The Foot Book and Opposites

Hello!  I know it's been a minute (or several) since my last post.  We've had sick kiddos at our house, and that's never fun.  Then Mommy got sick too, and things pretty much came to a halt around here!  We were functioning on the bare minimum basically - going to school and work, doing essential laundry, minimal cooking.  But I don't have to go into details for the moms out there...you get it, right?!

 

So I will do my best to get you caught up on our classroom happenings from last week, but not in this post.  Those will come over the next few days.  Today's post is all about The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss and opposites.

 

Now, usually during Centers, we have the easel open.  On Monday, however, we decided to do something a little different.  Special.  We did the exact opposite of painting with our hands -  we painted with our feet!  What better way for the kiddos to get the "feel" of opposites?!

Oh I wish you could've heard the squeals of delight when the kids painted with their tootsies!  It was absolutely AWESOME!  And I will be honest - I didn't think some of the kids would do it.  We always encourage, but never force our children to participate in an activity.  If they really don't want to do it, we don't make them.  So when I told them what we were going to do, I did hear a few kids say "I'm not doing that!", but when it was their turn, they happily stripped off their socks and shoes and dipped their little piggies into pink and blue paint!  I heard lots of expressions like:

"It's cold!"

"It feels squishy!"

"It's wet!"

(and my favorite)

"Can we do that again?"

 

We also played an opposites matching game.  This one was challenging!  Before we even started, we named each of the pictures, so that the kids knew what they were looking at.  Some opposite pairs were up/down, happy/sad, old/young, hard/soft.  Once they got the hang of it, they quickly matched up the opposites.  This is a good skill to work on at home, because opposites are difficult for some children.  If you'd like to print out your own free copy of this game, you can find it at Over the Moonbow.

During Circle, we read:

 

We also played an opposites game with our feet.  I would call out something like "down feet", and the kids would do the opposite - put their feet up in the air. 

 

We introduced the letter Uu, and practiced counting by 10's to 100 by singing our "100 Days" song.  Ask your kiddo to sing it for you!

 

After snack, we read the very first book that Dr. Seuss wrote:

 

If you haven't read this one, you're missing out!  It's one of my favorites, and I think you will love it.  Check it out at the public library, or ask your kiddo to borrow it from our school collection! 

 

Much more Seusstastic fun is on the way - our March calendar is packed with Seussical fun!  Stay tuned!