Showing posts with label Dr. Seuss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Seuss. Show all posts

Groovy Dr. Seuss MOVES!

(Originally posted at abcand123learning.com)

Today I wanted to share some ideas to MOVE past just reading the  Dr. Seuss books and making a craft.  We're going to be getting off that chair and MOVING to Dr. Seuss!

Each year I get so excited to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd).  It's a wonderful way to celebrate reading and the fun world he created that kids love!

As you know, some children are full-body learners.  My daughter is very much this kind of learner.  Everything makes more sense to her when she can touch it or get her whole body involved somehow.  For the other kids, these activities reinforce concepts they've learned in other ways which is also very important!

One way to get bodies involved is to dress them up!


Here is our Cat in the Hat dress-up that we use for the game you will see below.
 (Link for details of how to make this dress up the kids are making their own hats.)



Dr. Seuss Rhyme Tag
This game is a fun way to reinforce rhyming practice and get the kids moving!

The person who is "it" is the "cat in the hat."  See photo above-

When the Cat in the Hat tags someone the person is "caught" and has to freeze.  The frozen person thinks of a word and says it when another player runs by.  Once someone rhymes a word with the frozen person and taps them, that person becomes "unfrozen" and is back in the game.

You can switch who is it/the Cat in the Hat with a timer or whenever they catch a certain number of kids.



Music + a Book = FUN!  
A little dance party to Green Eggs and Ham adds fun movement to this classic!

Green Eggs and Ham Song


Thing 1/Thing 2 May I? Game 
This is a variation on the classic, "Mother May I?" game.  You could also play this game using the Cat in the Hat dress-up above (so you don't have to make the puppets to play it.)


I wanted to combine the activity we are doing (thing 1 or 2 puppets) with a game to practice our rhyming and this is how we are doing it:

These are the puppets we are using this printable and directions on assembly at obseussed (where you'll find lots more Seuss fun!)

Thing 1 and 2 Game Instructions:
The idea is to use rhyming and Dr. Seuss characters combined with the usual parts of the game.
Hopefully this makes sense!
One child (the mother) stands a the front of the group with their puppet (either Thing 1 or 2).
Each child can ask (the mother) to do something (hop, steps, etc.) while holding their puppet and making it "talk."
The child who is the "mother" at the front uses their puppet to "talk" back to the the child that asked the question.  
The children takes turns asking ways to get to the front, varying the number of steps/ hops. 
 The one to get up to the child in the front first wins.  
If someone forgets to say "Thing 1" when they ask their question or cannot think of a rhyming word, they go back to the start.

It goes something like this:
Using their puppet, one child in line says: "Thing 1, may I take 3 hops?"
Thing 1 (standing facing the other children in the line and using their puppet): "If you rhyme with "ball" you may.
etc.


For those who really like to include movement in their learning, you will also like how we've been learning to do alphabetical order with Dr. Seuss at This Little Project
Have fun finding your Dr. Seuss "Groove"!

Dr. Seuss Day: Edible Scrabble Game

A day to celebrate reading?  We're in!  
 
Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd) is one of our favorite holidays and it's always a "treat" to decide how we will celebrate.
 
I love being able to sneak some learning into snack time.  And this year we made a game of it!
 
Playing scrabble with cookie tiles was quite the {little} treat for my kids.  Jay is old enough to manage the point system.  But Jay and Kay had fun making their own crossword puzzles.

 I think Dr. Seuss would agree that eating words is a lot of fun!
 

 
Be sure to check out our other Dr. Seuss Day Food fun!


 
 

Dr. Seuss Day: Muffin Tin Meal



One of our favorite ways to celebrate holidays is with a Muffin Tin Meal.  
My kids think it is the perfect {little} touch.

Our Dr. Seuss muffin tin meal was a hit!
 


From top left to right: string cheese (hat) with red pepper stripes, letter pretzels, green eggs and ham,
red fish-blue fish, oobleck (pistachio pudding), letter cookies

Although we have celebrated Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd) for many years, I've never made green eggs and ham!  I thought they would gobble it right up....but they were are afraid to at first!

