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Mark your calendars: March 2 is Dr. Seuss’s birthday and March 3, 2014, is NEA’s Read Across America Day!

“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child”

March has barely just begun and it is already jammed packed with fun events and happenings.  First up is our beloved Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2.  Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2,1904 – September 24,1991) was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children’s books written under the pen names of Dr. Seuss, and Theo LeSieg. Everyone in our family is a huge Dr. Seuss fan.  Last year we decided to celebrate in high fashion by having a read a-loud gathering. Everyone will bring one or two of their Seuss favorites. Here’s a sample of the “books of honor” during this fun reading event:

• Horton Hears A Who
• Horton Hatches an Egg
•  Happy Birthday to You
• The Sneetches and Other Stories
• The Lorax
• Yertle the Turtle
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Oh Say Can you Seed?
• Hop on Pop
• Green Eggs and Ham
• Fox in Socks
• The Cat in the Hat
• The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish

Here are some more fun and creative Seuss ideas from our fellow book lovers and bloggers.

Allie from No Time for Flashcards has a great roundup of Seuss-ey activities! (55 to be exact!)

More “Seuss-inspired” treats and eats at Keitha’s Chaos! (Love McElligot’s Pool)

The House of Burke had this sweet One Fish, Two Fish craft

Make and Takes has 9 Creative Ways to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday!

KCEdventures has some great suggestions on Dr. Seuss Books and Games that Encourage Creativity – Inspire Creativity, Reduce Chaos & Encourage Learning with Kids

In the mood for a different kind of Seuss Induced Fun? Check out these resources:

NEA’s Read Across America

Seussville! 

Dr. Seuss ebooks at Digital StoryTime

OceanHouse Media: Need some activity ideas for Dr. Seuss’s birthday and Read Across America Day? OceanHouse Media has an entire Pinterest board dedicated to Dr. Seuss crafts, recipes, games and more!
Check it out here: http://bit.ly/1duJxI

Enjoy!

The post Happy Dr. Seuss’s Birthday! {and Read Across American Day} appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

Talk about timeless–how about this book from 1937? It’s Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book, and I thought I’d wrap up this week of celebrating his birthday with talking about one more of his classic books. And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street is, of course, a fantastical version of an actual street from Ted Geisel’s childhood–Mulberry Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. I’m telling you, Dr. Seuss is one of those living-proof legends that wrote what he knew with great success!

So, if you’ve never read this classic Dr. Seuss tale, then here’s a quick summary: Marco’s dad always says to him, “Marco, keep your eyelids up and see what you can see.” So, Marco does, but he’s a bit frustrated because when he tells his dad the things that he has seen, his dad says, “Your eyesight’s much too keen. Stop telling outlandish tales.” So, what kind of outlandish things does Marco see on Mulberry Street? Well, there’s the zebra pulling a wagon–actually a chariot; and oh wait–it’s not a chariot with a zebra, it’s an elephant pulling a big brass band. Marco’s imagination (or keen eyesight) continues to see this wagon pulled by an animal in all sorts of ways, and he just can’t wait to tell his dad until he gets right there with him–and Marco winds up telling him that he saw “a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street.”

Children today will love Marco’s imagination and keep turning the page to see what he comes up with next. They’ll also want to see what he reports to his father. Since teachers and parents are often complaining that children don’t spend enough time imagining any more because they are playing video games and watching movies and TV, And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street is an important book to share with children and celebrate imagination.

After reading this book to students or your children, discuss with them what they could turn the wagon and horse into in their imaginations. Ask them to draw their versions and write a sentence about them. You could even do this activity in an art class with older students–especially if you want to study Dr. Seuss’s illustration style.

And next time you and your children (or students) are outside looking at a street, what can you imagine that you see on South Street or Main Street or Green Street? Create your own version of Dr. Seuss’s celebration of imagination And to Think I Saw it On Mulberry Street!

photo by mape_s www.flickr.com

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

*Picture book for preschoolers through second graders, fantasy
*Young boy as main character
*Rating: Dr. Seuss is at his best in If I Ran the Zoo–from made-up creatures to fantastical places to those ever-clever rhymes.

Short, short summary: Gerald McGrew says that his local zoo is a “pretty good zoo.” But it just has the normal, old animals that all zoos have. So, if Gerald ran it. . .he would do things a little differently. For example, he would travel up past the North Pole in his Skeegle-mobile and bring back a family of “What-do-you-know!” He would hunt in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant and even brave the blistering sands of the Desert of Zind. People from all over, of course, will want to see these amazing animals at the McGrew Zoo. And as he points out at the end, Gerald would just make a few changes to the zoo. (BTW, did you know that Dr. Seuss’s father actually ran a zoo in Springfield, Massachusetts for thirty years? Write what you know, everyone. )

So, what do I do with this book?

1. If I Ran the Zoo is full of Dr. Seuss’s wonderful illustrations. You can do two activities with illustrations. You can read the descriptions of a creature to your students and ask them to draw what they imagine. You can also ask them to create an animal for McGrew’s Zoo, name it, and even write a description–depending on their age and ability levels.

2. Students can write their own versions of If I Ran the Zoo by writing about what they would do with a zoo, or they can also change the place: If I Ran the School or If I Ran a Pizza Parlor. If you have young students, you can do this as a shared writing activity with the repeating sentence: “If I ran the zoo, I would have a ____________________.” If you have older students, they can create their stories themselves.

3. Some of the places such as the North Pole, Africa, and North Dakota are real (of course). Other places, it is clear that Dr. Seuss made them up. Ask your students to give you a thumbs-up if the place you are reading about is a real place (with made-up creatures) or a made-up place. You can also make a list of both on chart paper in a T-table. This can also lead to a discussion of what makes If I Ran the Zoo a fantasy even though parts of it are real.

photo by librarianjill www.flickr.com

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and children across the United States will be involved in Read Across America activities. But before I get into this, I want to announce the winner of the book giveaway contest I held on this blog last week. The winner is. . .Clara Gillow Clark. Thank you to everyone who left comments! I will be hosting another contest next week for a YA book as part of a WOW! blog tour, so stay tuned.

I love Read Across America day. When I taught remedial reading at David Barton Elementary School in Boonville, MO, we had a great celebration for Dr. Seuss. We all had these really cute t-shirts from NEA (and I swear to you that I am wearing mine as I type this post). Some teachers went a step farther and dressed up as Dr. Seuss’s characters such as the Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2–even making their own blue wigs out of blue Easter grass. (Some people are just so creative–it makes you sick! ) We read Dr. Seuss books to kids that day, talked about his funny rhymes, voted on our favorite books in our classrooms, did Dr. Seuss activity sheets, and just celebrated reading. What a great day and a great message–celebrate reading!

It might be too late at your school, in your classroom, or with your home school to plan a big event for tomorrow like this, but you can still celebrate Dr. Seuss’s day and reading with simple activities like taking more time than usual for silent reading, sharing a favorite Dr. Seuss book with your students or children (even if they’re high schoolers), asking students to write a poem or story in Dr. Seuss style with silly made-up words, watching a Dr. Seuss movie and comparing/contrasting it to the book, or even asking children to write about their favorite Dr. Seuss book and why.

The National Education Association has some free resources on their website to use tomorrow. You can find bookmarks, a Read Across America poem, posters, booklists, and even information for parents (if you click on “For Parents” in the sidebar). Here are some Dr. Seuss books to check out, and you can find activities for some of his books on my blog by clicking on his name in the category list on the right-hand side bar. It’s super easy–just look under PICTURE BOOKS and then click on DR. SEUSS!

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!