Wrapping Up Read Across America (Ideas and FREEBIES to Celebrate Reading)

Be careful what you wish for . . .

Over the past couple of months I have been wishing for a snow day.  I live in an area that gets very little snow.  When it does come, we get out and take full advantage of it.  Plus a surprise day off from school is always welcome.

Snow-wise, this year was shaping up to be a total dud.  Then, about three weeks ago, everything changed.  We had ice and snow and then snow again.  Leaving us with more snow fun than anyone wanted.  Long story short, we haven't been in school for a full week since Valentine's Day.

Planning for these interruptions is a bit of a challenge, especially when special events are on the calendar.  

Our school celebrated Read Across America over the past week.  While everything I (and our school) planned for Read Across America didn't happen.  We still fit in some fun Seuss inspired learning activities to mark the week.

We started by reading The Cat in the Hat and making these writing craftivities to display in the classroom.  Students wrote about what would happen if the Cat in the Hat visited their homes.  I love how they turned out.

We also "played" a round of Seussical Scoot.  I placed word cards around the room; some on the walls, some on my shelves, and some on the desks.  Students read the words and determined if they had a long vowel sound or not.  Then they wrote the words on their recording sheets.
My kids love scoot and write the room activities.  They think they are playing a game.  I'm all for this format for many reasons.  It's a great way to get the wiggles out.

Of course we had a chance to read a some Dr. Seuss books.  We made this quick and simple graph on our white board of our favorite Dr. Seuss books.

Friday was Green Day.  We read Green Eggs and Ham.  We used this book as a jumping off point for a differentiated number order activity.
I put together four sets of green plastic eggs that had numbers inside.  Students worked in small groups to write the next three numbers, either counting by ones or counting by tens.  As a bonus, they colored the eggs on their recording sheets green if the number inside was even.
They kids really had a great time doing this activity.  It's definitely one I'll use again.

We had a green eggs and ham snack.  I saw this treat on pinterest.  I thought it looked simple enough to pull together on a weeknight and would store easily if we had yet another snow day.
To make them, I used pretzels, white chocolate chips, and M & M's.  I placed the pretzels on a cookie sheet with two chips on top of each one.  I melted the chips in the oven and them took them out.  While the chocolate was still hot, I placed an M & M on top.
I used mint M & M's.  The entire bag was green, which was perfect.

I found the perfect shirt to wear for Green Day at Teacher T-Shirts.  I ordered a couple of different ones for this year's Read Across America festivities.  But, because of the snow, this is the only one I got to wear.
The site has several cute shirt options.  They not only have RAA shirts, they also have grade level specific tees, 100th Day tees, St. Patrick's Day teacher tees, and more.

All and all, I feel like the interrupted week didn't dampen our celebration of Read Across America.  RAA is a great way to welcome March.  

If you would like a FREE copy of my green eggs math activity (you do not have to have a class set of plastic green eggs to make it work) or a FREE copy of my vowel discrimination scoot, click on the pictures below.

       

Well, that's it for now.  Thanks so much for stopping by.
Best.