8 Easy Dr. Seuss Activites you do with things from home

Here are some fun Activities for home, parties or school to celebrate the beloved Dr. Seuss Read Across America Day on March 2nd!

1. Edible Dr. Seuss Hats

• Take an oreo and frost it with vanilla frosting.  
• Place a red gummy lifesaver in the center of the frosted oreo
• Place a layer of vanilla frosting on top of the gummy lifesaver.
• Continue this layering as many times as you want!

2. Hat Relay in honor of Bartholemew Cubbins {The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins}

So fun!  We placed 2 stacks of hats side by side in our family room.  The teams had to run down, help one team mate put all hats on their head without them falling off. Take them all off and then run back.  Truly it just turned into a group activity because everyone wanted a chance!

The record was one of my kids was able to keep 28 hats on at once!

3. Dr. Seuss Says

Rather than "Simon Says". My oldest did "Dr. Seuss says".  When she gave an instruction that started with "Dr. Seuss says..." {touch your nose, turn around, touch the ground, etc.}, the kids followed.  If she didn't say "Dr. Seuss Says" and they did the action, they were out.  The last one standing got a chance to wear the cat in the hat tophat and be the leader.

4. Homemade Skits

Huge highlight!  My kids made very fast plays to the various Dr. Suess Stories.  They "tried" to do the whole show in 3 minutes highlighting Dr. Seuss Stories, it was more like 5-7 minutes!  But it was so much fun.  Above is a snapshot of a scene from The Cat in the Hat.
They also acted out The Sneetches, The Zax, Green Eggs and Ham, etc.    

5. Homemade Oobleck.  My kids are science lovers and this is a very fun activity. Using the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we wanted to make our own concoction of the strange phenomenon Bartholomew uses.  The perfect recipe is found here on Rachel's Post:
 http://www.mommylessons101.com/2013/02/dr-seuss-activity-craft-for-500-hats-of.html
And you are in for lots of fun and a little mess too!

6. Dr. Seuss Read-a-thon
Pull out the blankets, Dr. Seuss Collection, Some snacks and a fireplace if it's cold.  My kids sat around and read all the Dr. Seuss books and think it's extra special to have a read-a-thon at home.  They bring down their pillows and sleeping bags too.

7. Rhyming Story Go-Around
I start a story that goes in a rhyming sequence like Dr. Seuss uses and then at some point would stop, where my oldest picks up and then stops.  Then the next oldest picks up the story and then we continue on to the next child and eventually it comes back to me. It's fun to stop in the middle of a rhyming stanza so they are forced to come up with a sentence that ends in a rhyme!  Warning: these can get silly, but are lots of fun!

8. Homemade Dr. Seuss Book
Wish I had a copy of this, but I had the kids design their own Dr. Seuss Book.  They each had to create an animal that was not normal.  A Giraffewhale or Elephlizard.  They drew the picture of the animal and then made a poem up about it in Dr. Seuss Style.  We compiled all the pictures together and spiral bound it for a Dr. Seuss Book to add to our reading collection.  I still have it somewhere, but haven't seen it since I moved.  If I find it, I will for sure post pictures as they were so fun!

 Don't miss out on oodles of ideas we have shared in previous years including Hairstyles, Green Eggs and Ham, Site Word Games, etc.  Happy Dr. Seuss Day on March 2nd. It's right around the corner!

Dr. Seuss Activities to go with the Sneetches and Other Stories

 We LOVE reading around this house, so one of our favorite holidays is "Read Across America Day" on Dr. Seuss's Birthday, March 2nd. Last year, we enjoyed playing these simple games to go along with Dr. Seuss's book The Sneetches and Other Stories.

After reading  the title story of the book, my kids wanted to act out the tale of the Sneetches and build their own "star on/star off" machine. So, we took a plain cardboard box, a blanket, and construction paper and created our machine. We also cut out green construction paper stars and applied loops of tape to the back of them and used scrap green construction paper for play money in our game. It was a fun way to bring the story to life! And my kids put almost all of it together completely by themselves (I only had to help a bit with stars).

In addition to "The Sneetches" there are also a few other stories in the book, including a strange one about a character who meets a pair of green pants. After reading this, we played our own game with green pants. We took a pair of green pants and took turns hiding them around the house and playing a classic "hot and cold" game to try to find them. (To play "hot and cold" you can sing a song or clap your hands, getting louder or faster as the searcher gets closer to the hidden object, or simple say the words "hot" and "cold" to give clues--hot meaning the person is close, cold indicating the guesser is far away from the hidden object).

