Puppy Pallooza!

I am so excited about this unit! I am really focusing in on sight words and really developing my little readers this month.  I wanted to make it interesting, engaging and fun for my kids. So, I bought each child a puppy puppet.  I then decorated the classroom with puppy pictures and I wrote a message to my students on the white board that said we would each be adopting a new friend. Once we read the message, the kids were full of questions. I think they thought we were going to get a class pet. I even had one child ask if I had bought them a fish! 
I had them close their eyes and my educational assistant and I placed the puppies all over the carpet. The children opened their eyes and I could tell they were excited! 
I went on to explain that these puppies were VERY special and they could only be fed a special way because these puppies are a very special breed. They are WORD puppies and you can only feed them by reading sight words to them and by reading books. The kids were intrigued and believed (or played along).  
I gave each child a strip of manila paper (their collar) to decorate and print their puppies name on it. I said I would laminate the collars and then we would put them on their puppies the next day. After the collars, all the children brought their puppies to the carpet and I read them the story, Rocket Learns to Read by Tad Hills. This story fits in GREAT! 
I also filled our bookshelf with various dog themed stories.

Our list of Learning Targets 

The story that fits in perfectly! 

Reading to our puppies, which "feeds" them! 

Puppy tucked into a chair pocket

My principal came in and watched the whole lesson. She really enjoyed it and said it was wonderful to see how engaged the children were and it was so nice to see that even after almost 20 years of teaching,  I was just as excited about it all as the kids were and she could tell. 
I also told the children that they had to earn the right to adopt and keep their puppy for forever. When the kids heard that, they instantly wanted to know how to earn the right to take their puppy home. So that's when I brought out the LEARNING TARGETS for this whole "project." I read the targets to the children and asked them if they think they would be able to meet those targets? All of the children agreed and want to work hard to earn the right to take their puppy home. Right now all the puppies have to stay at school in each child's chair pocket. The children hug and kiss their puppies at the end of the day and tuck them into their chair pockets. It is so adorable!
Coming up we will have Puppy centres! I will add photos of this next time! This is so fun!