[LM_NET] HIT: Dr. Seuss Ideas (Long)

[The Foremans <4sforeman@SBCGLOBAL.NET>]

Dr. Seuss' birthday is March 2nd, and Read Across America this year is March 3rd. 
However, here in Texas, our TAKS test is March 5th, so I am moving my celebration 
to next week. Last year I did trivia questions every day over the announcements and 
had a box in the library where students could drop off their answers. I had a box 
for PreK/K; 1/2; and 3/4. I would sort through the boxes to find the correct answer 
and then have my principal pull a winner from each box. Each winner got a prize. I 
have some Dr. Seuss pens and erasers I bought last year. I went this week and 
bought the Dr. Seuss stuffed animals and books from Kohls. My book fair is also 
coming up, so I will have some gift certificates to it also. 

After reading through my files, I saw where several schools had dress-up days for 
each day of the week. I approached my principal with the idea, but she said she 
doesn't want the kids doing this - she only wants them doing that for Red Ribbon 
Week. But if I came up with some other ideas, maybe she would consider it. I didn't 
have any other ideas, so I decided to consult LM-Net. Here are the ideas that were 
sent to me today....

I don't know if this is something you want to do but it sure worked well for me 
last year.  We did a cake decorating contest.  They could create any size cake with 
a Dr. Seuss theme.  Many picked characters from the books and some were just Dr. 
Seuss in general.  I thought I would get about 6 cakes and I ended up with 30.  We 
had more than enough cake to give everyone in the school a piece at the end of the 
day.  We judged them in three or four different categories:  The tallest cake,the 
most colorful cake etc.  Many parents commented that they enjoyed it because it 
gave them a chance to work with their kids in the kitchen on something creative.  
If you're interested I can send you more pictures.  I put some in a ppt and showed 
them to everyone to introduce the contest.  I'm excited to do it again this year 
but will probably do it during national library week instead since I'll be at the 
AK state library conference during Read Across America.

We're going to do a "Drop Everything and Read" 30 min.  We've also planned to have 
students write acrostic poems based on Dr. Seuss and READ.  We'll have prizes the 
best as judged by a panel of experts.

We do a participlay at our school.  We use the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  
If you would like more info, let me know.  (A participlay is when you have someone 
reading the story and others act it out.  Rudimentary costumes and props are used.  
It takes about 30 minutes and we do it as an all-school assembly.  We call the 
teachers up to be the actors and the kids LOVE it.)

Go to nea readacross America for ideas, posters color sheets, etc.

Not much but I did see this morning that our local Staples has Cat in the
Hat bulletin board border. You could do an interactive bulletin board for
the students with your trivia questions.

We also do a birthday cake for Dr. Seuss. Probably not possible if you are
a large school. We're about 150 K-8. I just order the largest bakery cake
(the one they recommend 2x2 pieces) and we cut the piece size to 1x2. No
one gets a lot of cake but everyone gets a piece that way. Our cooks serve
green eggs and ham as well for breakfast.

This is what we are doing for the week...we do have dress up days...

Read Across America Week – March 3rd – 7th
Elect to read, vote for books!

Library Sponsored Activities

Elect a student-each teacher will elect a student to read to the grade level below 
them.  They can tell about their favorite book and read some of it or they can read 
their favorite Dr. Seuss book.

Door Decoration Contest-all classrooms are invited to participate in the door 
decorating contest.  Our theme is “Elect to read, vote for books.”  A team of 
judges will select an overall school winner and a winner in each grade level.  The 
overall school winner teacher will receive $100.00 worth of books for their 
classroom library (you get to pick the titles)  All the winners will have a game 
day during their library day the week we return from our break.

VoteForBooks.com – Students may vote for their favorite book at this web site.  
Students may vote from home or at the computer lab.  Once you vote, check back in 
May to see if your book made it to the ballot.  A general election will be held in 
the fall, so you will need to vote again then.  The votes will be tallied on 
Election Day.  The winner will be announced November 5, 2008.

Dress Up Days –     Monday – Campaign Button Day – Make and wear a campaign button 
about your favorite Dr. Seuss book.  Wear it all week to try to get others to vote 
for the book you like!
            Tuesday – Patriotic Day – Wear red, white and blue!    
Wednesday – Wacky Wednesday – Wear mismatched clothing. (Note:  This is MISMATCHED 
clothing day.  Please, do not wear clothing backwards or inside out.  Always follow 
the school dress code.)
            Thursday – Fox in Socks – Wear silly socks today.
Friday - The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins – Wear an unusual hat.

Have the class vote on the student who is dressed the best for the day.  Send that 
student to the library for a prize and a group photo at 8:15.

Favorite Dr. Seuss Book- Students will get to vote for their favorite Dr. Seuss 
book during library class.  The results will be posted each afternoon.  Mrs. Mosley 
will read the winning book over the intercom on Friday afternoon.