These were simple, but perfect activities for my three preschool-aged children. If you are interested in more fun ideas to celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday and Read Across America Day, check out all of our Dr. Seuss posts here and our Reading Ideas here.

Crazy Hair Do for Dr. Seuss's Birthday! {Cindy Lou Who We Love You!}

Whether it's crazy hair day at school or Dr. Seuss' Birthday {coming up on March 2nd}, here's a fun, cute and easy hairstyle for your daughter's hair.  And it gets lots of attention :)  

It's simple.  I started doing this when my daughter was in kindergarten and it's still her favorite crazy hair do style.  I took a small plastic child's drinking cup and placed it on the top of her head.  I then gathered hair all around the cup to completely cover it.  It looks best if you partition off the top of the hair you are going to use with a comb so you have a smooth line.  Using a rubber band, I secured the rubber band right above the cup so the hair continues to cover the cup on it's own.  I added a cute bow and curled her hair and I was done!

The trick to this is getting it very smooth around the cup.  I do this most effectively by using a spray bottle and comb.  Also - I've learned to curl her hair AFTER I put the cup in as there's a lot of brushing and smoothing that goes on before. 

Have fun!  And hopefully your kids don't have any short kids sitting beside them.

See all our Dr. Seuss Ideas for tons of fun!

Dr. Seuss Roundup: 50 Fun Activities, Printables, Crafts, Snacks, and Lesson Plans

Are you as excited as we are to celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday this weekend? We have been gearing up by reading books and doing all sorts of crafts. We are looking forward to going to the birthday party that our local library is hosting. We have also gathered together a list of  50 fun crafts and activities that we could do to celebrate. If you were looking for a few last-minute ways to celebrate, check out some of these fun ideas--some are things we have shared before on this blog, and others are ideas we found across the Internet.

1. Design your own hat like that of Bartholomew Cubbins
2. Play a Cat in the Hat Balloon Toss game
3. Make a Handprint Thing 1 and Thing 2
4. Play fun online games at Seussville!
5. Make a red and white tissue paper hat
6. Make a Cat in the Hat themed snack--here are just a few to try: strawberries, cookie, and whipped cream; strawberries and bananas; gummy lifesavers and cookie
7. Make your own creative top hat--you can use colorful paper as  in this craft or you can use paper plates as the base as in this craft.
8. Try stacking styrofoam circles to make your own giant cat in the hat pattern.
9. Try one of the Cat in the Hat crafts found here, such as a pasta noodle stick puppet.
10. Make Thing One and Thing Two Cupcakes with cotton candy "hair."
11. Make green eggs and ham candy treats
12. Play this Green Eggs and Ham sight word game.
13. Eat Green Eggs and Ham for Breakfast (You could also try this different version of green eggs).
14. Tell the story Ten Apples Up on Top by stacking homemade egg carton apples.
15. Practice rhyming with green eggs or play some of the rhyming games found here.
16. Play Pin the heart on the Grinch game
17. Dress up like a Who with Crazy Hair
18. Make a Dr. Seuss fish snack with blue Jell-O
19. Go fishing in your own pretend pond (see if you can catch anything as crazy as in  the book McElligott's Pool).
20. Try this tissue paper One Fish Two Fish craft
21. Count  or graph with goldfish
22. Try making some of these Seuss-themed treats
23. Build your own Dr. Seuss City
24. Make a miniature Hot Air Balloon to go on adventures as in Oh the Places You'll Go!
25. Make your own Foot Book
26. Decorate with homemade truffula trees or serve Dr. Seuss treats like "Pink Yink Ink" (i.e., pink lemonade) as in this party
27. Surprise your children with wacky items like a shoe on the wall (as in Wacky Wednesday)
28. Make a handprint Lorax or make your own Lorax mustache for a photo op.
29. Learn about The Lorax by making stick puppets or trying other activities found here.
30. Make hand-print fish or Fox in Socks puppets found here.
31. Make your own Oobleck and have fun playing with it!
32. Make your own Horton the elephant ears and trunk.
33. Make your own flower and speck for Horton Hears a Who--Version 1 with chenille stems and Version 2 with pieces of foam paper.
34. Create your own wacky Dr. Seuss character with play-doh and a few accessories.
35. Serve your children a Dr. Seuss-themed Muffin Tin Meal
36. Try some activities in this fun, free Dr. Seuss-themed packet
37. Play a Sneetches themed freeze dance or musical chairs game with stars.
38. Decorate Dr. Seuss placemats or try some other "D is for Dr. Seuss" preschool activities.
39. Inspire your child to read with a Dr. Seuss-themed reading chart.
40. Try a Montessori Dr. Seuss-inspired activity
41. Balance a (Swedish) Fish on a Dish or try another Seuss-inspired toddler activity found here.
42. Watch a Dr. Seuss movie (such as The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas).
43. Set up your own Dr. Seuss photo booth such as this photo booth or this Cat in the Hat photo scene.
44. Make your own Truffula trees and make Play Doh scenes
45. Practice the ABC's Dr. Seuss style
46. Make your own turtles (for Yertle the Turtle) and practice counting, too!
47. Try one of these lesson plans available from Seussville
48. Print out and complete this free Dr. Seuss "All About Me" book
49.  Read about the history of Dr. Seuss
50.  Watch or listen to clips from Seussical the Musical.

