What's Been Going On

First off- I'm LOVING Dr. Suess week! Last year when I didn't really do themes I only devoted 1 day to Dr. Suess. Now I'm thinking 2 weeks is just not enough. So much to do!!! I've loved everything I've found in blogland and I'm truly grateful for others being so willing to share. My problem is that I find all of these ideas and I don't even try to do anything different or create my own ideas. Does anyone else ever feel this way?

I stopped by the library last night and much to my surprise they had 1 Dr. Suess book still available- score! It was The Butter Battle Book, one I'd never heard of. After reading it I knew I had to add it into my plans today. We read it and talked about the meaning behind the book and how we shouldn't fight over such meaningless things. When we talked about the story elements students found that there was a problem but no solution...which lead to our writing prompt. How would you solve the problem between the Zooks and the Yooks?

I used the template from Amy Lemon's Black History Month pack for the bread (used for George Washington Carver How to Make a PB & J) and added in our prompt. Sure they don't look the best since I thought of this approximately 7 minutes before students walked in, but I'm proud of how they turned out!

Here's the beginning of our Dr. Seuss bulletin board. Super excited to keep it growing! The writing prompt came from Fun-in-First and the Horton peek over came from Finally in First. Love it all!

I'm way behind in Science compared to the other 1st grade classes but I'm loving learning about weather and going deeper than what's just in the textbook. We learned about the different types of clouds and I found these adorable cloud people from The Inspired Apple that I had to recreate. After reading Little Cloud by Eric Carle we all used our imagination to create a cotton ball cloud. I really wanted to bust out the shaving cream to help do this too but I've decided I'm just not brave enough...

On a completely different note- I started the year with 22 students. I'm down to 19 now. 2 moved away. Not happy about it, but I understand. Another student just left this past week to transfer to a not so good school and go into 2nd grade (they were retained in K). Umm...last I remember you were in 1st grade and the school year is close to being done. So now you'll be a 2nd ALMOST 3rd grader? I couldn't believe it. Yesterday I was livid about it. I wish I could understand parents thought process sometimes. It would be great if she ever inquired about her students progress...

And lastly, I have a cute little writing to share back from Valentine's Day. This is the back side of a writing where students talked all about things they love. Poster child for racial harmony? I think so! : )

Hope y'all have a great Read Across America day tomorrow!