June 24
Today's activity day was inspired by Dr. Seuss' books. I found a collection of
Dr. Seuss field day stations,
Seuss-Perb stations, and
Dr. Seuss activities that I used to create the 12 stations for today's activity. I had to modify the different activities to meet the ability levels of my students and yet make it interesting for their reading buddies. Here are the stations:
Station1 was a hopscotch for the book "Hop on Pop." As you can see I had one of my kiddos help me draw and number the hopscotch. Another kiddo helped by "decorating" the area.
Somehow I missed getting a picture of Station 2, "Cat in the Hat," I did get pictures of the activity being played. The students were to take a ball and toss it into a milk crate.
Station 3 was a ring toss based on the three ring circus found in "If I Ran the Circus."
Station 4 was based on 2 books "Dr. Seuss' ABC Book" and "The Shape of Me and Other Stuff." The activity was to choose a card from the bucket, take a jump rope, and make the letter or shape (from the card) out of the jump rope.
Station 5 was based on the book "Green Eggs and Ham." The kiddos were to start in the hula hoop and balance the plate (frisbee) with a piece of ham (orange bean bag) and two green eggs (small foam balls) on one hand. While balancing the plate they were to run to an orange cone and back with out dropping the eggs or ham.
Station 6 was based on the book "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish." The students were to take the fishing pole and catch one of the fish. On the back of the fish was a piece of Duck tape. In the small blue bucket there were action cards for the student to do. To identify which card/action they were to do, the action cards had a small piece of duck tape on the back.
Station7 was based on the book "There is a Wocket in My Pocket." The objective was to stand in the hula hoop and toss a koosh ball into a the bucket. To make it a bit more difficult for the older kids, could try tossing the koosh ball into a basket hanging on the tree branch.
Again I didn't get a picture of Station 8 before the activity, but I did get pictures of the kiddos doing the activity. The station was based on the book "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back." This station was very similar to station 2, the difference was that at this station the kiddos put their back to the milk crate and tossed the ball over their head and into the crate.
Station 9 was based on the book "My Many Colored Days." This was basically a bowling game. I filled water bottles with water that had been dyed different colors. The objective was to "roll" the basketball down and knock over the Pins. Many found it was easier to bounce, toss, or shot put the ball at the pins to get the desired result.
Station 10 was about "The Foot Book." The objective was to stand on either the exercise ball or the monkey balance board that has rockers on the bottom.
Station 11 was based on the book "Horton Hatches the Egg." Horton (the kiddo) was to sit on the egg (bouncy ball) in the starting hula hoop ring and then bounce over to and around the cone.
Finally, station 12 was just a birthday cake for Dr. Seuss. The candles were some preschool lawn darts. The instructions recommended using plastic bowling pins, but they just fell off with every little breeze so .... I improvised. The lawn darts were weighted and they made it a little bit more difficult to "blow out" with the bean bags. Then one clever little kiddo found that if you hit the cake the candles fell off. They all thought that was very clever. I put a damper on that fun by suggesting that we probably wouldn't want to eat a bruised cake. There was some eye rolling and giggles but they worked harder at throwing the bean bags at the candles rather than the cake. :~}
Inside things were looking good too.
For snack I made "Green Eggs and Ham" (pretzels with white chocolate and a green M&M) then we allowed "Thing 1" to help serve them. The picture on the right was "Truffla Trees" (fresh apple mini muffins base, with a pretzel stick for the trunk, and cotton candy for the 'leaves'). I made the trees the night before and there was humidity in the air and the trees melted and became hard. Even though they look pretty sad, they were all eaten and we made more.
We also had string cheese decorated to look like the cat in the hat. I learned that as I worked on the cheese I had to keep wiping off the condensation to get the marker to stick. We had "Thing 2" serving colored Gold Fish Crackers.
I made strawberry smoothies for our "Pink Ink Drink," they were a big hit. The Cat in the Hat and the Lorax supervised the snack table.
THE ACTIVITY
The preferred way to do the hopscotch station was barefoot. The kiddos worked on gross motor skills jumping on one foot and then on both feet. They also worked on fine motor skill of foot eye coordination.
Here are the pictures of Station 2 "The Cat in the Hat." The hula hoop was about 3 feet away from the target. The kiddos really liked the textile feel of the giant koosh ball. The challenge was to toss the giant koosh ball into the milk crate. Here the kiddos were challenging their gross motor skill of throwing and fine motor eye hand coordination.
The ring toss did not have a great appeal to the students. The hula hoop had a greater appeal, the older kiddos used it as a hula hoop. This station was intended to strengthen fine motor skill of eye hand coordination. When they started hula hooping they turned it into a gross motor skill body awareness and body awareness.
Station 4 was in the shade and that was a big draw. The kiddos liked making the shapes better than making the letters. This station used fine motor skills of eye hand coordination.
Green Eggs and Ham race was a popular station. The younger kiddos held the plate like they were instructed to do; but, the older ones got creative with how they held the 'plate.' Gross skills of balance, spatial orientation, and balance were needed to complete the task.
Station 6 was enjoyed by all, several times we had to play 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' to see who would get to go fishing next. They enjoyed the challenge of hooking the fish and then getting to complete a challenge. Eye hand coordination was needed to do the fishing. The challenges they completed used gross motor skills of crawling through the tunnel, galloping like a horse, and running.
Station 7 required eye hand coordination. I hung the basket in the tree for the bigger kids, but the younger ones just knew that they could get the small koosh ball (the wocket) into the basket too. And most of them did.
Station 8 was a bit more difficult because the kiddos had to stand with the crate behind them and get the large koosh ball into it.
Station 9 provided the kiddos a lot of fun. Each pair used a different technique of getting the ball down the "alley" to knock over the bowling pins.
Station 10 was suppose to be challenging, the rocking board I thought would be difficult for some so that is why I put out the exercise ball for them to balance on.
Horton hatches the egg was by far the funniest station. The kiddos had a lot of trouble just staying on the"egg." There were a lot of giggles as they tried to stay atop the ball.
Station 12 became a lot more exciting when the boys discovered that if you hit the cake hard enough, the candles would be knocked off.
The bigger kids used the hula hoops to keep them entertained as they waited for their partner to complete the activity.
I was amazed that the power preschool kids had over their older partners. One preschooler convinced her sister that she was too tired to walk to the next station so she got a piggy back ride. This quickly caught on with the other sister team.
Overall the activity was a huge success.
Follow-up note: I still have children talking about the Seuss-perb activity more than a year after the activity.
