Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss' birthday and we celebrated in style! By the time my first graders come to me, they've already had the green eggs and ham feast and "fun" stuff in kindergarten. So we do some different activities that are still fun and engaging and a little more first grade appropriate!

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Rhyming Sentences

Monday morning we read Hop on Pop and brainstormed rhyming words from the book as we read. Then, we became authors like Dr. Seuss and wrote rhyming sentences just as his book is patterned. In first grade, we did the first 2 together, then they did 2 with their group as my intern and I walked around to check and then they wrote 2 on their own after they were checked. This was such a *fun* review on rhymes and writing complete sentences. It was also an easy way to review our mechanics {capitals, sight words, spaces and periods} for some of my low babies {which is why this activity is great for kinder through 2nd because it can be whole group, productive groups, independent work, or a combo of all of them like we did!

They absolutely loved coming up with silly sentences like Dr. Seuss writes!

Love the bat poop one this group came up with! :)

Antonym Opposites!

Monday afternoon, we talked about antonyms. I'm not sure who to give the credit to for this story. I kinda think one of my college professors told us this story, but I can't find anybody to back me up on that. So maybe I made it up. That's totally possible, too, since I can tell some cRaZy stories!

....but anyways...the antonym story goes like this:
Antonym means opposites. Have you ever found an ant hill before? What happens if you accidentally--or on purpose--step on the ant hill??? The ants go EVERYWHERE! They run away in opposite directions screaming, "ANTonyms!!!!"

I know what you're thinking. That's the silliest story you've ever heard. And it is. But year after year, it works. When I hear the word antonym, all I can think about are ants running in opposite directions. Silly as it is, my firsties remember what antonym means because of that crazy story.

And I *promise* this relates to Dr. Seuss....We read The Foot Book, by Dr. Seuss, which is all about...OPPOSITES!

We found the pairs of opposites as we read and charted them on our antonyms chart.

Then they "paired up" and traced two feet. With their partners, they came up with a pair of antonyms to write and illustrated. We posted our pairs of antonyms on our big foot in the hallway!

Yes, the big foot is a bit wrinkled, but it is several years old....and it just gets rolled up and stored until the next year so I guess I shouldn't be surprised!

I loved this one...thought it was so original!

I have some opposite cards included in the packet that go in my ABC literacy station. Partners work to reinforce opposites by matching pairs and recording them on our antonym feet recording page!