Dr. Seuss Day: Lots of Photos and a FREEBIE!

WARNING:  This will be a long post!  LOL  My baby rarely allows me to blog these days (I am doing this in the wee hours of the morning), so the pictures keep piling up and then end up in one big, 'ole blog post!  :)

 

I must admit:  I was probably more excited for Dr. Seuss Day than any of my students.  I started planning for and preparing my wacky outfit many months ahead of time and this is how it turned out!

 

So here are the individual pieces and where I found them:

 

 

I picked up this cute, little red hat at Charming Charlie - on clearance! 

 

 

Do you have these stores near you? It is similar to Claire's or Icing, but for women. LOVE.THIS.PLACE. Jewelry and accessories galore!

 

 

Believe it or not - I found these CUTE Dr. Seuss bows at a children's and babies' second-hand store near my house.  A woman who works there makes them and she offered to make me one that had my name on it!  How cool! 

 

 

I also found this red brooch at Charming Charlie.  It was FREE!  (Who doesn't love free!?)  They have buy-one-get-one-free on all clearance items frequently.

 

 

 

Okay, so this part was a flop.  I did not have time to paint my nails and I chickened out with the red lipstick.  When I was testing out my outfit the night before, my husband made a not-so-school-appropriate comment about the red lipstick and then that was all I could think about.  :(  But I had good intentions!

 

 

The tutu was made especially for me!  A family friend's boyfriend's granddaughter (Did you follow that?  There will be a quiz at the end.  I hope you were paying attention.  Ha!) made it for me.  The red leggings came from Target - yet another store that I love oh-so-much!

 

 

I randomly found these "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" boxers in the men's section of Target.  I wore them under my tutu and over my leggings.

 

 

 

The t-shirt also came from the men's section at Target.

 

 

Did you know that you can curl ribbon by basically soaking it in water, wrapping it around a pencil, and then baking it in the oven?  My sweet BFF passed that bit of useful information on to me one day.  So I was going to try it out, but then I (randomly) found some curly ribbon at T.J. Maxx on the cheap and decided to take the easy way out, LOL.

 

 

I pinned the ribbon on some flat, navy blue Aldo shoes I have.

 

 

I bought these "Green Eggs and Ham" from an Etsy shop years ago.  It looks like her shop, Karrie's Kreations, is still open if you would like to snag a pair!

 

I also picked up a few items from Party City to use in a Dr. Seuss photo booth.  The kids LOVED this!  They held the frame and other Seuss-like items and then I took their pictures.  I hung their pictures outside my door for our Spring Open House.

 

 

This little sweetie must have known I needed her face covered up for my blog.  How helpful of her!  (j/k)  I had her take another picture.

 

 

My second graders made these cute "Cat in the Hat" hats in their homeroom.  Their teacher is A-MAZING!  :)

 

 

All of the following photo booth items came from Party City.  This is a FUN store!  If you do not have a location near you, you can visit their website.

 

 

Dr. Suess "Happy Birthday" cake hat

 

 

I hung this banner in the back of our photo booth and then stuck it outside my door for Open House.

 

 

I also laid out a variety of Dr. Seuss books that they could "read" while I took their pictures.

 

 

By the way, when I was at Target yesterday, they had all of their Dr. Seuss books on sale!  The bigger ones were $10 and the smaller ones were $5.  I picked up these goodies:

 

 

One of my goals is to type up a book inventory on Google Docs, so wherever I am, I can access the list.  I swear I don't know what books I have and what books I need most days!

 

 

I made the frame by cutting out the shape from a big cardboard box that was headed for the recycling.  As you can see in the photo above, I had some "help" from my son.  :)

 

 

Then, I spray painted it red.

 

 

I made these treats for my students.  They are supposed to look like the hat that the "Cat in the Hat" wears.  They looked much better on Pinterest, LOL!

 

 

My kids enjoyed them anyway!

 

 

I am teaching ESL kids this year, so I get them in 30 minute spurts.

 

 

 

 

The treats that I saw on Pinterest were made using Oreo cookies - which I LOVE - but we have so many Girl Scout Thin Mints around our house, I decided to use those up instead.

 

 

(Nevermind the baby formula and medicine, haha!)

 

We also made "Suess Juice," which is just cranberry juice (or any red juice) mixed with 7-Up (or any clear soda).

