Todd Parr Visited!

This week we had the awesome opportunity to have author/illustrator Todd Parr visit our school!  You can read more about our preparation for his visit here.

My kiddos have known since they end of September that he was coming.  Their excitement built over the course of 2 months.  They wrote a book about feelings using is The Feelings Book as inspiration, and I told them then that he was coming to our school.  The rest of our building got excited around the beginning of November, and by the day before the visit, he was like a rock star.  The school was buzzing with excitement, and the kids could not wait for the day of the visit!

There were 2 presentations at our building and an evening program, open to the general public, at our local library.

Each session included: reading a few books, playing a game with feelings cards, an example of Todd drawing and questions/answers.

My kiddos lucked out and got to have lunch with Todd.  They had no idea they were having lunch with him until about 5 minutes before it happened.  I wish I could show you the video I took of their reaction because it was priceless.  I looked a little bit like an Oprah moment when she gave something away.  I wanted the room to be special (it is pretty boring as it is a classroom we don't use), so I decorated with brightly colored tablecloths and balloons.  My friend made AMAZING cookies based on Todd's characters, and the kids made little nameplates for the tables.

Todd took the time to sign any and all books that students and staff asked to have signed.  He posed for photos and made many kiddos (and adults) very happy!  Books were available for purchase prior to and the day of the event.  

This is what one of my kiddos wrote about the next day when given the prompt to write about what they were thankful for.  

In the 12 years I've been at my school, we have never had anything like this.  It was magical to see the kids' excitement.  Todd did not disappoint!  He was down to Earth and genuinely enjoyed interacting with the kids.  He had the crowd (200+ preschool and kindergarten children per session) engaged throughout the presentation.  

Our local library partnered with us to make Todd's visit possible.  It was an amazing day for our students and staff!

Have you ever had an author visit your school?  What made it special?

Planning an Author Visit: Todd Parr

Our school has the blessing of having author/illustrator Todd Parr visit our school today.  I had the opportunity to see Todd present at I Teach 1st this summer, and I really wanted my kiddos to meet him.  Thanks to the generosity of our local library and a contribution from our school as well, it became a reality today.  I want to share some of the things we did to get ready for this visit.  I'll be back to share about the visit soon.

This visit was all about the kids, and I wanted that reflected in the things we displayed and did in preparation for the visit.  My kiddos created a welcome banner to hang in our school's atrium.  In Todd Parr's style, they painted a letter per "box" (page) to spell out "Welcome Todd Parr".

A preschool teacher and I teamed up with our classes to coordinate a macaroni and cheese (Todd's favorite food) drive for our local food pantry.  The kids made signs and flyers to distribute to all the classes in our building.  One of our custodians brought in an old bathtub to fill with the mac & cheese.  In the book It's Okay to be Different, Parr says "It's okay to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub."  The kids love this project!  It was fun to watch the bathtub fill on a daily basis.

When the bathtub arrived, I had each child sit in the tub with their favorite play food and pose for a picture with a shower cap on. They then used the app Balloon Stickies to add a speech bubble telling us what it is ok to eat in the bathtub.  These were hung on the wall around the bathtub.

Each class worked on some Todd Parr inspired artwork to decorate the gym where presentations would take place.

Self portraits in Todd Parr style

The Underwear Book.  This was my team's artwork.  Each child designed a pair of underwear to hang on the clothesline.

Watercolor Todd Parr-inspired faces with the kids names above them.

Bright faces

A quilt of Todd Parr drawings (from his website)

The library took care of the money related to book pre-sales.  This certainly helped me as the craziness of November has been upon me.  As the books came, I put a post-it on the front with the child's name and teacher's name. Then, on the title page, I put a second post-it with the child's name (in my best "teacher writing") for easy signing.

The night before the visit, we had a little welcome bag at his hotel.  We included some Ohio-made products: maple syrup, Udder Cream (hand cream made locally), candy from the local candy shop and an ornament created by a parent.  My kiddos designed the gift bag.

