How to Have the Best Birthday Bash for Dr. Seuss Ever!

Will you read it in a box? Will you read it with a fox? Will you read it here and there? Will you read it anywhere?

If you recognize these (adapted) lines, you are a probably a fan of Dr. Seuss. Every year, our school celebrates Read Across America Day (March 2d is Dr. Seuss’s birthday). Sick of the same old reading activities? There is nothing more fun than a birthday celebration! What’s included in your best birthday memory? Balloons? Banners? Presents? Cake? How about a six-foot Cat in the Hat?

Of course the library was Birthday Central!

Anticipating a pending New York snowstorm, I decorated the library doors with scenes from *The Cat in the Hat Comes Back*. The pink blobs are the pink snow hills from the story.

Balloons, Banners, Bookmarks

We decorated the school with balloons and banners. I gave the students bookmarks (okay, not the most exciting present in the world, but…) Our six-foot three-inch principal wore a ginormous Cat in the Hat costume! (Sorry, there was no cake…food allergy rules). We read funny, rhyming Dr. Seuss books in the library and classrooms and did word searches, matching card games, assembled onomatopoeia puzzles, put together compound word fish. Kindergarteners put alphabet cards in a pocket chart after reading Dr. Seuss’s A, B, Cs.

(I could not find last year’s Dr. Seuss shirt, so I used an iron-on transfer to affix an image of a book cover to a ~~read~~ red tee-shirt.)

Dr. Seuss Q & A

Q. What was Dr. Seuss’s first book

A. And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street

Q. Where did he get the name Seuss from?

A. It was his mother’s maiden name

Q. What job did Dr. Seuss’s father have?

A. Zookeeper

Q. What word was almost not allowed in one of his books?

A. “Burp” in Yertle the Turtle (considered rude)

Some friends of the library reading their autobiographies.

Onomatopoeia Puzzles go with Mr. *Brown Can* *Moo, Can You*?

Drop Everything and Read

Then, everyone goes into the Gym or All Purpose Room to “Drop Everything and Read” for 15 minutes.

Special Area Activities

In past years, we have done other activities too. One year, we had all the “specials” do Dr. Seuss activities. Physical Education teachers used the book, A Great Day for Up, to do all kinds of physical activities with the theme of “UP” (such as batting balloons up, bouncing birdies on badminton rackets, walking on stilts, etc.) The Music teachers sang Dr. Seuss songs (yes, we used The Cat in the Hat Songbook). Art teachers read The Shape of Me and had students cut out silhouettes.