 

 

I had my 3rd graders write the procedural steps for making the "Suess Juice" and they had to describe the juice, using their 5 senses.  (Normally, I require much more - in terms of their writing - from my 3rd graders, BUT we were trying to pack several Dr. Seuss activities into 30 minutes, so I let it slide.)

 

 

These FREEBIES came from The First Grade Parade.  Thank you, Mrs. Carroll!!

 

 

I also picked up some fun Dr. Seuss pencils at Party City.  My kiddos each got one and MOST of them remembered to stay "thank you."  ;)

 

 

So with my 1st graders, I read aloud "There's a Wocket in My Pocket."  This book is slightly difficult to find.  I ended up picking it up at Half Price Books.  Don't you just LOVE that $4.49 price tag!?  I DO!  (My husband will not step foot into the Half Price Books store with me, unless I swear on our marriage that I will be in and out in 10 minutes or less.  Honestly, I do not blame him - I could spend HOURS in there!)

 

 

After the read aloud, I passed out this printable.  You can grab it it for FREE by visiting my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

 

 

I also gave the kiddos a whiteboard and assigned them a word.  Their task was to think of other words that rhymed with their assigned word.  They were to write real words and nonsense words and sort them accordingly in the pockets.  The whiteboard was available to help them brainstorm.

 

 

When I went into the Kindergarten classroom, I was sure to bring a picture of Dr. Seuss with me.  Sometimes it seems that the kids, especially the itty-bitties, think that the "Cat in the Hat" character IS Dr. Seuss!  Hehe!

 

 

I read aloud "The Butter Battle Book," which just might be my favorite Dr. Suess book.  :)

 

 

While I read, the Kinders took turns shaking heavy whipping cream in a glass baby food jar.  I instructed them to pass the jar to the next person each time that I turned the page, so they knew just what to do without having to interrupt the story.  I had to jars going around, so everyone got at least one turn to shake, shake, SHAKE!

 

 

By the end of the story, we ended up with little clumps of butter!  The kids were AMAZED!  This was done in only 15 minutes.  If I had more time with them, I am sure all of the cream would have turned to butter.

 

 

I also bring a small group of Kindergarten and 1st grade students to my room.  These are my English Language Learners with the most needs.  We read "Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!"

 

 

Then, I gave each student a baggie full of shower gel and they got to sprinkle in some glitter - their choice on color!  We sealed the baggies tight and then I told them letters and words to write, using a Q-tip on the outside of the baggie.

 

 

When my 2nd graders came to my room, I read aloud "Yertle the Turtle."  I had never read this book before, but I quite like it - it sends a great message.

 

 

After the reading, I passed out this printable, which came from Fun in First.  Thank you for sharing for FREE, Jodi!  I printed my copies on light green cardstock, so we would not have to take the time (Did I mention I have 30 minutes or less with each group?) to color or glue on construction paper (for durability).

 

This is what our end product looked like!

 

 

Once again, I usually require MUCH MORE from my 2nd graders (as far as their writing is concerned), but today was a "fun day" and time was limited, so I settled for simplicity.

 

 

When I asked the kiddos where we should hang our turtle, one of my smart little cookies said, "Mrs. Unger, we should stack them on top of each other, just like in the story!"  Creative minds, I tell you!

 

One of the Dr. Seuss guest readers in the 4K classroom had to cancel, so I filled in since I was the back-up.  It was fun, of course, and they gave me a certificate AND a "Cat in the Hat" stuffed animal!  I was so excited!

 

 

What a fun day!  I am looking forward to Dr. Seuss Day 2014!  :)

 

Side note to any of my blog friends in the Midwest area:  I received a pamphlet in my mailbox at work yesterday...BIG NEWS!  The one-and-only Deanna Jump will be the speaker at the Wisconsin Kindergarten Association Fall Conference in Neenah, WI on Saturday, October 19th!!  Agghhhh!  I am so excited!  My school has little money right now, but I am going to fork over the $75 to see her, as I know she is totally worth it!

 

Well, friends - today is the start of my Spring Break.  I will be spending time with my boys and maybe I will even get in another blog post!  What are your plans for your Spring Break?  Enjoy it!  As always, thank you for stopping by.  :)