Friday- Read Across America Activities in My Classroom

Hi, friends! It's Laura from Peace, Love, and First Grade!
I apologize for the lateness of today's post! One. Crazy. Day!

This week, we've been celebrating Read Across America and all things Dr. Seuss!

Here are my favorites from our class!

The cute hat/cake craft below came from Cupcake. 

I just added a writing page.
She doesn't sell this craft because selling Seuss products on TpT is a little bit illegal...
Most sellers (including me) won't take that chance!
Cupcake sells some other great crafts, though!

We read A TON of Seuss books this week! 

Today we wrote about our favorites. 

 

We had a birthday party, too!

The Menu
 Lorax Nutter Butters

Green Eggs and Ham

Horton's Peanuts

Red Fish in Blue Jello

 Whew! Thank goodness for Pinterest!
Most of these are on my Seuss Pinterest board.
You can find it here!

A few more pics from my school-

Here is our precious librarian with a little cat!

A Heart-shaped Zoo in 2nd Grade-Seuss would be proud!

Kid created art from our Kinder friends!

 By the way, Kohls offers fun books and stuffed characters for $5 each.

We have a lot of reading buddies in my class because of Kohls! 

 Sam-I-Am and Pop (from Hop on Pop)

Right now, you can find Go, Dog, Go and Put me in the Zoo.
Not Dr. Seuss, but P.D. Eastman and Robert Lopshire are pretty cool, too! 

Thanks for stopping by The Chalkboard!

Have some great ideas to share??

We'd love to see them!

Link up below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Thursday- Dress Like a Book Character

 

 

Hi Everyone its Latoya from Flying into First Grade.

We are on Day 4 of the linky. 

Today is all about looking like your favorite book character.  My school will be having book character day on Friday.

 

I have decided to go as Chester the raccoon from The Kissing Hand book.  I chose this character because I read The Kissing Hand every year with my students.

 

I am making felt ears that I will attach to a headband.  I am going to make a felt black eye mask to wear.  I am wearing a black and great shirt.  I will wear a red heart on my shirt and in my hand.  I will also carry the book with me.

 

 

Last year my entire whole team went as Pete the Cat.

 

The year before that we were the grouchy ladybug.  This costume was really easy to do.  We made ladybug shells from red and black butcher paper.  We made pipe cleaner antenna as well.  Here is a picture below.

 

 

 

Lastly, I want to leave you with some other good ideas I saw while I scanned Pinterest for different looks.

 

Amelia Bedelia

 

 

 

Olivia

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbow Fish

 

 

 

 

Chicka Tree

 

 

 

Fly Guy

 



 

 

 

Now its your turn!!! Link up your Book Character costumes below!!!

 

Link up below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday- Favorite Reading Strategies and Tips

Day 3 of Seuss Week here at Primary Chalkboard! 

Jessica here from Second Grade Nest....

I'm here to talk about Reading Strategies and Tips today! 

So, I am going to list five tips that I love using in my classroom.

Tip #1:

 Utilize your school's book room and any sort of Guided Reading class sets! 

If your school doesn't offer this, look into the library for this. You could even take a book from the Guided Reading list, rent it from the library, copy it and staple it as a book (if you can't find enough sets). But if your school has a book room, do use it!! 

Tip #2:

Make sure to differentiate! 

I know you hear this all the time and I know that it is something that you know to do as a teacher, but within your first or second grade class, you definitely have pre-K readers or fourth grade readers. It isn't fair to give your children the same learning. Make sure to give your different levels different activities. This is where small group and centers comes in handy! 

  

Books to show the differences between reading levels. 

Sight word readers and chapter books. I have a very big range in my classroom! 

Tip #3:

Are they getting it?

Make sure they are comprehending what they are reading. First grade is all about word attack skills and fluency, but once they hit second grade, we are expecting them to read fluently and understand what they are reading. Grab this freebie from my store to keep your kiddos understanding during their Read to Self or Read to Buddy time. 

Cut these apart and put them on a binder ring to keep in their book bins or book bags. 

