Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!! What a great day to choose to promote “Read Across America”. Reading is such an essential part of any education and life that I think it is wonderful to celebrate it. We love to celebrate Read Across America Day and have so much fun coming up with unique ways to make it fun every year!
Lauren is a huge Dr. Seuss fan and in fact has read the books we have so often that she knows them by memory now. One of the books that Matthew loved to read to Lauren was “The Lorax”. This year Matthew decided he wanted to create Truffula Trees for our decoration in our Craft Day. His thought was to paint some bamboo sticks black and yellow for the trunks. Wendy created the tissue paper flowers for the tops of the tree. These were really cute and added such great ambiance to our celebration.
We made our own Dr. Seuss hats this year. We bought Red and White Felt and sewed them together so it looked exactly like the real Cat in the Hat!
We served Green Eggs and Ham for lunch – lol, we actually made sandwiches and ate green colored deviled eggs.
We bought a box of Tri-Colored Gold Fish snacks and had Matthew separate them by color, he loved it! We then placed each color in individual mini fish bowls for our “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”. Lauren made Salt Dough and by using a fish cookie cutter she cut out a few fish and then stuck a popsicle stick through them, allowed them to dry and then painted them. The adults helped her paint with puffy paint the wording on them. They turned out so cute and went great with our centerpiece!
We served Blue Punch and Thing 1 & Thing 2 cupcakes as well. The cupcakes were made using red colored cupcakes in Red cupcake sleeves, white icing on them and then Blue Cotton Candy, we punched out 1 ¼ white circles and using a black Sharpe painted the rim of them and then wrote Thing 1 and Thing 2 and taped to the cupcake sleeve ….very simple to make!
Along with our DIY Hats we also dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2. We just so happened to find these fuzzy blue hats at our local Dollar Tree store! So because we had white felt circles left over from our DIY Hats we wrote “Thing 1” on one and “Thing 2” on the other…..too easy, lol!
When all said and done….Lauren had a fabulous time and loved being Thing 1 for the afternoon. Matthew loved to eat all the yummy food and creating the fun atmosphere for the party.
Below we wanted to share the Read Across America information that is found at NEA National Education Association - http://www.nea.org
Our friends at Random House have put together a terrific Read Across America resources page featuring a teacher's guide, activities, games and so much more. Head to Seussville for a Seussational reading adventure. You're never too old, too wacky, too wild,
To pick up a book and read with a child.
You're never too busy, too cool, or too hot,
To pick up a book and share what you've got.
To pick up a book and read with a child.
You're never too busy, too cool, or too hot,
To pick up a book and share what you've got.
In schools and communities,
Let's gather around,
Let's pick up a book,
Let's pass it around.
Let's gather around,
Let's pick up a book,
Let's pass it around.
There are kids all around you,
Kids who will need
Someone to hug,
Someone to read.
Kids who will need
Someone to hug,
Someone to read.
Come join us March 2nd
Your own special way
And make this America's
Read to Kids Day.
Your own special way
And make this America's
Read to Kids Day.
Reader’s Oath
Words by Debra Angstead
Missouri-National Education Association
I promise to read
Each day and each night.
I know it’s the key
To growing up right.
I’ll read to myself,
I’ll read to a crowd.
It makes no difference
If silent or loud.
I’ll read at my desk,
At home and at school,
On my bean bag or bed,
By the fire or pool.
Each book that I read
Puts smarts in my head,
‘Cause brains grow more thoughts
The more they are fed.
So I take this oath
To make reading my way
Of feeding my brain
What it needs every day.
Downloads:
RAA Achievement Certificate - Click HERE to print out
RAA Appreciation Certificate - Click HERE to print out
The following song was written and donated to NEA by Glenn Weiss. Sheet music (PDF 1p, 68 KB) is available. Please feel free to use it in your Read Across America events. Enjoy!
Read Across America
©2003 Glenn Weiss
Read across America
We're so proud of our whole school
We're reading books across America
You know reading's really cool.
Every book unfolds a world
That'll take you far away.
Come join us young and old,
We're so proud of our whole school
We're reading books across America
You know reading's really cool.
Every book unfolds a world
That'll take you far away.
Come join us young and old,
Boys and girls exercise your mind today.
Your imagination is something you should feed.
For growing inspiration let reading be your seed.
Read across America,
From sea to shining sea
Read across America
Will build a better you and me.
From sea to shining sea
Read across America
Will build a better you and me.
Read across America,
From sea to shining sea
Read across America
Will build a better you and me.
Will build a better you and me.
From sea to shining sea
Read across America
Will build a better you and me.
Will build a better you and me.
We had such a fantastic celebration to promote reading and just had fun celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss!
