Dr. Deuss Activities for Little Kids

In celebration of the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2nd, I thought I'd put together a little roundup of the activities we've done over the past year related to books by Dr. Seuss...

Silly Creature Drawing Prompt {There's a Wocket in My Pocket}

March is National Reading Month and we're going to celebrate by trying to do a book-related activity every day.  It may be as simple as a little craft or acting out the story, but I'll also try to add some themed units into the mix as well.  We got an early start today by doing a little drawing prompt based on the book There's a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss..

One Fish, Two Fish - Goldfish Grouping Game

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!  Our final Seuss Week activity was loosely based on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  I say loosely-based, because the book is about imaginary creatures, not just fish, but a fish-themed math rhyme at least went along with the title.

I made up a quick rhyme last night (I seem to have my most creative thoughts when I'm nursing Baby H in the middle of the night) to teach the girls about grouping and skip-counting (and technically, factorization).

We counted out 12 goldfish crackers on a tray, and arranged them based on the following rhyme:

Goldfish Grouping

by Lilac @learnersinbloom

One-by-one and looking fine
The fish all swim in a straight line.
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12

Mommy and Daddy fish pair up like this
The two loving fish give each other a kiss.
2-4-6-8-10-12

But Mommy and Daddy are lonely in the sea
So they have a little baby and now we have three.
3-6-9-12

Baby playing by himself gets to be such a bore
Soon comes Little Brother making a family of four!
4-8-12

Now Grandma and Grandpa want to join in the mix.
They come for a visit and now we have six.
6-12

Twelve little fish had so much fun
But now it's time to eat them, one by one
12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0

I knew the girls would love this because most of their play revolves around interpersonal relationships (Mommies, Daddies, babies):

It was such a great way to use fine motor skills and learn math concepts at the same time.  Plus an activity that involves all five senses is going to build all sorts of wonderful neural pathways.

The Shape of Me and Other Stuff - Seuss Activity

Yesterday;s Seuss activity was fairly simple.  The original idea was to make sun-prints out of various household objects and construction paper (put objects on paper, lay in the sun until the paper around the objects fades and an impression of the objects is left).  However, I think our construction paper was already old and faded and after a couple hours in the sun with no change, I decided to go for Plan B.

I traced the outline of the objects on the paper, and gave it to the girls as a puzzle where they match up the objects with their outlines.  This was not too challenging for L and E (31 months), but since it was a new activity they were excited to try it.   Each girl took her turn sitting nicely at the table and concentrated on completing the task.

As much as kids need repetition to learn, they really want variety, so I'm glad we did an activity that was new to us.

Today the girls found the paper with the object outlines and wanted to do the activity again.  Since I had already put the objects away, it turned into a scavenger hunt, for a little extra challenge!

Cat in the Hat - Balancing Game

Today's activity for Seuss Week was based on Cat in the Hat, a big favorite at our house.  I came up with a Cat in the Hat balancing game idea a couple days ago in the middle of the night when Baby H was having a hard time sleeping, and I'm so glad I didn't forget it in my sleep-deprived haze.  We have a version of the book that has both French and English, so I even integrated a bit of French terminology in the game.

I picked six objects from the book (cup, hat, fish, ship, ball, book) and five body parts (hand, foot, chin, head, elbows, legs) and put the names of the objects (in French) into two photo-cubes:

Then I gathered the appropriate objects.  We took turns choosing who would be the Balancer.  Then the other girl rolled the dice and helped put the correct object on the correct bodypart of the Balancer.  We kept rolling the dice until the Balancer couldn't balance the objects any longer:

It was a real challenge, and the girls laughed and laughed as the objects kept slipping.  We also played a variation where you only roll the dice once and then have to carry the object using the correct body part across the room.  You could also add a third die with actions (like jump, stand on one leg, etc..) for more challenge.

Once the girls had enough of the balancing game, we played "What's in the Hat" by hiding different objects in the Dr. Seuss hat and then trying to guess what's inside or putting multiple objects inside and trying to find something specific using sense of touch (this is a variation of a Montessori Mystery Bag game):

When we read The Cat in the Hat after playing the game, the girls had a new appreciation for the amazing balancing act the cat performs.  They also could recognize some of the objects by their French names.

Other Seuss activities we've done this week include:

• Yertle the Turtle Number Craft
• Green Eggs and Ham: Try New Food Challenge
• The Shape of Me and Other Stuff

Now I need to come up with some ideas for the rest of our week...

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Green Eggs and Ham - Try New Food Challenge

Today's Seuss activity (in celebration of his birthday March 2nd) was based on Green Eggs and Ham.  I've seen tons of wonderful Green Eggs recipes and art projects all over the web to go along with this book.  However, I decided to take the opportunity to do something that would focus more on the message of the book - don't assume you won't like new things until you try them.  What a great opportunity to encourage (i.e. trick) my picky eater, E, into trying new foods!

First, I wanted to teach the girls about the biases we all carry.  I put their (white vanilla-flavored) yogurt into three bowls and added a little food coloring to each so they were different colors:

Then I told them they had to taste each one and tell me which tasted the best.  E took a taste of each color yogurt and declared that the yellow one was definitely the most delicious!  L tasted them all and looked puzzled.. I asked her which one tasted the best, and she replied that they all taste the same (silly Mommy!).  Then she chose pink, because it was her favorite color.  I explained that she was correct and they were all the same, but sometimes we judge things by other factors such as external color instead of seeing what they really are.  Then we took the opportunity to do some color mixing:

The main event (for breakfast, when the girls were good and hungry) was a chance to try different foods.  I made a platter with a variety of food - some that they eat on a regular basis, and others that I'd like them to try (vegetables, meatballs, etc..):

I read Green Eggs and Ham to them, and we discussed how the main character was reluctant to try new food, but actually liked it once he gave it a try.  Then the girls took turns putting on the blindfold and opening their mouths, as I gave them different foods to try.  They were amazingly good at guessing what the food was (I've seen Reality TV cooking contests where the chefs did much worse in this challenge).

Now I mentioned that E is a picky eater.  She is not your typical picky eater - she loves olives, goat cheese, hummus, and salami, but with spit out birthday cake!  Oh, and whenever I give her chicken nuggets, she uses them to lick the ketchup off her plate but will never take a bite (whoever told me that if you present the same food to a child 10 times they will eventually accept it, has never met my E).  So I thought this would be a wonderful way to get her to try (and hopefully like) some new foods.  She let me put foods in her mouth that she never eats, but all the vegetables came right back out.  She even spit out the chicken nugget!  I guess she's just a girl who knows what she likes and what she doesn't.  L discovered that she likes cooked red peppers (but not raw green ones), celery, lettuce, and craisins.  The veggie-fritters were not a big hit either.  After the girls tasted everything, I let them finish up the food sampler platter:

The girls polished off the plate pretty well in addition to some extra apples, oranges, and olives by popular request.

Thank you, Dr. Seuss for helping my kids try new foods!

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Simple Yertle the Turtle Activity

In celebration of Dr. Seuss's Birthday on March 2nd, I'm going to try to integrate at least one Seuss-themed activity into our play every day this week.  We started with Yertle the Turtle.

The story is about a ruling turtle who (literally) steps on the backs of his subjects to elevate his status until one of the proletariats overthrows him (like my puns?).  This activity was so ridiculously simple to set up that I finished preparing it before the girls were done chugging their cups of milk.  All you have to do is cut out a bunch of turtles from green (or blue) construction paper and label them with numbers (or letters).

The girls had to glue the turtles in a stack in the correct order.  Then they drew in eyes for the turtles as well as water for them to swim in.

Simple, educational, Seuss-inspired fun!