Five for Friday.....Reading Week 2015

What a busy week we had celebrating reading and all things Dr. Suess.  I want to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Kacey to share some of our fun.

I started the week setting the stage and transforming my room into a Truffula forest, (maybe not a complete forest....but close) and pulling out all my Dr. Seuss books so they are easy to find.  My husband never leaves a Dr. Seuss book on a thrift store shelf, so I have quite a collection.  Kohls always has those cute stuffed animals and taller books, so I try to get books and animals there too.  My kiddos LOVE the animals.

We worked on a book project this week.  Each student was to read and respond to five Dr. Seuss books.  We have a hat die cut in our workroom and I used that to make the pages.  We also practiced rhyming and writing descriptions. 

We of course had dress up days.....on hat day, I opted for being Daisy Head Mayzie.  Friday (dress as your favorite character) one of my students was Daisy Head Mayzie.  Look how cute she is!

Thursday was Read in Your Pajamas Day.  I think that is my favorite day. 
Everyone sits in the hallway, or in a classroom and reads.  They find a stuffed buddy, a friend, a sibling and read....they read or are read to for a whole hour.  It is wonderful!

Friday was Green Eggs and Ham.  Our local Kiwanis and High School Key Club served up breakfast for us.  It is also Dress as Your Favorite Character Day, so I came as the Cat in the Hat and my students were Thing 1 through 23 (actually 17, some were sick and some came in their own costumes)

Hope you had a GREAT week too!

Five for Friday...or Fraturday (it's been a busy week)

This week has been busy, busy, busy!  It started with giving an orientation to our Science Fair Judges (while making a BIG push to get more judges), and helping with a big activity at church, to spending all week with reading and Dr. Seuss.

We tried some new things, revived some old things, and generally had a ton of fun.  So here are five pictures from this week, just because I want to look at it again (and I LOVE linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching)

Here I am getting my cat on.  Every once in a while I wonder if I am too old for dressing up, and then I think what the heck....have some fun and make memories with your kids.

Here are my little blue haired Things.  One advantage to numbering them each....we are doing MATH!!  Some of them really worked hard at getting in the right spot.    Okay, Thing 1 had it easy and Thing 20 didn't want to be last in line (his best friend was Thing 2) but it was fun to watch them help each other.

We were exploring the Foot Book and the question was, "How many feet can jump over two boxes?"

Friday was Green Eggs and Ham day.  Our local Kiwanis Club help put on a breakfast for the kids.

Thumbs up for green eggs and ham!

I want to be sure to get every last bit.

My favorite day was Read in Your Pajamas Day.  The reading and excitement going on in the hall was great.  I took a ton of pictures, but just a few of them even come close to capturing the fun going on.

Trying to end on a yummy note...snack.  Loved our cat in the hat cookies. 

There will have to be more fun next week, because I just couldn't fit it all in. Too many books, not enough time.

Read in your pajamas!

I love reading!  I especially love reading picture books.  I can take that one step further and say that if the books have rhythm and rhyme, I love them even more.  I blame that on my mother.

My mom is an author....a children's book author.  I have talked her into guest blogging sometime in the near future.  She wrote Stand Back Said the Elephant I'm Going to Sneeze, Nature's Paintbox, and her latest is Mouse's Cookie.  My wonderful mom is Patricia Thomas.

Today was read in your pajamas day.  We opened our doors and the kids sat in the hall reading.  Siblings found each other and read.   Second graders read with kinders.  A class of third graders came down the hall and spread out.  They had 3 or 4 little ones around them.  They read with friends, they read with teachers, they read by themselves. 

Before we started I gathered up all my Dr. Seuss books and put them in tubs.  I surprised myself when I realized I had 11 tubs of books.  I love having multible copies of books.  I like when students can read together and have the  same book.  I like when they talk about a book that they booth have read on their own.  I never turn down a book.  You might ask, where do I get them all?  Mostly thrift stores and garage sales.  My husband is always on the lookout for me.

I also get books and "buddies" at Kohls.  I LOVE getting their characters and books. My closest Kohls is more than three hours away, but every time I get to the "big city" I check to see what books they have.  My classroom library has grown greatly.

I have come to realize another of my most favorite things is taking pictures of kids reading. 

Today was such a success.  It was a chance for everyone to be reminded how fun reading can be.