Kacsko's Kiddos: Oh, The Places We'll Go!

Get ready - this is a big one. A three-ish week wrap-up in one post. So brace yourselves for lots of pictures. I say three-ish because two weeks had a definite routine and learning target themes. And this week....well, it was a little discombobulated. So let's go in chronological order and start with Seuss week.
Each day had a different dress-up theme. Day One: Fox in Socks - wear your silly socks. We read the book, wrote about our own socks, and made a human graph of those who did and didn't wear silly socks.

The students were showing a strong interest in reading Seuss books to the class themselves. I was thrilled! Johannah was our guest reader that day. She read Dr. Seuss's ABCs.

We started up the centers and math workshops for the week and you know they had to have a Dr Seuss theme.

Day 2: If I Ran the Zoo - students came in clothes with animals or animal prints on them.

We read the book, wrote about what we would do if we ran the zoo and made our own crazy Seuss-inspired zoo animals.

We continued working on our word family anchor chart. The students pulled a picture out of the fishbowl, decided which word it rhymed with and helped me to spell it on the hats.

Day three: The Sleep Book - students came in their pajamas. We read the book, wrote about our own night time routines, and made a class graph about them on the Smartboard.

The fourth day we did not dress up since it was class picture day. But we had another guest reader, Carly, read us Green Eggs and Ham.

Then we wrote about the foods we did not like or even want to try.

I do not like blue cheese or green eggs and ham.

I do not like lemons because they are sour.

I do not like cottage cheese because it looks lumpy and it looks gross. I think I won't like them.

I don't like mushrooms and salad and the 3 Musketeers and eggs and cake.

We continued working in our sight word stations. A new station was introduced: Whack-a-Word!

Also on day four, we had a lesson and activity inspired by the Sneetches (which we watched earlier). The students drew a name of a classmate and wrote what they liked about them on a star. Then they delivered it to that student and read it to them. The students then played "Pin the Star on the Sneetch" with those stars!

Day Five: The Cat in the Hat- the students (and Mrs. Taylor) came dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2 and I came as that cat. After reading the book, the students wrote about what they would do with Thing 1 and Thing 2. We also had another guest reader; Sarah Jo read Hop on Pop. Then we wrapped up the whole week with a Seuss feast and some (Bartholomew and the) Oobleck fun.

Lucy had a little too much fun with the oobleck. Not the easiest stuff to get out of hair.

Now on to Transportation Week. (Get the post title now? Seuss and Transportation - boom). We started with the book, Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon. The students were asked to write about what their hot air balloon would look like and where they would go in it. Connor said "no thank you" and drew all the other modes of transportation he would take. That cracked me up!

A few of our centers and math workshops had the transportation theme, such as the Sight Word Parking Lot and the Land, Air, & Sea Subtraction.

Of the four math workshops we do each week, one always works on addition/subtraction and another on shapes. The other two alternate week to week on various learning targets. This week it was recognizing and ordering numbers to 100 and composing/decomposing numbers using groups of tens and ones.

After sorting various vehicles based on their mode of transportation - land, air, or water, the students wrote an opinion piece on the vehicle they thought was best.

St. Patrick's Day fell during the week. So we had to celebrate it of course.

The students had a special Write the Room activity where they found words on shamrocks all over the room. Some had a challenge with clues.

Then we did a directed drawing of a leprechaun. Boy, did they love that!

Our final day of transportation week was full of STEM projects and collaboration. In the morning, Ms. Wise's 5th grade class (my son, Pilot's, class) came to teach us how to make a paper airplane. Each K student worked with one 5th grader. Then we took them to the basement hallway and took them on a test run. The first go round was pretty pitiful. The planes traveled mere inches, sometimes even negative inches. But there was one plane model which brought both it's K engineer and it's 5th grade engineer great success. So we went back to the classroom, and that 5th grade student taught everyone how to make his design (which Mrs. Taylor will be quick to tell you it was her design). He also gave us all a quick tutorial on how to hold it and launch it. That second test run was a great lesson in engineering and the importance of not giving up. ALL of the students' planes flew further and by a lot!

As if that wasn't enough fun and excitement for one day (it was but I had nothing else planned) - Mr. Salyer's 5th grade class joined us in making boats. The goal was to create a sturdy boat that could withstand a lot of weight. They build one of three models: an aluminum foil boat, a foam and drinking straw boat, and a lego boat. Once finished, they brought their boats to me to be weighed down with hardware nuts. We noted what did and didn't help their boats to float. Then they went back and tweaked it. The sturdiest model was Johannah and Lucy's aluminum foil boat which held 60 nuts before it sank!

Alright - now for this week. I'm not gonna lie. I don't know if I can write a coherent group of thoughts about this week and be honest at the same time. It was a LOT of reteaching behaviors. And report cards were due. And student growth goals were due. And purchase orders were due. And there was arts and humanities day. And we all had spring fever. I know that's a lot of excuses for why I was a sub-par teacher this week. But, hey. At least I'm self-aware? So I'll just post some pics of what we tried to do. And say SEE YA AFTER BREAK!