).
K.CC.4:  Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
K.RL.5:  Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.
K.RL.9:   Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).

These cards can be laminated and placed in a center on a cookie sheet for an independent sequencing activity:
Twelve Days Cards

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.  I also made larger pages, for books.  If you think you'd be interested in Twelve Days books, mention that in your comment.  If there's enough interest, I'll post those files too.