His characters are spelling O-H-I-O.

I'm excited to come back and share our visit with you.  The kids are SO excited!

Learning on the Move

We had an assessment/review week in math last week.  We are starting a new math curriculum this year (Eureka Math) and haven't had much time for math games.  I decided this was the perfect time to start incorporating games.

One of my students' favorites was hopscotch.  I had a hopscotch rug that was safely tucked away and all but forgotten about.  I pulled it out this week along with a "spiky ball".  My kiddos took turns rolling the ball and saying the number that makes 10 with the number the ball lands on.  For example, if the ball landed on 4, the kiddo would say "6".  After telling their small group the number the needed to make 10, they were able to hopscotch across the board.

At the end of math games, I asked students to give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down; 2 gave it a thumbs down and the rest were a resounding thumbs up.  They asked to play it many more times throughout the week.  I have a feeling it will reappear in math and literacy centers in the future!

I love that the kids were up and moving while practicing math skills.  Do you have any games suggestions that get your kiddos moving or that they love?

Pumpkins Galore

Last week, we learned all about pumpkins.  My kiddos this year love "nonfiction" type topics.  They are into anything that they can get their hands on and learn about.

We started off the prior Friday with my preclinical student (she'll be my student teacher in the spring) teaching the kids about the pumpkin life cycle.  This was one of the 4 lessons she needs to teach this semester.

Monday we started by talking about what students already knew about pumpkins.  Each child had the opportunity to share an idea, then additional ideas were added after each child had a turn.

On Tuesday, we drew and labeled a pumpkin. They loved this activity when we learned about apples, so I knew it would be a hit in the pumpkin learning too.  While we were working to draw our pumpkins and label them, we also snacked on pumpkin seeds.

On Wednesday, we compared apples and pumpkins using the freebie you see below from Reagan Tunstall.  We saved this for Wednesday because I felt like they had a good background on pumpkins to be able to compare them. This was our first time using a Venn Diagram and talking about comparisons, but I think they rocked it!  We did this together with me writing on the SMARTboard while they worked on their own papers at their seats.

We wrapped up our unit on Thursday as our Halloween party was Friday (thank-you early dismissal).  The last thing we did was a gallery walk.  I placed different types of pumpkins on each table along with brown bulletin board paper.  I got the procedure for this activity here.

This was also the first time for this activity.  It took 2 rotations to get the hang of the routine of writing what you see and not talking. Students REALLY wanted to share with one another what they saw.  After visiting every table and writing about what they saw, students then went back to their table and discussed what was written on their sheet of paper.  They also compared this to what they saw at other tables.  My students loved this idea, and it is something we'll definitely do again.

What do you do to learn about fall and pumpkins in your classroom?

Our Bodies

My future medical professionals were hard at work this week learning about our bodies.

Each day we learned about a body system and worked on creating a body to show the different body systems.  To learn about the body systems, we used my little book in my pack My Body Is Amazing.  We covered the following systems: skeletal, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, nervous and digestive.

After learning about the body system for the day, students worked to create the body system in their "person".  Last Friday I told them who was in their group, and they worked to decide who was going to be traced.  Bodies were traced and ready to go for our first system on Tuesday (no school for the kiddos Monday).

Each group (5 groups of 4 kiddos per group) used the same materials, but got different results.  In addition to creating the body systems, student also had to label certain organs.  I wrote the words out for them on a dry erase board for them to copy.  At the end of our "body creation", I took the labels around to each group and had them tell me where to find each part and why it is important for us.  I was very impressed with how much students retained throughout the week.  When the kids took their person to dry in our literacy coach's room (thanks for sharing your floor space with us, Carol!), she also chatted with them about their person.

Here you can see the brain and them working to add bones.

Here is a completed person; these are hanging in the hall outside our room. The skull and rib cage (which 4 groups insisted we HAD to have) are taped on so you can lift them and see the organs below.