Do you have a great Dr. Suess-themed idea to share? We'd love to hear your comments below!

-->

Dr. Seuss Activity: Craft for the 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins

We just read the book The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins   by Dr. Seuss and my kids loved it. After reading it, we created this simple craft--our own hats modeled after Bartholomew's hat.

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins Craft

1. Draw an outline of a hat on a piece of red construction paper for each child. You or your child can draw your own or you can use this free template that I created here.

(Click on the link above to go to the PDF document)

2. Have your kids decorate the hat however they wish. They can draw with crayons or markers, glue on feathers or sequins, or add whatever else you can imagine to make the hat fun. When you are done decorating, cut out the hat.

3. Measure your child's head, cut out a rectangular strip of paper long enough to fit around your child's head,  and create a headband (I taped together scraps of paper that were left from cutting out the hat for my kids' headbands). Tape the headband to the hat.

4. Put the hat on your child's head and have your child smile for a fun picture! Now if you are really ambitious see if you can make 500 of these hats! My kids just laughed at me when I told them that they had 497 more to make.

If you like Bartholomew Cubbins, be sure to also read Bartholomew and the Oobleck and try making your own oobleck. Here's my 3-year-old having a blast playing with oobleck the other day.

For the recipe for oobleck and more Dr. Seuss themed activities, see my article here about celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday.

You can also check out all of our Dr. Seuss themed activities here, and follow my Dr. Seuss Pinterest board for more ideas I am collecting.

-->

This post is linked up with Montessori Monday and the Dr. Seuss Link Collection
 

Dr. Seuss themed Sight Word Game (Free printable)

I saw  this cute idea for reviewing sight words by playing a pancake flipping game, and I decided to make my own Green Eggs and Ham version of this game to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.

I created these "green eggs" for flipping. Click on the image below to access the document for printing:

Then,  create the game:

• On the back of the eggs, write the words you want your child to practice reading. For my kids, I printed some sight words and CVC words that they could practice. I also included some eggs with names of people in our family. You could also write letters, numbers, math facts, or anything else you want to review with your children.
• After writing your words, cut out the eggs and laminate if desired. On the back of some, draw a star or put on star-shaped stickers.
• You can make as many or as few cards as you like. If you don't laminate the cards, you may want to print them on card stock so they are more firm. If you choose to laminate the cards you could also use a dry erase marker to write the words you are practicing so you can change the cards up later.

When the game is created, play it with your children:

• Start with all of the words face up. Take turns choosing a word to read. If you correctly read the word, use a spatula to flip over the egg for the word you read.
• If there is a star on the green egg, take a bonus turn and read another word.
• When you are finished, pass the spatula to the next player.
• Each word that you read correctly you get to keep in your pile of green eggs. See how many green eggs each person can collect!

Check out all our Dr. Seuss activities, crafts and lesson plans!

-->

10 Ways to Celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday

We always look forward to celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday on March 2nd (also known as "Read Across America Day.") Here are ten things we did last year to celebrate!

To go along with the book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish or McElligott's Pool:

*Set up your own lake and go fishing. I created the water by spreading out a blue blanket. The "boat" was an empty storage box. The "fish" were made from chenille stems that I bent into fish shapes. I created fishing poles by attaching a string to a wooden stick and then attaching a magnet to the base of the string. Because the chenille stems have metal in the center, they were able to stick to the magnet on the fishing pole.

