Celebrating Reading

This past week my school had special activities for Read Across America Day. Due to the crazy winter weather, ice forced us to delay some of our activities. Students read and listened to 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. Then they created their own version of a Suessy hat.

Some students listened to if I Ran the Zoo and created their own critter for the "McBrown Zoo".

They're hard to read but my second graders created a Zoozy Floozy and a Heartsie Tartsie. I drew a weird shape for the body and the students took turns adding features to create a class creature for our school zoo.

After telling our 8th graders the history behind Green Eggs and Ham, she read it then challenged them to find the 50 words.

We had special snacks in the cafeteria. Don't rat us out! It wasn't on the approved school menu. Don't even get me started about our school lunches. The students loved them.

We had lots of special readers during the week Miss Greene County, County Commissioners, Director of Schools, our State Representative, and our favorite Judge.

Don't forget to link up with Primary Chalkboard with ways you celebrated Dr. Seuss and Read Across America in your classroom.

Happy Reading!!!

Book Character Day- Celebrating Reading

We missed our Read Across America Day Monday because of ice. We simply called the kids and moved all the fun to Friday. I'm glad we did. It was a little crazy at school today. What a way to end Dr. Seuss week! Our students and teachers dressed as their favorite book character. I was going to play it save and dress as Cat in the Hat, but no, I got a little crazy! Meet my version of Pinkalicious.
(You have to understand. This is totally out of character for me. I'm really a conservative dresser, lots of black and brown. The looks on the kid's faces, PRICELESS!)

Pinkalicious, Cat in the Hat, Fox in Socks, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Cat in the Hat, Truffala Tree, and The Grouch Ladybug, Clifford and Cindy Lou Who all appeared at my little school. Too fun! 

The teachers are so cute in their outfits. Our principal even wore his Dr. Seuss hat. Several of the students dressed up in cute costumes. 

Lots of cute characters at school today. Did your school get to celebrate Read Across America Day with a book character day? Hey, whatever it takes to inspire reading!!! I'm linking up with Primary Chalkboard for their Dr. Seuss week.

Happy Reading!

Celebrating Read Across America With My Favorite Authors

At my school we love Dr. Seuss! Why? It's all about READING! My teachers and I will do about anything to inspire the love of reading  in our students. Read Across America Day is a great day/week to celebrate reading at school.  Whether it's reading Dr. Seuss books or other favorite authors, my teachers go above and beyond to foster the love of books with our students.

Author studies or author of the month is a favorite activity of mine with my lower grade students. With Kindergarten, First Grade and my Second Grade students I try to have a monthly author focus.  It's a great time to highlight some of my favorite authors with the kids. Some authors get a spotlight in collaboration from the teachers. Others get shoutouts because they are my personal favorites. I love telling the students about favorite books from my childhood as well as introducing them to new and upcoming authors.

I love reading Clocks and More Clocks by Pat Hutchins. The students find it way too entertaining to discover I was four years old when it was written.  As a student I loved hearing it read by my first grade teacher and I want to make it just as exciting for my students.

Another great classic is The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, published the year I graduated from high school. I just love all of Eric Carle's books. He's one of my favorite picture book authors/illustrators.

Newer authors I love are James Dean's Pete the Cat books and anything by Mo Willems. 
Students today are blessed with an array of talented authors. As a librarian I'm only limited by my budget to great children's literature,  definitely not the selection available!

Go check out other favorite authors at Primary Chalkboard's linky. 

Happy Reading!!!

Seussical Celebration! Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Tomorrow my school is celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday and Read Across America Day.  My teachers and I have been busy decorating our school. We have special guests coming to read to our students and all kinds of fun planned for tomorrow. I found this great free graphic from the 3am Teacher. Going to have to create something great for school tomorrow. I just love her graphics. (I'm such a clipart junkie!!!)

 







In preparation for our big day, I decorated my library door and window with a "Cat in the Hat" theme. Had way too much fun.

 Outside the office I recreated a couple other "little cat" friends.

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For the main hall bulletin board I created an author spotlight. Added some truffula trees and a timeline about Dr. Seuss.

Other little decorations included Seuss critters, quotes, and little pink trees. Our art teacher helped with her drawing skills. Thanks, Pam!

 

 

Our Reading Specialist has organized all kinds activities and has been helping the teachers decorate the other halls. It's looking great around my little school. My favorite decorations:

 Can't wait till tomorrow. It's going to be a great day at school!

Read Across America Day

I just love RAAD! At my school it's really Dr. Seuss Day! Of course any day we celebrate reading is an awesome day for me. I'm fortunate enough to work at a school that has a full time reading specialist. Jessica is wonderful. She organized the day wonderfully. I am also our Technology Support Teacher and had 3 new computers arrive so it was great to let someone else be in charge. The teachers, with help from Mrs. Jessica, decorated bulletin boards and really got into the spirit of the day. The school looked wonderful. We had guest speakers, a real cat in the hat, and Dr. Seuss snacks. Several of the teachers dressed up for the day. Everyone had a wonderful day. I have posted a few pictures from the day.

 

That is me on the right!

 
I got my bulletin board idea from Pinterest of course! I tweaked a door display from Audie's Oddities. The kiddies thought it was funny I put my name on the bulletin board. The flowers all have books on them. I'm going to use the book spines I created in a library center after spring break.

In library we read Dr. Seuss books, of course. I found all kinds of cute center activities on TPT and Pinterest. My favorites were Erin Low’s Dr. Seuss ABC’s  and Lindsay Messner’s Read Across America packet. I even found one for my upper grade students. Yes, 8th graders love Dr. Seuss! I used Name that Dr. Seuss Book from Rachel Lynette. She's so creative. I love picking up her items from TPT.

Hope your Read Across America Day was as terrific as ours! Happy Reading!!!