This was my second year doing a project similar to this.  Both times have been a very different experience.  Not only is each small group different, but the materials and thought process of the class as a whole was different.  You can read a little bit about last year's experience here.  I loved doing each body system the day we learned about it this year rather than waiting until the end of the week to do the whole thing at one time like we did last year.

In our dramatic play center, we also had "blood".  Thanks Pinterest!  We did not have any white blood cells in our blood because I thought the ping pong balls looked too big.  I told the kids those were missing but that they are part of our blood.  When our literacy coach came in one day, she asked the kids what they were doing.  One replied "Playing in blood.  These are red blood cells".  At least they are learning, right?!?

There were also Dr/Nurse tools available.  I printed some x-rays and an eye chart that were hanging there as well.

After finishing our bodies on Friday, we celebrated with Mary from Sharing Kindergarten's Dem Bones activity.  This was a big hit and a great way to end our body unit!

I'd love to hear how you teach your students about their bodies.  Next week, we are moving on to all things pumpkins and fall.  This girl loves fall, well, not today when it snowed, so I'm excited about the next couple weeks.

Sunday Letters {October 11}

I'm linking up with Michelle from Big Time Literacy for Sunday Letters.

You can read more about Grandparents Day here.

I hate being out, but having a great substitute definitely helps!

My "secret admirer" note.  

The papers used for my letters are from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs and the font is Kevin and Amanda.

Grandparents Day

Yesterday was Grandparents Day at our school.  I have to be honest, as much as I know the kids love to have their grandparents visit, I dread Grandparents Day.  There is always one child who doesn't have a special visitor and there are SO many people in my room (a good problem to have!).    It is only an hour, and I can make most things work for an hour.

This year, Grandparents Day fell at the end of the week I taught the 5 senses.  It was already a busy week with a field trip and I was out a day with professional development.  I decided to do some 5 senses activities with the grandparents.  My student teacher and I set up centers around the room for students and grandparents to visit.  Each center had direction cards at it, and when grandparents entered, they were given a "menu" of the activities available.  I had explained all the activities to students before the grandparents arrived.

I had one little guy without a grandparent, so my student teacher was his special friend for the day.

For the sense of touch, we made slime.  Glue, Borax and water went into this recipe. This table is right by the sink, so it was the perfect table for this activity.

There were 2 activities for the sense of taste. The first was BeanBoozled jelly beans to taste.  With these jelly beans, you never know if you will get a "yum" or a "yuck" flavor. I knew the kids would love this, and even if the grandparents didn't want to taste, they would love watching the kids try it.  

The second taste activity was to try sweet, salty, sour and bitter foods.  There were marshmallows, pretzels, lemon slices and dark chocolate M&Ms available.  Kiddos were to talk to their grandparents about which taste each food had.

The sense of smell also had 2 activities.  The first activity was to use Mr. Sketch markers to make a picture for your grandparent, and the second was to match animal noses to the correct animal.  I made the matching game using google images.  

The activity for listening was to shake plastic Easter eggs and listen to what was inside.  You then matched the eggs to the correct picture.  An answer key was provided on the back of the directions.

Combining sight and hearing, Todd Parr books were available in the classroom library for grandparents to read their grandchildren.  Many of his books are able families, so it fit well in our day.  The kids were so excited to share Todd Parr books with their grandparents.

The sense of sight station was 5x7 picture printed on the school printer and laminated.  We then cut them into different shapes like puzzles and numbered the back of each picture for easy sorting if they got mixed up (each picture had its own number).  I didn't get a picture of these because the kids were on the carpet and these were in a pile out of the way.

Last, but not least, my student teacher helped the kids paint a backdrop for pictures with grandparents.

Overall, it was a great afternoon.  It was crowded and warm in the room, but it was filled with love.  The kids had a great time, their behavior was AMAZING and the time flew by.  I would definitely do most of these activities again next year.  The slime was a hit with the kids, but not as much with the adults.

I'd love to know if your school celebrates grandparents day and what you do (or would do) to celebrate.