*Count with goldfish. Use one of these free printable counting mats or this colored goldfish graphing chart!

To go along with the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck:

*Create your own "oobleck" and have fun playing with it! Here's the recipe for "oobleck." It is a unique substance to play with because it acts like a solid in some ways and acts like a liquid in other ways. (You could also use this in conjunction with a science class about states of matter).

OOBLECK RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 cups cornstarch
3 drops food coloring
1 cup water

Directions:
Mix ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
(Add water slowly as it may not need entire cup!).

To go along with the book Horton Hears a Who!:

*Make your own pink flower and "speck." You could do a flat flower on a piece of paper as we did here, or you could make a three dimensional flower with chenille stems and a pom pom for a "speck."

To go along with the book The Lorax:

*Make your own silly Lorax mustaches to wear.

Just draw a mustache yellow paper, decorate if desired, and then cut it out. Then tape your completed mustache to a popsicle stick and hold up for a fun photo!

*Have a family movie night and watch  the movie The Lorax (you could also watch movies for other adaptations of Dr. Seuss books such as Horton Hears a Who  or How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

To go along with the book Oh, the Places You'll Go!:

*Make a miniature hot air balloon and take some of your favorite action figures for a ride.

HOT AIR BALLOON CRAFT

Supplies: 

• disposable plastic cup
• chenille stems
• balloon
• clear tape
• markers

Instructions: 

1. Cut out a piece of construction paper that is big enough to circle your plastic cup. Decorate with markers or stickers if desired.

2. Tape the bottoms four chenille stems to the sides of your plastic cup and then tape the decorated piece of construction paper around your plastic cup.

3. Blow up a balloon and tape the tops of the four chenille stems to the balloon.

4. Take your favorite action figures for a ride!

To go along with the book The Cat in the Hat:

*Make a yummy "cat in the hat" treat. Use one half of an oreo for the base. Then layer slices of strawberry and whipped cream to create the stripes on the "hat."

To go along with the book The Sneetches:

*Place freeze dance or "musical chairs" with stars. Turn on some silly music and then when the music stops race to find a star to stand on. You could gradually remove stars and have the kids be "out" if they can't get to a star when the music stops (as in musical chairs). Or you could play this game like a cake walk and put numbers on the stars. Then call out a number and whoever is standing on that number gets a prize.

(We also have more ideas to go along with this book here)

To go along with Green Eggs and Ham:

*We can't forget our favorite Dr. Seuss snack that we have every year--our own green eggs and ham. Simply add a little green food coloring to your scrambled eggs to turn them green!

*Also check out this "Green Eggs and Ham" sight word game I made for my kids.

And most important--have fun reading lots of books with your kids, for this is "Read Across America Day" after all! Check out our other posts about Dr. Seuss's Birthday here, and also check out my Dr. Seuss Pinterest Board for more ideas!

-->

Fun Ideas for Dr. Seuss's Birthday and Read Across America...

-->

Every year for Dr. Seuss's Birthday on March 2nd, we have green eggs and ham.  My kids love it. 

We often have "crazy hair day" at our house in honor of those Whoville citizens and other whacky Seuss characters! My kids are most often out of school for Dr. Seuss Day, so we have a lot of fun at home together...

We also do other fun activities, games and read-a-thons to collaborate with Read Across America Day.  Below are some fun lessons we have done in the past...

Preschool Lesson Plan

-->

1-    Decorate Dr. Seuss placemats as they arrive. I then mounted the placemats on thicker cardstock and laminated them so we could eat on them for snack time and the kids could take them home to keep.

2-     Calendar Time/Songs

3-     Introduce the letter D.

4-     D is for Dr. Seuss – explain what an author is, show all his books.

5-     Dr. Seuss likes to rhyme… Read Hop on Pop and Cat in the Hat.  Teach what a rhyme is.

6-     Sing 1 or 2 rhyme songs and see if they can recognize that they have rhymes in them – 5 Little Speckled Frogs, Hickory Dickory Dock, 5 Little Monkey, etc.

7-     Play 2 rhyme games – Show 3 pictures, 2 of which rhyme.  Have the kids figure out which 2 rhyme.  The second game is the Body Name Game…

Body Name Game
How to Play: Begin by modeling how to rhyme. Point to parts of your body, say a rhyming word and your child should say the body part. This puts rhyming into her ears with a visual cue (pointing). If you point to your nose and say rose, she will automatically say nose.

