Synonym Socks

This year, our Dr. Seuss celebration included silly sock day. It is always so fun to be able to take off our shoes and wiggle our toes once in a while. Any child who could independently put their shoes back on, was aloud to keep them off in our room ALL day.

We were learning about synonyms. (I love how that word comes out of their little mouths much like cinnamon!)

Each page featured a pair of socks. On the cuff of one sock, I had written a word. Each child colored their silly socks like a matching pair as they thought of a synonym for the given word. I then went around and added the great synonyms to the other sock each child was making. 

We turned our synonym socks into a matching book. The pages were laminated and Velcro dots were added to each page and sock. Students remove the socks from the envelope that was bound as part of the book and match the socks. They can then read the synonyms they matched.

Truffula Trees

This week we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss.

I decided to make Truffula Trees from the The Lorax to put on the student tables this week.

Here are my finished trees. (still in my kitchen since it is Sunday evening and I am not at school yet for the week.)

I looked on sites for ideas then combined the best of several different posts to make them my way.

First start with a $1 toilet plunger  from the Dollar Tree. ( I am quite certain these plungers would be ill equipped to handle the job they were equipped to do, but they work great for this!)

Supplies for one tree:
One plunger
Duct tape
10 pieces of coordinating tissue paper
Electrical tape
A scrap from a plastic party table cloth large enough to cover your plunger end double thickness
Twist ties (two extra long ones or several regular sized)

Cover the plunger handles with duct tape.

Then split a long piece of contrasting duct tape in half lengthwise. Twist it around the covered handle for the stripe.

Cut a large circle from two thicknesses of the plastic table cloth. (14" circles worked best for the plungers I had)

Pull the plastic up around the plunger end. And secure with an XL twist tie. (Or twist more than one together end to end  to make an extra long one.)

Then cut off any extra long pieces sticking up. Wrap duct tape over the exposed edges.

Next make the tissue paper tops like you would any tissue paper flower except start with square pieces of tissue paper. (These do not have to be exact.) I jut piled up the 10 pieces of coordinating tissue as evenly as possible. I then cut them all at once into the largest squares possible from the pieces.

 Accordian fold the pieces all together. I then rounded off the ends and cut about 2" off each end. Secure with another XL twist tie. 

Being very careful, separate each half in half again and pull apart as much as possible. 

Then begin separating each piece very carefully.

One completed half looks like this. Continue with the other half.

Then I seperated the flower and used electrical tape ( red in this picture) to secure the pompon to the top of the stick and wrapped duct tape around the electrical tape and twist tie. 

 Fluff up the pompon again and you are good to go!!!

Finished Truffula Trees

In my classroom. Waiting for my kinders to arrive.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Creative Cornerstones

The room for Creative Cornerstones 2013 continued

Extending great books

Some of the great books we shared

Graphing Seuss

Creative Cornerstones

Here is a glimps of the room ready for my presentation in 2013.

Winter Centers

Interactive writing

Valentine's Day, Dental health and more

State and national symbols, Math and Dr. Seuss

Down on the farm, Eggs and other Spring ideas

Book extensions

Dr Seuss

We LOVE Dr Seuss centers! The kids were all hoping that the Lorax would win this dice game. I love how excited kindergarten kiddos get for the smallest things!

Dr Seuss

We celebrated Dr Seuss this week with lots of fun and silly activities!  Silly Sock Day

Here are pages from our silly sock book before it is bound.Each child made a matching pair of socks and attached one to a page of our book. We counted by twos to see how many silly socks we had all together. This year we had 40 silly socks. After laminating the pages and individual socks, it will be bound into a matching book. The kids love to play this matching game.

It works well in a book format.

Here is the envelope page. Having a place to put loose socks 

makes transitions easier in our classroom. Cleanup is quick

When there is a quick place to put all loose socks.