Today was all about The Cat in the Hat.

I even wore my Thing 1 shirt to school today.  No blue hair though.  That would have been over the top!

We made Things (thanks Tina Ruff).  And now our classroom has been invaded.  There is no hope for any peace for me now!

You can't have Things running around the classroom without a Cat.  

So we made his hat.  

And ate it. 

I could not put my sanity to the test by making the lifesaver gummy - frosting hats.  Tomatoes and cream cheese were too unwieldy for 20 kindergarten kidlets.

Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons had the perfect answer.  


Three slices of banana.  Three slices of strawberries.  A skewer or popsicle stick. 


We constructed the hats.  




And ate the hats. 

Fun.  Healthy.  And my sanity is still intact.

Tomorrow is Green Eggs and Ham.  Sanity reassessment at the dismissal bell.  







This is write the report cards week, anti-bullying/pink shirt day week, and Dr Seuss' birthday week.

Instead of writing report cards, I was blog stalking and playing Pinterest, looking for some Dr Seuss fun yesterday afternoon.

This is what I think my kidlets will be enjoying at the end of the week.

In Lieu of Preschool made this Dr Seuss sensory bin.  They created the truffula trees from painted cotton balls and sticks.  Very cool.  I like to save The Lorax for Earth Day, so we will have to create some other Seussical trees.

source: In Lieu of Preschool
My favourite Dr Seuss book is Green Eggs and Ham.  'Cause I like it, Sandi I am.  

Coffee Cups and Crayons filled a green plastic Easter egg with sand and had relay races.  

If we eat green eggs (no ham), we'll go for green pudding with a vanilla wafer. ( Let's hope those report cards get written easily. )  These are the green eggs that Mrs Lirette and her Learning Detectives enjoyed last year - vanilla pudding dyed green and a vanilla wafer. 
source: Mrs Lirette and her Learning Detectives
Most of my kids do not have the foggiest clue who Tim Tebow is (hockey is king here - ask them about the Vancouver Canucks), but they like videos, so they might get to enjoy lunch with a movie.




And a song.




                                 

Or two.




                                    

The Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 are fabulous characters (even though I don't find the book as amusing as many other's do).

I love these Things that Tina Ruff made with her kids.  

source: Tina Ruff Pinterest
This snack from Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons is fun, quick to prepare and healthy.  
source: Kitchen Fun with my Three Sons
I am not sure that I can gracefully put on Justin Bieber reading the Cat in the Hat.  I'll send the link home, just to reinforces that home-school connection :)

And of course, we will indulge in lots and lots of Dr Seuss books.  Hmm ... who can I get to come in and read with us ...







            

Anti-bullying day is next week.  So, it's time to "think pink".

I prefer to think pro-actively and support kindness, caring and acceptance rather than teach the symptoms of bullying.


Noah and the Whale's song Give a Little Love works perfectly for that.




We watched it.  A few times.  

Then we made our own video with our big buddies.

Their teacher roughed out the story line, a dad who is a professional videographer volunteered his expertise, and we were ready for filming.  









The premiere showing is this Wednesday at the school's Anti-bullying Assembly.  The video is under wraps until them.

The kids were awesome.

And they are pretty excited about being in a video. 

I hope that they remember - have written into their lives - that kindness begets kindness.  

To "give a little love".  





ps  Without the help of our students teachers (who basically took over the classes for the morning)  we could not have filmed our video.  Thanks ladies.
Dragons are wonderful for catching the imagination.

We read about Chinese dragons as part of our Lunar New Year fun, and expanded to books about dragons who breathe fire, fight with knights, kidnap princesses (or princes), live in Honalee, are lonely for friends or are afraid of mice.

Yup.  Afraid of mice. A fire-breathing, princess stealing, treasure hiding dragon, afraid of mice.


George and the Dragon
written and illustrated by Christ Wormell
published by Random House, 2006
fiction
amusing for children 3-7
themes: dragons, mice, fractured fairy tale setting

how the book begins
Far far  away in the high, high mountains in a deep, deep valley in a dark, dark cave ... there live a mighty dragon. 

story summary
Far, far away in the darkest cave in the deepest valley amongst the highest mountains there lives a huge and terrifying dragon. With his fiery breath and mighty strength, this awesome beast fears no man. But there is something he is afraid of? Enter George: he may not look like much of a hero, but a hero he turns out to be. (from the inside front cover)

why I love this book
The Independent called George and the Dragon "quirky and ebullient".  I agree.  I love how the dragon's fierceness is built up  - this is a dragon that should definitely not be messed with.  But he has a fatal flaw, an Achilles heel.  One with whiskers and a tail.  This flaw made my kidlets laugh.  A great big, fierce, fire breathing dragon afraid of something tiny wee.  Maybe it's not so bad to be small after all.  

resources
George and the Dragon is a story that begs to be acted out and retold.  Luckily, I had a castle, a dragon and a George.  


