On Friday we had a reading party with just our two CI classrooms to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday and March is reading month.  Sometimes we struggle to find a balance with inclusion.  We love that our students can have the opportunity to go to classroom parties with their peers and can participate in a classroom with other second graders. But as many of you know, party days for some students (and parents) can be stressful and not at all fun.  Extra noise, unexpected events, unstructured time, and unpredictability can turn what's supposed to be a fun day into a very frustrating event.   Our goal is to try and balance experiences with peers and fun, low-stress activities.  We had considered holding a party on Valentine's Day, but it was such a busy day with classroom parties that we decided to postpone and have a Dr. Seuss party instead!

For our party, we opted to have five centers that small groups of students and their parent/special person could rotate through.  The goal for each center was of course to have fun but we also tried to reinforce things we had learned in the classroom. 

Bowling for Dr. Seuss Books
We had pictures of Dr. Seuss books we had read taped to bowling pins.  The students had fun identifying and recalling what they had read as well as practicing their gross motor bowling skills. 

Sensory Treasure Hunt
The kindergarten room in our school has a rice table.  We borrowed it and added Dr. Seuss-themed things for the kids to search for.  Our student teacher, Mrs. Draayer, made a fantastic treasure map that listed the Dr. Seuss books and the corresponding things to look for.  We like to incorporate sensory activities when we can, and the kids had a blast digging through the rice.

Bean Bag Toss
For this center we had the students practice their underhand tossing while trying to get the bean bag into the hole past thing one and thing two.  We had a lot of fun encouraging each other and of course taking turns.

Snack Center
It wouldn't be a party without food!  For our snack center, we had the kids listen to directions to make a Dr. Seuss striped hat out of marshmallows.  The students had to use strong hands to squish the marshmallows and then had to follow directions to make the different colored stripes.  And, of course, they got to eat the snack!

Photo Booth
The final center was set up as a photo booth in the reading corner.  We used a striped backdrop, truffula tree inspired hanging poofs, and lots of Dr. Seuss props to make an interactive photo booth.  The students (and their special guests) got to dress up with their favorite Dr. Seuss attire and get a picture taken.  When they were finished with their photo opportunity, they could choose a Dr. Seuss book from our display to read with their special guest.  

In science this month we are studying flight.  I love teaching science but it is always a little bit of a struggle to find materials for each unit I teach since we don't have an official "curriculum". I created this unit using ideas from a book I purchased called Hands-on Science by Scholastic and then building on those ideas with activities I knew my class would be able to relate to. We started the unit last week by brainstorming a list of things that fly and then making a venn-diagram categorizing those items. We used pictures we found on the internet and with the Educreations app on the ipad we were able to move around our pictures within the venn diagram!  To tie this concept into a previous unit, we divided our pictures as either "living" or "non-living". It was great to simply print this page and send it home with their homework to share with parents. 

This week our objective was "wings help things fly". We began our lesson by observing a paper as it fell to the floor. It didn't fly at all. We thought like scientists to try to think of ways we could make the paper fly. I made a simple whirlybird (a straight piece of paper cut in half at the top and then folded down as wings) and the students observed that the whirlybird could fly because it had wings. We then made paper airplanes and ended our lessons with observing whose paper airplane could fly the furthest in a quick contest. The students loved the lesson, but most importantly they were all able to restate the objective at the end of the lesson that wings help things fly! 

-Mrs. Childress