Eric Carle Books

Over the course of three weeks we read three different Eric Carle Books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug and The Tiny Seed.

The first book we read was The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Before reading the story we asked our students to think about the foods that the caterpillar eats and whether or not the food he ate was healthy.

After reading we distributed these post-it notes with drawings of the foods the caterpillar ate drawn on them. We called on the students to determine whether or not the foods were healthy or not healthy, and they had to place them on the correct side.

The following day we created a class book. The students had to complete their page of the book by completing the sentence, "The caterpillar ate ___   _______." The students got to choose a food that the caterpillar ate and had to write the amount of that food that he ate. They also had to draw a picture illustrating their sentence.

The following day we took a picture walk of the book and we retold the story. We had a piece of chart paper with the days of the week written down, with the student's help the helped complete the chart by telling us what the caterpillar ate on that day.

Afterwards the students moved on to their workstations.

There are several games online inspired by this story!

The next day we talked about the life cycle of a caterpillar. After discussing the different stages the students had to illustrate the stages on a piece of paper that was folded up into four sections.

Before letting them work independently, we showed them these cards with the stages written down on them.

Completed Life Cycles of a Caterpillar

The following week we read the book The Grouchy Ladybug.

Throughout the week we discussed the story elements of the story.

The last Eric Carle book we read was The Tiny Seed.

The students wrote in their journals after we read the book about something they learned from the story.

The next day we watched a video on YouTube that read the story aloud to the class. The student's filled out this reader's response sheet and wrote about their favorite part of the story and whether or not they liked the story.

The last activity we did with The Tiny Seed was drawing and/or writing about the beginning, middle and end of the story.

Read Across America

For the week of March 5th to March 9th we celebrate Read Across America Week at Thornwood Elementary School! Our librarian planned fun activities for each day of the week. 

March 5th- Read Across our Country 

"Every classroom will choose an all-American symbol to read about." Students will draw a picture of this symbol on a piece of paper and on the back will write a note of thanks to our brave service men and women fighting overseas to keep our land safe." 

The kindergarteners read a book about the Liberty Bell. They shared with their neighbors something they learned about this American symbol. Our students even remembered that they learned about different American symbols during the fall and were able to make some connections!

March 6th- Read Across Our Community

"All students will create a bookmark based on their favorite book. The books will be donated to the Kendall Branch Library for distribution to patrons and for display at the library."

Working on their bookmarks for people in the community!  Before they started we made a list of some popular books and wrote down the titles on chart paper. The students copied the titles onto the bookmarks once they chose a book that they wanted to draw about. 

Completed bookmarks 

During story time the students watched and listened to the Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss on YouTube. After discussing the story, the students wrote a letter to the Cat in the Hat. 

March 7th- Read Across our Classrooms

"Older grade students will be paired with younger grade students for buddy-reading."

Ms. Elizondo's third grade class came to our classroom to read to our kindergarteners. They are our normal book buddies who come once in a while to read to them. Mrs. Elizondo has her students get to know our students by asking them questions during their visit and has them write a follow-up letter to their kindergartener that they read to that day. During their next visit they read their letters out loud to the kindergartners. Definitely gets our student's attention because they know that the big kids are watching them as they read together!

March 8th- Read Across our Campuses

"Stratford High School Athletes will be visiting our campus to read a Dr. Seuss book to each classroom and share why reading is so important in life and how it's helped them to succeed." 

Our athlete was a football player from Stratford who read a few books to Mrs. Minnis' and our kindergarten class. Our students loved asking him questions and telling him their favorite parts of the story. Mrs. Minnis' class wrote a thank you letter to him which we were all able to sign. 

During writing on the 8th we re-read the Cat in the Hat and discussed Thing 1 and Thing 2. We found this activity on Pinterest which lead to the templates that were available on teacherspayteachers.com.

Before they begun their writing activity we discussed some things that they could do with Thing 1 and Thing 2 at their house. They completed the sentence "If Thing One and Thing Two came to my house..." and drew a picture.

Some of the completed writing activities! 

The students created Thing 1 and Thing 2 with their handprints!

The palm of the hand is painted white and then the fingers are painted blue for their hair. For the body you need to use the opposite hand and must paint it red. You DO NOT paint the middle finger because that are serves as space between the legs. 

We let them dry overnight.

The following day we let the students glue their label onto the body and create a face for their Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

Completed Things!

March 9th- Stop! Drop and Read! Read-a-Thon

On Friday morning we decided to surprise our students and Mrs. Minnis' students by making green eggs and ham! They listened to the story from a video we found off of YouTube. 

We substituted ham for turkey for our students who cannot eat pork. 

We discussed the steps to make green eggs and ham and talked about how they could write about it during writing or while they were in the home station during center time. 

Some kids were a little hesitant to eat the green eggs and ham but the majority of them loved it and wanted seconds!!

We picked a student from each of our classes to go deliver a plate to the Principal and the Vice Principal of Thornwood. 

Stop! Drop! and Read! Read-A-Thon- "All students will stop and read for a full hour 1:45pm to 2:45pm. We will partner this reading time with a Read-a-Thon where students ask for pledges from family and community members... All students who participate in the Stop! Drop! and Read! Read-a-Thon will receive a brand new book to take home at the end of the day. Also, some teachers and students will be dressing up like their favorite book character on this day."

Each of the students had a stack of books and picked a spot around the classroom to read at. 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!