Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

Happy Birthday to a revolutionary of children's literature, Theodore Geisel! Today would have been his 108th birthday, and his life and his work was celebrated in elementary schools across the nation - Pajama Days, Literacy Nights, Book Readings, Arts & Crafts, etc. A big advocate of imagination and the power of reading, Dr. Seuss wrote timeless stories that will probably be enjoyed for as long as there are books to read.

Room 3 has been celebrating all week with readings and a Wednesday night literacy night for the whole school, and many Cat-in-the-Hat crafts at center time. Today we made Thing 1/Thing 2 out of handprints and did some fun Dr. Seuss themed activities on the Promethean board. They also got to wear their Cat-in-the-Hat hats that they had painted earlier in the week.

Today was Specialty Day - every Friday the kids go to Science Lab, Computer Lab, and Math Lab all before lunch. It's pretty neat that the school is able to do these things for the students; they get benefits in these subjects that other schools may not be as lucky to have. The kids don't realize it now...but I think they'll look back on it fondly and realize what a neat experience that was.

In Science Lab we talked about animals and how they move. The teacher started them out with a brainstorm about how different animals move, and then they got to dance to a song called "Animal Action" and practice their different animal movements.

After this she took them over to the tables to watch a video that had different animals and their motions, and then reinforced the different ways animals can move by having them help her create a list of animal motions on the Promethean Board. Needless to say, they were very wound up, but it was a good kind of wound up. And it was a good reminder of how young they really are - watching them move around and dance to a song as simple as this and just have a wonderful time.

In Computer Lab, they got to explore a new website - ABCya.com. Today's focus was on the math activities, and they were so engaged. They went from wild and crazy animal students to focused and mature students in the matter of a short walk from science to computers.

I didn't stay for all of Math Lab because they weren't doing a full lesson today. They were however learning about the up and coming World Math Day! Each of them has been given their own profile on the website where they can participate in Math activities on Math Day.

I left when they went to lunch, because they have minimum days on Fridays - they get out at one so they only had a brief amount of time left in class anyway.

In other news, on the first Friday of every month there is an assembly for the Students of the Month in each class; teacher's decide on a girl and boy from their class who wins the title each month, and they go to an assembly that their families are invited to and they receive an award. My focus student, Lizzeth, was Student of the Month! And she got all dressed up and looked so cute and was so proud of herself...oh my gosh, the wonders it will do for her confidence. I'm so proud of her, too.