October was always one of my favorite months when I was a classroom teacher because it meant we would be celebrating Diffendoofer Day!  I knew that if I wanted my students to become readers for life, I had to find ways to bring books to life! My first #TLAP day came from my love of the Dr. Seuss book Hooray For Diffendoofer Day! The story of students learning in unique and innovative ways spoke to me instantly and I wanted to find a way to show my students that fun is at the heart of learning. This of course meant I needed a costume identical to the main character, Mrs. Bonkers (thank goodness my mom can sew and make last minute costumes) and parent volunteers to donate and assist me in teaching the Diffendoofer School subjects: laughing, smelling, listening, yelling, creating poodles out of noodles, and tying knots.  The goal of my day was two fold: learning and fun go hand in hand and that learning how to think prepares you for life beyond our classroom. It will remain one of my absolute favorite days as a classroom teacher. Please feel free to check out our celebration below:

What a wonderful day in second grade land.  Inspired by the book Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by: Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith, I recreated the day.  The book is all about a school (Diffendoofer School) that is different-er then the rest.  They study things such as smelling, laughing and yelling.  One day they have to take a special test and they are worried they won’t pass because they are different.  If they don’t pass they will have to go to dreary Flobbertown.  You do not want to go to Flobbertown because everyone there does everything the same.  However, once the test is passed out they see that they were taught how to think and they pass with flying colors. They have a celebration with pizza, milk and cake.  They then decide to have a special holiday to celebrate their success!

Our Diffendoofer Day began at morning meeting where Mrs. Ellis, er Mrs. Lowe, introduced the school to some crazy second grade teachers. Then it was off to study the same subjects they study at Diffendoofer School:

1.) Yelling: Mrs. Pitzer’s mom came in and students learned about sound.  They learned how to make noise that was loud and quiet.  They also learned how to change the loudness and pitch of a sound.  Finally they were able to use instruments and their voices to be noise making machines.

2.) Laughing: Students read and laughed at so many Laffy Taffy jokes.  Then they picked their favorite one to illustrate and write about.

3.) Listening: Students had to listen carefully to Halloween noises and try to write down as many sounds as they heard as well as draw a picture of the images they created in their minds.

4.) Tying Knots: In this subject, there were bins filled with; twine, string, shoelaces, fabric, craft loops, yarn and curling ribbon.  The goal was to try to make something entirely made out of knots.  Students discovered which objects tied the best, which objects tied the worst, and that there is more than one way to tie a knot.  We could even wear our creation all day!

5.) Noodle Poodles: Spaghetti noodles, spirals, shells, fettuccine, elbow macaroni and more were available for us to make a poodle out of noodles.  We then got to name our poodle and write something fun about it that we wanted other people to know.

6.) Smelling: *sniff* *sniff* we tested our smelling skills by sniffing 8 different smells.  We had to try to figure out what the smell was and describe the smell using juicy adjectives.  We then picked the best and worst smells.  Some of the smells included: grape Kool-Aid, onion, vinegar, pumpkin, popcorn, chocolate and cinnamon.

Next it was time for science class by making robotic rats out of soup cans and foam balls.  We got to decorate our rat however we wanted adding pipe cleaners, washers, bolts, buttons, googley eyes and sticky foam pieces. It was so fun to create our robotic masterpiece.

After science, we drew pictures upside just like the art teacher Mr. Breeze who drew pictures hanging by his knees.  We sat under the tables and drew the life cycle of our robotic rats!

Finally our day ended with some mathematics fun.  We traveled through the following math centers:

1.) Math Bingo: We played bingo for prizes but we had to find a problem that matched the number given.  We had to really think and practice important skills such as fact families and fact fluency.

2.) Math Games: There were so many games to choose from: Tanagrams, Optical Art, and tricky puzzles.  It was neat to see that math can be in board games too!

3.) Candy Corn Math: First our estimation skills were put to the test by trying to figure out how many candy corns fit in the jar. (571 pieces!) Then we used candy corns to measure objects and determine which objects were longer and which were shorter.

4.) Eggo Math: Students worked with a friend to race to 1,000.  They used an egg carton to shake buttons to see what numbers they would land on.  Next, they added those numbers by practicing their regrouping skills.  They then kept a running total to try to get to 1,000 first.

We also could not have had a day like this without parent volunteers and donations of all kinds. Thank you to Mrs. Michanicou, Mrs. Fleming, Mrs. Feuchter, Mrs. Badawi, and Mr. Glover for volunteering your time to help us learn in so many different ways.  Thank you also to all who donated to making this a day to remember!

Here’s to a wonderful day filled with so many activities that allowed us to think AND have fun!