Oh, The Places We'll Go!

I am so excited about the next 2 weeks!  For the past several years my team and I have been doing a Dr. Seuss week at the beginning of March, complete with our own mini read-a-thon. (Read about our day 2 years ago here.)  But we've always felt rushed to complete everything before spring break, so this year we have decided to expand our unit to 2 weeks.  Two weeks with Dr. Seuss- YES!

I might be sorry in a few days, but I've decided to jump in and try something VERY different for me.  A few years ago I created a differentiated menu of activities for our Dr. Seuss unit.  Due to lack of time, I've never been able to implement it completely, but my kids have always enjoyed the activities from the menu that we have been able to complete.  Since I will have more time this year, I want to be able to give them these choices and add in some opportunities to use the technology tools we've been exploring. So here's the new menu I've created.

To introduce the menu I've created a Powerpoint presentation that I can post on our learning management system, Canvas.  (I'm loving Canvas; I should blog about it soon!) That way the kids (and parents) can easily access the menu and see examples.  Here's a link if you'd like to check it out:

Dr. Seuss Menu Directions

Hopefully I'll be back sometime next week to update how it's going!

Getting Ready for the Doctor!

We started planning our Read Across America Day this week.  My first grade team will start our celebration on March 1 and continue with a week-long author study the following week.  Although we are still finalizing plans, we hope to end our study with a "Read-In" on Thursday, March 7.  Last year we invited the children to bring blankets and pillows, a healthy snack and their favorite Dr.Seuss books.  We spent the afternoon comfortably reading and watching a Dr. Seuss video.  This year we will be adding crazy hats to honor the theme of this year's celebration- "Hats Off to Reading"- chosen to recognize the anniversary of the book 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.


                                       


I'm going to try something new this year for Dr. Seuss week. I've been wanting to try some differentiation menus with my class, so I have created a choice board for activities to complete based on Dr. Seuss books.  I based my menu on some ideas I found in this book:
                                        

I'm going to use a power point to introduce the menu and each activity to the class.  I've included a link to a PDF of the slides so check it out!  If you have used menus, tic-tac-toe boards or other differentiation tools with your class, I'd love to hear about it!

Dr. Seuss Menu