The kidlets added a princess.  Then a prince and a knight.  The director found a clipboard and became quite adept at calling "places" and "quiet on the set".  Everyone always lived happily ever after.

Dragons are great fun to draw.  

The kidlets and I did a directed drawing of a dragon, and then their creativity went wild.  They were sharing ideas, telling each other the story of their dragon, even complimenting each other's work.


One of our brilliant grade 1/2 teachers down the hall painted dragons with her kidlets.  It was wonderful to see the creativity and talent of some of my former kidlets.  


Some other dragon books that we know and love are





What are some of your favourite dragon books?




Today we celebrated Lunar New Year at school.

Gung Hay Fat Choy to everyone.


As part of our preparations, we tried our hand at creating  a Chinese symbol.




This looked like something that was within the realm of our possible - and the meaning was perfect - harmonious living.  

We can all do with a little harmonious living!
Gung Hay Fat Choy!

We are getting our classroom ready to welcome the Lunar New Year.



A good luck dragon is up on wall.


Paper lanterns are hung.


Rice (cut up wool) is in the noodle boxes.


And real rice is in Chinese tea cups for scooping practice.



And I saw something new (to me) on Pinterest; Let's Go Fly a Kite made a beautiful Lunar New Year lantern craft with her kids.


Even though I have a couple more lantern activities in my Lunar New Year Box, the kindergarten ADHD kicked in, and I just had to do this with the kidlets.


First step was to get strips of a Chinese language  newspaper. Luckily in my Lunar New Year box, along with the other lantern projects, I have a Chinese newspaper that my brother sent me, oh, about 15 years ago when he lived in Hong Kong. The hoarder side of me said a very supercilious "I told you so" to the minimalist side of me. The newspaper was photocopied and cut into strips.




The strips were glued onto paper.  Let's Go Fly a Kite glued hers on so that the strips looked like high rise buildings.  That looked really good, and that's what I suggested the kidlets do.


Bless the kidlets, some of them had their own ideas.  One little artist filled his whole page with newspaper strips.  It looked stunning when it was finished.


We stamped on the lanterns with wine corks - red, gold and orange.  We didn't like the orange, and will probably stick with the gold and red next time.




A "good fortune" paper cutter for some Chinese character flair. Framed in black.  They look good.








Tomorrow, we are going to sweep all our bad luck away, say farewell to the old year and welcome in the new.



As I was looking through my Lunar New Year's books, I found one that I have managed to overlook in other years.

My loss.  It is beautiful.  A perfect picture book for Friday.  



The Squiggle
written by Carole Lexa Schaefer
illustrated by Peirr Morgan
published by Dragonfly Books, 1999
fiction
themes: imagination, Chinese culture
delightful for children 3 - 7

opening lines

My teacher says, "Time to walk to the park." So, as always, off we go in a bunched up, slow, tight, straight line.  I am last. No one else sees what I see on the sidewalk.



summary (from the book cover)

As she walks to the park with her school class, a young girl finds a piece of string which her imagination turns into a dragons tail, an acrobat, fireworks, a storm cloud and more.

why I love this book

• I love books that tickle the imagination and encourage the reader to see everyday objects or occurrences from a new perspective.
The Squiggle reminds me of Except IfNot a Box, and Not a Stick, other books I love.
• The text is simple, providing space for the imagination.
• The use of onomatopoeia allows me to "hear" the adventures with the squiggle.
• The illustrations (markers and gouache on "oatmeal" paper), inspired by Asian brush stroke painting, clearly show the imaginary incarnations of the squiggle.
• The children are Asian; I like my classroom library to include a books that depict a variety of ethnicities and cultures.
• The adventures of the squiggle teach about Chinese culture.
• At the end of the story, the children are no longer walking in a "bunched up, slow, tight line".  They have transformed into a joyful squiggle.

resources

This book begs for a piece of red string and time to play with it to see what it will become.  Markers, crayons or pencils could complete the picture.  I see some red string in my classroom's future next week.
source:  Scholastic
The Squiggle reminds us that going on a walk can be an adventure, not just a means of transportation (or exercise).  Go on a walk, open to the possibilities presented by the imagination.

Celebrate the Chinese culture presented through the illustrations.


Create a Chinese New Year's dragon.




source: Handprint and Footprint Art



source: Handprint and Footprint Art


source: Kaboose
Take a dragon on parade.

 Eat long life noodles.



Happy reading and Gung Hay Fat Choy!





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