One of my favorite ways to look for new ideas for lessons is to do a little shopping. I was at Hobby Lobby and Party City last week when I saw some stuff that I thought would be perfect for a Dr. Seuss unit. I know many teachers have plans for Dr. Seuss since it will soon be time for Read Across America. The best thing about my shopping trip is one lucky teacher will win all of the fun stuff I found.
Many of your students are familiar with the book, The Cat in the Hat. It is a book that many parents read to their children before they go to school. Why not introduce the book and your Dr. Seuss unit a new way? I love to use feely bags. Feely bags get volunteers up and moving to feel what is in the bag. With the weather and inside recesses, you are probably looking for some activities with movement, right? Allow volunteers to put their hands in the bag, feel the object, describe it (great for enforcing your lesson about adjectives), and guess what is in the bag. You can even have several different bags - maybe even set up a station with them. Many of the objects in The Cat in the Hat are objects you have at home or in the classroom. I found some fun ones on my shopping trip which I will mail to the winner of the giveaway. In the picture is a hat, house, wooden box, ship/boat, and milk.
The winner will also get a Cat in the Hat bulletin board set, border, children's wearable hats (30), 36 paper cutout hats, stickers, and Cat in the Hat fabric. I give suggestions for using the fabric in the FREEBIE I made today. You can also use the fabric as background on a bulletin board.
All of these fun things inspired me to make a new packet of cat themed lessons.
Rhyme Climb is a new activity that will save you time. All you need to do is make one copy for each student in your class. You can differentiate the assignment with the 9 extension cards included. You can see 3 of the cards in the picture above. I explained this differentiation system HERE.
Here is a larger picture of a Rhyme Climb assignment.
Students will practice making real and nonsense centers with the Sentence Shuffle Fluency Center. I like to use green and red puff balls that students put where the sentence begins and ends. There is also an extension assignment. Students will record some the sentences that they made on one of the 3 recording sheets. There are 3 different ones so you can differentiate. I also more Fluency Centers for grades K-5.
You can also set up these fluency centers as file folder games. These work great when you have a small classroom or use them with your early finishers. I have used them when I assess my students at report card time. Click HERE to read my tips.
Use the mini book with your Guided Reading group or small group. Then send it home for homework.
My students have always enjoyed playing charades. It is another one of those activities that gets them up and moving. You can also play it at inside recess. There are 12 picture cards included with the ABC order center.
- Put the pictures in a sack. Let a volunteer pick a card and then act it out. The volunteer will call on 2 people to ask the volunteer QUESTIONS. You need to emphasize the QUESTION part. They are not guessing the answer. They will ask a question about what the person is acting out.Students will write down their answer on a piece of paper or white board. This helps with the blurting out problem. They will ask a question about what the person is acting out.
- Example: If the person was acting out reading a book, a student might ask the volunteer "is this something that you can do at school?"
- Draw a name from your popsicle cup or however your choose volunteers to act out the next picture. Once again students will ask 2 questions.
You can set this up as a center or use it as seat work. There are 2 interactive journal printables included. Students will read a Dr. Seuss book or a cat book for the Beginning, Middle, and End assignment. The Cat Fact assignment is an easy way to add an informational text lesson to your plans.
Click HERE if you'd like to read more about this packet.
Giveaway Guidelines:
- February 20 - 25
- Winner will be announced on my Facebook page on February 25th.
- The winner will have 24 hours to email me his/her address to claim the prize.
- If I don't hear from the winner, I will choose another one. So, watch my Facebook page closely.
- You will need to comment or like my posts from time to time in order to see them in your newsfeed, too.
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Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