Here are some ideas that we do at my elementary school (sounds like your 
principal is a bit of a party pooper... ours dressed up as the cat in the 
hat last year).

1)  We have guest readers from the community come to classrooms and read Dr. 
Seuss books to the students. (one story per room)

2)  I showed the original "Cat in the Hat" movie to the primary students 
(after they had all heard the story)  Horton Hears a Who would be a good 
choice for this year.

3)  Have a school wide, drop everything a read day (or even just an hour)

4)  The http://www.seussville.com website has a lot of fun activities for 
kids. http://www.seussville.com/readacross/RAA_EventKit08.pdf

In years past, I have had bookmark design contests and every year we have roving 
readers.  The readers are people from the community that come in and read.
No matter what, just have fun.

I have a reading program going on right now with my 2nd graders, and
they are challenged to read all 47+ books written by Dr. Seuss.  After
Spring Break, we will have a birthday party with cake and party hats to
celebrate. 

We do a couple of things you might use... the art teacher displays pictures
of the characters and we have a contest to identify them. We are having a
spelling bee of Seuss words. The cafeteria serves green eggs and ham for
breakfast one day. We have readers comes from the community and read to each
classroom. 

Seuss-isms are wonderful ways to tie Dr. Seuss's work to the curriculum.  Placing 
quotes around the school will give the students and teachers a different 
perspective on using Dr. Seuss books.
 
Here are a few suggestions:
 
 
On equality and justice:
 
"I know, up on top
 you are seeing great sights.
But down at the bottom 
 we, too, should have rights.
         -Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
 
But even kings can't rule the sky.
         -Bartholomew and the Oobleck
 
On being true to yourself:
 
"Only you can make your mind up!
You're the one and only one!"
         -Hunches in Bunches
 
I personally love to read Yertle the Turtle and have the students compare Yertle to 
anyone in history or in their life.  You will get all kinds of answers.  King James 
at the time of the American Revolution and President George W. Bush are just a few 
of the people mentioned.  Using the book for discussion and then letting the 
students write a paper expressing their feelings toward the person of their choice 
without being graded for grammatical mistakes will allow them freedom of express.   
I did this with 7th grade Special Education students and they loved it.  They felt 
free to write what they wanted knowing that it was only graded for effort.  This 
papers are still in my collection of works saved.  Their satisfaction of getting to 
express themselves was wonderful to see.  

My principal does not want any dress up either, so  I do "Stop, Drop, and Read". 3 
times during the day, I go on the intercom and give an alert.  Everyone in the 
school stops what they are doing and reads for 5 minutes.  I send the teachers a 
schedule ahead of time and avoid lunchtime.  The kids never figure out that we do 
this at the same times each year - they get excited about having to carry their 
books around so they have something to read when I announce.
 
It is easy to do, nondisruptive and gets kids excited about reading.

I am having the students read for the month prior ( you could do a week) and if 
they reach their goal, they will have a Dr. Seuss assembly ( watch a video, the Cat 
will visit, and we will read one of his books). I have a picture of the Cat in the 
front lobby, and I add stripes to his hat to mark the hours read. The stripes 
strecth down the hall. The students keep track of their minutes read by coloring 
stripes on the Cat's hat on a hand-out I created.
The week of his b-day, we have mystery readers ( who read Dr. Seuss passages over 
the PA system) and the students have a multiple choice ballot that they check off 
their guess of who the reader is. Of those with all the answeres correct, I pick 
one or two from each class to win a prize from the dollar store. 
We have randomly-timed stop, drop and read announcements each day, where studnets 
stop whatever they are doing and read for ten minutes. 
We also have a rockin' read-a-thon where two students from each class are rocking 
in a rocking chair in the lobby while silently reading to themselves. There is 
someone in the chair all day.
 I have asked the cafeteria to have the vo-tech students make a birthday cake to 
serve to the students on March 7th (the last day of our celebration).
We do have a theme for the students to dress to each day as well. I don't know the 
objection, but we keep it things that the students can do without buying 
anything...Grinchy Green, or wear Red and White for example. 

We are taking pictures of students and teachers holding their 
favorite book similar to the READ posters you may have seen. The kids 
love seeing themselves in the photos just like the stars on the 
authentic READ posters. We take photos of teachers (administrators) 
with their favorite childhood book and post them outside their 
classroom (or office) door. This helps with the whole literacy concept.

We simply insert a photo into Word and print it on an 8.5" x 11" 
piece of paper. It does take a quite a bit of time, but it is worth it.

We always "Read around the School" since we can't stretch across America. We go 
outside (weather permitting) circle the school , sit on the ground and have 15 
mintues of silent reading.

Seantele Foreman
Librarian
C.J. Harris Elementary
Pearland, TX
4sforeman@sbcglobal.net




 
Live your life so the preacher won't have to lie at our funeral.

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