March Madness!!

                     

     

We kicked off the month of March by celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday.  We have read many Dr. Suess books, have studied his style of writing, and have done
lots of fun, Seusstastic activities!  Check out Jena and Natasha doing Seuss spelling.  The week's spelling words were hidden around the room, along with Dr. Seuss "nonsense" words.  The kids had to find their real spelling words and record them on the hat!
*Be sure to click on all the pictures to see them up close!
        

In conjunction with our literacy unit on "author's" purpose, we have had some in depth conversations on what Dr. Seuss's purpose was in his many books.  We know for sure that he wrote us to entertain us... his books make us laugh!  However, today we made a very interesting discovery as we were reading The Cat in the Hat: Dr. Seuss wrote to persuade us as well.  We realized that he was telling us to use our IMAGINATION!  As Sally and her brother sat in front of the window, we learned how bored the two were, "So we sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day.  I sat there with Sally, we sat there we two. And I said, “How I wish we had something to do!” Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all. So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit."  But then... something happened... "And then something went BUMP! How that bump made us jump! We looked! Then we saw him step in on the mat! We looked! And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat! And he said to us, “Why do you sit there like that?” “I know it is wet And the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!”  Those kids wreaked some havoc with the Cat in the Hat!  However, we realized that the character, the Cat in the Hat, was actually the kids' imaginations!  What a great discovery and a great message. :)

Dr. Seuss also has many other great messages.  I put some of my favorites on our class bulletin board.  Along with these quotes, I also posted our Cat in the Hat pictures, first grade style.  We all shared what our favorite book is (I took part in the fun too!).  Take a look at one of the quotes and the pictures below!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are two of the "characters" that help to wreak all that havoc in the Cat in the Hat.  We made our very own Thing 1's and 2's and wrote about what we would do if they came to our house.  They came out great!  Check out our bulletin and some individual work here!

Can you tell it was close to lunch time?  Some of us had food on our mind as we were writing!

We will continue to study Dr. Seuss next week.  After that we will delve into space, moon, and stars.  We will do some fun St. Patrick's Day activities, as well as spring activities.  Lots to learn in March!  That's why we call it March Madness!!