It took some prodding, but they finally tried it and were surprised that it tasted the same!


The fun thing about a muffin tin meal is that there is just a {little} bit of each kind of food.  

Kids love the variety and the novelty of not having it every day means something so simple can turn the day into something just a {little} bit more special.

Be sure to check out our other Dr. Seuss food fun!





Dr. Seuss Day: Cat in the Hat Drinks!

Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd) is one of our favorite holidays to celebrate!

My kids loved our Cat in the Hat drinks and they are so easy to do!




 The trick to {this little project} is using Dry Erase Washable Markers.

Simple fun.  We're good at that around here.

I love how the milk turns the cat white.  But if you don't want to risk a glass cup, my {little} kids were equally content with a face drawn on our favorite IKEA cups instead--as long as I put a straw in, lol.

 


 
Be sure to check out  more of our Dr. Seuss Food fun!




 



* Affiliate Links included.  Opinions are always 100% my own.

Graduation {and WINGS for going places!}

It's graduation time where we are (school gets out a little later here) and graduation parties are in full swing.  So, I've been doing some end-of-the-year {little projects}.

When I graduated from high school, I remember receiving the Oh, the Places You'll Go! book by Dr. Seuss from my parents with a nice note about moving forward in life written inside.
This time of year always makes me think of that story and those words from my parents.


If you don't have a graduate at your house right now, pick up a copy of this book and write a {little} message to your child at the close of each school year.  What a keepsake you'll have when s/he graduates!


My talented sister, Rhielle, sent Jay and Kay these darling wings for Christmas.  
She made them!
 

Whenever I watch the kids fly around the house in these wings I think of the wings in the book.
Maybe it's the fun colors? 
Or maybe it's that when the kids put the wings on something magical happens and they can be anything they want to be; something we kinda tend to forget when we turn all adult-like and responsible. 
Not to say that being responsible isn't a good thing.  

But these kids are still young enough to really believe in themselves.

I love that.
 



Lately, I've been a fan of the blank-card packages at Michael's.  They're a buck for 8.  And they come already circle-punched (not that I can't do that, but still..) and I just "fill in the blank" according to the occasion.  That's the kind of {little project} I can handle.

Here's the graduation kind of "fill in the blank" with stickers (from the $1 section somewhere).

 (and yes, the stickers are centered, but the cards are opened at an angle ;)


These are my other favorite graduation cards and poster:


Cute huh!  The perfect quote, right from that book. 
And it's a FREE printable!
You can find it here.

It's nice to have a {little} reminder that even we aren't so {little} anymore, we really can choose the direction we want to fly.

Dr. Seuss Dress Up

I've been getting some {little} dress-ups ready in preparation for some games and other activities we're doing to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2nd.

Here's our Cat in the Hat costume look so far (the kids will be making their own hats)

{This little project} is courtesy the invention box.

I got this red bag with a purchase recently and loved the color so much that I couldn't throw it out (I know-that probably means I'm weird!) so I put it in our invention box instead.  I'm so glad I did because it is perfect for our Cat in the Hat bow ties!


I simply cut it along the seams to get a nice long piece and then cut it in strips.

Then tie it to a rubber band, or hair ponytail before you tie the bow:

Now you can use a clothes pin to attach it to the person wearing it.

For the ears I used black felt and hot glued them to alligator clips.  

The white paws are from the dollar store a few years back, but you could whip some up out of white and black felt.


Stay tuned for some fun {little} games to use this Dr. Seuss dress up costume with!

Pin It 

Stilts for Dr. Seuss

We love an excuse for a party!
Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2nd)
is a great excuse to party and cuddle up and read together too!

We've been busy doing {Little Projects} to get ready for another party: 
Little Ellie is turning one soon! 
 Stay tuned for some fun {Little Projects} I've been doing for her!

 We've enjoyed a new (to us) book of Dr. Suess's called, 
The King's Stilts. 