Tip #4:

Keep it fun! 

My kids love to do other things than just read during our reading lessons. We love using our witch fingers to track. They love using pointers and craft sticks to find different words. And they love using index cards as bookmarks, but little do they know... these are used as exit slips when they write one event that happened from the story! And their absolute favorite is getting a Post-It! 

Tip #5: 

Keep them accountable. 

Make sure you are doing partner talk! Making them turn and talk to a partner about what they are reading is one way to make sure they are getting it. And being independent and responsible at the same time. 

Another way to keep them accountable is to keep a learning log. In our learning log, we write about our listen to reading, we write about our word work, we do interactive notebook pieces with our reading book for the day. 

Link up below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday- Everything Dr. Seuss

Welcome to our second day of our Read Across America Week Linky!

Is your class prepared and ready to celebrate an amazing and fun author!?  Here are some fun ideas to get you started.

We have our reading buckets ready and labeled.  These buckets are usually jam packed full of Dr. Seuss books, but my class has already grabbed their favorites!!

Red and white construction paper is all you need. One piece of 12x18 red paper and 2 strips of 18 x 3 white paper.  Attach with a small 2x4 red strip in the back.

Learn more about Dr. Seuss in this months issue of Scholastic News.

Play Games!

Take fun pictures using the Cat Cam App!!

Grab some accessories....

and of course....

What Seussy things will you be doing in your classroom?

Link up below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday- Favorite Children's Author and Books

Welcome to Primary Chalkboard's Read Across America's Linky Party! We are here to get the 

par-tay started!

Reading party that is! This week most children in schools will be celebrating this man who brought green eggs and ham to our breakfast tables!

Thank you Dr. Seuss for helping to instill a love of books and characters to our children. I know that through his books my children will never cut down a tree for fear that the Lorax will be upset with them. They will look at flowers a bit more carefully in case a "Who" speck might be on the tips of the petals. Lastly, let us not forget Christmas and not be a green Grinch! 

Our linky today is all about Favourite Children's authors and books and I'd like to share a few of my favourites with you! These particular authors and books are ones that my own children and I read over and over and over (did I say over??) again. They never get tired and they always laugh at the "right places"! You know "those books"!! *Disclaimer-- I am a mother of 2 boys and my classroom is mostly boys. I do have girls and thank goodness they have a good sense of humour and love of books, too!*  Afterwards, please link up your favourites below!

Mo Willems

We love the Pigeon books! I love the simplicity and humour of his books. I use his books to teach punctuation, expression in reading, and plus, they are just fun!!! He even has a web page! Click on the book to take you there!

Marc Brown

Everyone loves Arthur!! I remember reading Arthur when I was little-- in fact in elementary school our media specialist would stamp bookmarks with an Arthur stamp and that was the best bookmark ever. I love how there is always a lesson in Arthur books, too. 

H.A. Rey

This is George. He lived with is his friend, the man with the yellow hat. I love the predictable text that begins every Curious George story. We love to read about his many adventures of mischief that always have a happy ending! 

Robert Munsch

Some of you may know Robert Munsch for his book "I'll Love You Forever" but he actually has a lot of other books that I like a lot better (sorry to those out there! I am not a fan of the I'll Love you Forever book...). He has such a great sense of humour and Mortimer up there is one of my favourites! If you have a lot of siblings or have grown up in a big family, you will understand why. It's also a good book to read to teach about volume control! LOL! 

William Kotzwinkle

I know what you are thinking... Remember my disclaimer-- mother of boys! My boys LOVE Walter! We have the series. It is such a funny book. It just goes to show that everyone, even dogs-- fart!! LOL! 

Sooo, these are just some authors and books that my boys and I love to read! I know that you have some of your favourites that you read in your class and in your homes! Before, I leave, I'll leave you with the chant that the kids at our school say daily:

Feel free to download for your classroom! Click on the pic to grab a copy! 

Hope you all have a fun and fabulous week! Can't wait to see what your favourite authors and books are!! 

Link up below! 

An InLinkz Link-up