Dr. Seuss's Birthday

The first week of March is always a big celebration at our school. That is the time we enjoy all of the festivities surrounding the birthday of one of our favorite authors: Dr. Seuss! Dr. Seuss's Birthday is one of our favorite school traditions!

The Kentucky School for the Blind is a special place. All of the students are visually impaired and many have other disabilities as well. For this reason, all of our activities are mutli-sensory.

Our class sizes are small and the student:staff ratio is very small. This gives us the ability to do a lot of hands-on activities that require individualized attention. The activities I will share with you on this page are all easily adaptable to a typical classroom, public library, daycare or homeschool setting.

Celebrate Dr. Suess' Birthday on March 2 for a special treat, or expand the festivities to the first week or even the entire month of March. The important thing of this celebration is not when you observe it. The important thing is that the children see their school giving honor to a writer, a recognition normally reserved for sports figures and rock stars. Children are exposed to literature in a fun way. Reading is associated with fun, and literacy is promoted.

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Our school librarian has used Dr. Seuss's Birthday to promote reading throughout our school.

1. Select a period of time to hold your reading campaign. You could hold your campaign during the month of February and use Dr. Seuss's birthday to give out prizes at the end, or you could use the birthday celebration to kick off the reading event. Whatever you decide to do is fine. There are no hard and fast rules.
2. Provide cut outs of Dr. Seuss hats. Each time a student reads a book he gets a hat to write down the title and author of the book.
3. Post the Dr. Seuss hats in a special and prominent place in the school. If you want to have a competition, these could be posted outside classrooms or on opposite sides of the hallway.
4. Keep the excitement going by announcing the number of books the school has read with the morning announcements, once or twice a week. Set a goal for the school, with a surprise at the end if the school meets its goal.
5. Have plenty of Dr. Seuss books on display in the library for Dr. Seuss' Birthday and encourage students to read them.
6. Reward participating students with incentives throughout the campaign.
7. Decorate the classroom, library or entire school to promote your reading campaign and create excitement about reading.

Be sure to have several of these fun hats on hand for Dr. Seuss' birthday. The teacher or librarian in charge should definitely wear one!

These hats stimulate interest and create visual appeal during activities. Be sure to wear them while reading to students and wear them at random times throughout the campaign to create excitement.

Create excitement by decorating your library, classroom or school lobby with a Dr. Seuss theme. Be sure to set up some Dr. Seuss book displays in prominent places where students can access them.

Create a Dr. Seuss bulletin board or decorate your door with Cat in the Hat materials. With so many decorations available, it is easy to create this theme in your room.

Carry your theme out to the common areas of the school. It is hard to go overboard in the hallways with Dr. Seuss themed materials to keep students focused on their literacy goals during this fun celebration of reading!

No celebration of Dr. Seuss' Birthday would be complete without reading this book!

Have some birthday hats and party favors on hand.

The reading of this book can be accompanied by a discussion of birthdays. For younger children, find out if each child knows his or her birthday. If not, this is a good opportunity to help them learn their birth date.

Share a Dr. Seuss birthday cake to top off the celebration!

On the big day, throw a birthday party for Dr. Seuss! Make sure the Cat in the Hat comes! Write a press release and invite your city newspaper or tv news crew to come cover your event as a human interest piece.

Have a special guest read Happy Birthday to You to your assembled guests. Announce your kick off or the winners of your reading contest. If you have a small group you could play some birthday party games (pin the tail on the Lorax?).

Have a big birthday cake to share with everyone!

Our librarian has quite a collection of special clothing to wear for Dr. Seuss's birthday. I think she has a different Dr. Seuss clothing item for each day of the week now. This makes it fun for the children to come to the library and see what she has on. Many of the outfits can be tied into the story of the day to create more interest and excitement around that day's theme.

Dr. Seuss Birthday

Dr. Seuss' Birthday would not be complete with some visits from the Cat in the Hat. A few years ago, one of our high school students agreed to dress up in a Cat in the Hat costume and accompany the librarian when she read to the primary students. Before long the Cat was doing the reading in addition to his mischievous antics.

These visits became not only a big hit, but a tradition! That student has graduated now, but returns to play his beloved role.

I love this video showing how one high school celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by reading to elementary students in their community.

Your students will squeal with delight and excitement when the Cat in the Hat appears in their classroom to read them a story!

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

Every morning during Dr. Seuss's Birthday celebration, our elementary students gather together to read one of the Dr. Seuss books and participate in an activity related to the story. One of their favorites is reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck and then making some oobleck with the science teacher.

When making oobleck with visually impaired students, I recommend using a table cover that contrasts with the color of the oobleck to maximize visibility.

At the end of the activity, put the oobleck into ziplock bags for the students to take home.

This young man gives a good demonstration of the fun kids can have with oobleck. The video gives an oobleck recipe and you can see it is very easy to make.

There are several ways you can do this.1) An adult can measure the cornstarch and water into the mixing container, then some helpers can stir. 2) Give each child a bowl and measure a small amount of cornstarch and water into each child's bowl, letting the child stir with a popsicle stick. 3) Let the children work in groups, with students measuring, mixing, making observations, then having a classroom discussion following the experiments.

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

What kind of celebration of Dr. Seuss's Birthday would it be without some green eggs and ham?

This is easier to do than it sounds. Just make sure you have some extra adult assistance!

Our teachers have everything set up and bring the students into the conference room the beginning of first period to read Green Eggs and Ham.

Before reading the story, ask the children if they have ever been afraid to try something new. Tell them you are reading a story about a child who did not want to try something new.

After reading the story, have a short discussion with the students about trying new things. Ask them if they ever felt afraid to try something new, but after they tried it they found out they liked it.

After the story, breakfast is served: a small plate of scrambled eggs with some green food coloring and a slice of ham. It does not need to be fancy, just enough to break the routine and make the students feel like they are doing something special.

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

This book lends itself to a variety of activities for students from kindergarten through the intermediate grades. Younger students can focus on counting and colors. Older students could undertake a study of fish biology, which could include ecosystems, habitats and/or habitat preservation.

Storytime activities could include making fish out of paper plates. Give each child a paper plate. Cut out a triangle to form the fish's mouth. Attach the triangle to the rear of the fish to form a tail. Allow children to decorate their fish using whatever materials you have available. One suggestion is to glue on tissue paper squares to represent the fish's scales. Display the fish or send home to show parents.

Eat goldfish crackers for a storytime snack on this day.

Motivate your students to participate in your reading campaign with fun Dr. Seuss prizes and favors.