 Ellie has been busy getting her own stilts working and she's walking everywhere now! Now that she's a upright and taller she can get into even more messes!




Since Ellie's almost one, another {Little Project} I've been doing is weaning her.  That has meant we have a few formula cans for our Invention Box.

You'll find those in {This Little Project} of Seuss Stilts:

To make {This Little Project} you need:

2 formula cans (13 oz size)  I found that these are nicer than tin cans because their top surface is bigger and they are easier to control and walk on.

a nail

 hammer

shoe laces or yarn (long)

tape

paper to wrap around (and color/decorate if you wish) 

We have wood floors (that we try not to scratch up too much) so I put the plastic lid as the surface that goes on the floor.

Decorate your cans with paper and color.

Then, simply hammer the nail about 1.5 inches from the bottom of the can on each side.  Make the hole big enough for your shoelace or yarn to go through.

Put the string through both sides (see photo)

Tie a knot to hold on to as they walk.

And there you go!  Hours of fun coordination-building clomping around like a King!  

My kiddos also like to hang them around their neck and bang on them like drums.  But I didn't show them that :)

For a fun printable unit on Dr. Seuss to enjoy with your kids 
check this out at What the Teacher Wants.

We are also going to be making some of
these printables from Michaels today!

And we'll be eating {This Little Project} for lunch!

Have a Happy {Little Reading Project}!  


p.s. There's more Dr. Seuss fun in the archives!
Wocket in my Pocket
Dr. Seuss Day

Dr. Seuss Day


Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! We love having an excuse to have a party!
Below you will find our Cat in the Hat hats, chocolate drawings, Rhyming Hat sheet and GAME, and a Cat in the Hat TREAT!

We've been watching some of the older Dr. Seuss movies (the animation is the same as the books) which are fun because they have some cute song in them too.

If you need a "cat in the hat" hat, here's how to make one:
It is similar to the one we made for our President's Day Party.

1st- Get a paper plate and cut the inside out of it.

2-Then we cut 2.25" strips of paper and 
3-taped them together.  They are long enough to go around the middle (circumference) of the hat.  

Jay really enjoyed all the taping that we did.  It was good practice for him. 
4-Tape all the stripes together. 
5-Next you need to roll the stripes into a tube that is the size of the opening of the top of your hat and tape to hold the tube together.  Is tube the right word?  It should look like a cylinder.
{Project Tip:} If you put the side with all the tape pieces on the inside of the cylinder it looks better :)

5-Then tape the striped cylinder to the inside of the paper plate.  I used about 4 pieces going from the inside of the cylinder to the underside of the paper plate. 

And then put it on your head!

Baby Kay wanted a purple one (her new word this week is purple).

And since my kiddos are pretty much Thing 1 and Thing 2 incarnate, I let them make a big mess drawing letters in chocolate pudding (and eating it too!)  It seemed like a Seussish thing to do.
yummy words!
Just spread chocolate (or any flavor) pudding on a cookie sheet and use your fingers to carve away.  They wanted to use utensils to carve too.  Then just re-spread it out to make new words.
{Project Tip} don't leave Thing 1 and 2 unattended, even for a minute.  You will regret it (I did!)

We hat fun doing THIS Cat in the Hat rhyming sheet!
Below is a game we made up to practice making rhyming words.  Just cut strips of cardboard from a cereal box.  Use different colors to make the ends of words (click on the picture to see closer).  Then just change the letters around and say them out loud to hear the rhymes!

And here  is our "Cat in the Hat Treat" of red and white stripes.
To make yours, you need strawberries, red jello, and yogurt (or vanilla pudding).  Just layer the yogurt in the glass and put the strawberries around the edge of the glass.  Fill the inside of the red layer with red jello.  Then repeat!  Yummy!


Have a Happy Seuss kind of day with a Seussish Little Project!

Check out the Crafty Crow to see our "Wocket" Little Project that was featured there and more for Dr. Seuss Day!

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