--Tell your child, "We are going to play a rhyming game. Rhyming words have the same sound endings. I'm going to point to something on my body, and say a word. You're going to say the body part that rhymes. Okay?"

--Give her two examples: "I'm pointing to my leg, and I say beg. You say leg. I'm pointing to my nose. I say rose, and you say nose.

--Here's a list of body parts and rhyming words:

deer-ear pail-nail sack-back

go-toe gum-thumb put-foot

bye-eye deck-neck see-knee

bear-hair fin-chin band-hand

peek-cheek farm-arm feel-heel

--When your child is able to do this, turn it around. Point to your knee and your child will say a rhyming word such as bee or me!

When your child rhymes body parts, play this game:
--Say, "I'm going to say a word and you'll tell me as many rhyming words as you can. I say bee." Your child then says words such as "he, she, we three, free, or agree."

--Choose one-syllable words that are easy to rhyme with such as had, rat, man, fall, ten, red, big, fill, hop, dog, bug and sun. All of these have multiple words that rhyme.

8-     Older Kids can do a rhyming game with magnets.  Switch out the first letter and show them how it’s really just changing the first sound. 

9-     Cat in the Hat Craft with paper plate rims and white paper bags.  First you will need to cut the center out of the paper plates.  Kids decorate the white paper bags and plate rims however they want. Next you stick the paper bag through the paper plate rim and attach it to the rim with tape, glue or staples.  Finally punch a whole in 2 sides of the plate and tie string on each side to allow the hats to be tied to their heads.

10-   Play time

11-   Snack time – Read Green Eggs and Ham while they eat green eggs and ham and a cupcake for Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

12-   Storytime – The Foot book and The Eye Book

13-   Music Time – Explain that Dr. Seuss loved animals and creating his own versions of animals.  Pull out a book per child and have them find a silly animal to show the class.  To continue discussing animals, read Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You?  Finish by playing animal songs and having them play to the music.

14-   Party Time – to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday end with some party games: Toss in a hat (toss 3 wadded up papers into Dr. Seuss hat each, see if you can get 1,2 or 3); Seussaphone for older kids (like telephone where one person says a phrase and whispers it to the next person who whispers it to the next and so on.  Eventually the last person says what they thought it was, which usually is a silly rendition of the real thing!); Animal Charades; Cat, Cat, Hat (Like Duck, Duck, Goose, but when you say hat, put the Dr. Seuss hat on that person); Dr. Seuss Says (like Simon Says... I let the person in charge where the Dr. Seuss Hat).

 

Other games can be found on www.seussville.com.  One is called Cat Tricks- The Cat in the Hat likes to play tricks, what tricks can you do?  See who can say their abc’s, wiggle their ears, wink, skip, etc. 

See our other Dr. Seuss Posts here!

-->

Happy Birthday, Dr. Suess!

March 2nd is Dr. Suess's Birthday or "Read Across America" day. Schools all over the country have fun activities to celebrate reading and Dr. Suess. But you don't have to have a child in school to have fun with this holiday. Last year, Andrea shared a link to a fun Dr. Suess Unit that included activities you could easily do with your child at home. I also had a lot of fun celebrating this holiday with my 2- and 3-year-old last year. We started the day with green eggs and ham to go with that classic book. I just used a little food coloring to turn the scrambled eggs green.

-->

Then, we pulled out all of our Dr. Suess books to read, and then I did a few simple crafts with my boys. We decorated hats after reading The Cat in the Hat--my older son glued pieces of tissue paper in a red and white pattern, while my younger child just colored with a marker.

Then, we also cut up pieces of craft foam to make flower collages, with a little pom-pom on top to represent the flower and speck in Horton Hears a Who. 

Finally, we played a dancing game with stars to go with the book The Sneetches--inspired by the classic cake walk game. I cut out stars from different colors of construction paper stars. I played music and then stopped it. When the music stopped, the kids had to race to stand on a star. I called out a color, and whoever was standing on that color was the winner. My prizes were just stickers. I made sure to allow my kids plenty of opportunities to win so it wasn't too competitive, but they had a lot of fun with that game.

I have more fun ideas that I'm going to try this year, such as counting with goldfish (for  the book One Fish, Two Fish...), making apple hats for Ten Apples Up On Top, and more. For all of My Dr. Suess ideas, follow my Dr. Suess board on Pinterest or see our other Dr. Seuss posts!

Tomorrow we'll post even more Dr. Seuss ideas for you to try out, so check back!

-->