Dr. Seuss is one of the greatest authors of children’s books. His books not only keep children’s attention, but they also teach kids important life lessons. This is why every year teachers around the world celebrate his birthday. There are many different activities that go along with his books depending on how much time you have and what types of activities you want to have with your kids.
1. Horton Hears a Who Elephant Face
Horton Hears a Who is the delightful tale of an elephant who can hear a voice coming a small flower. The other animals in the jungle cannot hear the voices and keep trying to do away with the flower because they think it is odd that Horton speaks to a flower. The lesson from Horton teaches children to respect all people and who they are or what their appearance. It also teaches kids to stand up for themselves even when others don’t believe them. After reading the book, let your students make their own Horton the Elephant mask.
The process is simple. First using construction paper, your students will need to cut out the basic shape of two elephant ears and an elephant trunk. Give your students a paper plate and have them glue the ears and trunk to the plate. Next either have them cut hole for the eyes or just glue on some wiggle eyes.
2. The Sneetches
The Sneetches is a wonderful tale about a tolerance and accepting people for who they are rather than what you see. It also teaches kids not to do something just because someone else encourages them too. Read the book to your students and then have a discussion about what they learned. Finally, lighten the mood back up by giving each student a star and playing a game of “McBean Says” instead of “Simon Says.” McBean is the main antagonist in the book. Give the students simple things to do like “McBean says raise your star over your head.”
3. The Lorax
The Lorax teachers students the problem with pollution. The Lorax tries to appeal “Once-ler” to stop chopping down trees and polluting the area with his factories. Once-ler does not listen though and causes the land to slowly die. You can use this as a very powerful tool to teach kids about recycling and other actions they can take to help the environment. As a closing activity, let your students make their own Truffula trees. Get some brightly colored pencils and have students glue colorful pom poms onto the end of the pencil. If you really want to let the students have fun, allow the students to stick the pencils into something like styrofoam (like a styrofoam cup) and create a forest.
Other Ideas
If none of these quite catch your eyes, then there are many more out there. There are also many different types of snacks and goodies you can prepare in advance to really throw a birthday party. Pinterest is a teachers best friend when it comes to these types of things and there are many boards dedicated to Dr. Seuss’ birthday.
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