Dr. Seuss meets the Document Camera

Our new unit of study in readers workshop focuses on character study and what better characters to spend some time with than those created by Theodor Seuss Geisel. In writers workshop we will be working on constructed responses to prompts. Again, Dr. Seuss opens many doors to the imagination.
As the children arrived to school on Tuesday morning they were greeted by the aroma of green eggs and ham! Even the most reluctant eaters gave them a try and many were surprised by how much they enjoyed the breakfast surprise. We all donned Cat in the Hat style crowns and spent a good part of the day reading, watching, and thinking about the 108 year old author and illustrator.

Over the vacation I installed a document camera on to our SMART board and we are discovering many, many uses for this "new to us" technology. Along with our study of Dr. Seuss' books in literacy we are working on our listening skills (particularly with follow through to directions). Well, the document camera has proven to be worth it's weight in gold! We were sharing our first assignment that entailed several components toward meeting the goal (and a couple more to exceed). Everyone was sure they had either met or exceeded the goal. As it turned out only 3 children met and 2 exceeded. Almost everyone else asked if they could have their papers back for a second go. On our second assignment we had only shared 3 papers when many children raised their hands and asked if they could "do a little more" before their work was shared. How much am I loving this . . . let me count the ways!

Tomorrow we use the document camera to investigate reflective angles using pattern blocks and a hinged mirror. Who has more fun than us I ask?!