Hello March...

March is one of my favorite months of the year...It's my birthday month!  I also love celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday and St. Patrick's Day with the kids...they're two holidays you can have tons of fun with.

Today, in preparation for Dr. Seuss's birthday, we made "The Cat in the Hat Magic Dough."  We have been learning about "How-To" writing, so it was the perfect activity/shared experience for writer's workshop.  I got the idea from a friend who made the dough with her toddler (Thanks Haley!) and put the Seussical-Spin on it.  It's amazing what adding colored glitter can do for a 5 year old's excitement level.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning when I let them mix this stuff with their bare hands.

Here's the recipe we used:
(We made 4 separate bins at our tables) ...
4 cups flour
1/2 cup baby oil
red and blue glitter (as much as you want)
**Be specific with your measurements.  We had a group thinking it would be "cool" to add a little more flour and theirs ended up being the hardest to work with.


Mix the ingredients with your hands.  It forms a dry dough that can be formed in balls but easily broken back into its original form- very cool.


Following the activity I had the table teams write the steps to the activity together.  As a class, we voted on and discussed which group was most specific with their writing.  It was a fun way to collaborate and tie-in our writing objective for the week.


At the end of the day, I sent each child home with a sandwich baggie filled with 1 cup of the dough.  I made labels to go on it so their parents wouldn't think they were bringing home glittered kitty litter. :) (Oh-- and we discussed that you DON'T eat it! Hey, it's Kindergarten)


HERE is the link for the labels! -FREE @ my TpT store.




Here is another fun Dr. Seuss activity we completed in our literacy centers this week...I created the sheet to go along with the book "Green Eggs & Ham."  We are turning this into our own classroom book...


**Thanks to http://frompond.blogspot.com/ for the cute border!

HERE it is FOR FREE! 

Last- we went with a "1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" theme for math centers this week.  The kids made fish tanks using colored goldfish and created an addition sentence to match-- so much fun!  I came up with a catchy poem to go along with it:

____ fish and ____ fish in water so blue

How much do you get when you join the two?

(my example)

(kids work)

Annnnd as if Dr. Seuss days are not exciting enough-- I came home to see these beauties popping up in my yard!  I guess it's safe to say Spring is on the way!!

Annnddd as if this were not the longest blog posting already... Something else made my week extra special. :) Last Friday we brought our first "new addition" home... Meet Charlie Laver! She's such a love.