1-2-3 Come Do Some Seuss Activities With Me

The Cat in the Hat’s hat seems to be the most recognized symbol for Dr. Seuss.

I like using it for a variety of activities during a Dr. Seuss is on the Loose celebration. If you want to make a quick and easy 3-dimensional stovepipe hat out of a paper plate and construction paper Click on the link. Dr. Seuss Hat

Why not have students design a new Dr. Seuss hat. Instead of stripes, why not stars or polka dots?  Run off my template on white construction paper and tell students that the sky’s the limit.

They’ll make a cute bulletin board. Click on the link for Dr. Seuss hat template. I LOVE dressing up for theme days and make my own costumes via a trip to the Good Will, + some felt, no sew glue and a bottle of puffy paint.

You can easily slap on a character to a jumper, blazer or vest. I found some cute costume ideas, including this adorable little girl who is truly a cat IN the hat at Mom’s Best Nest.

Click on the link to check them out. Dr. Seuss Day Costume Ideas.

Dr. Seuss certainly colors our world with whimsy!

To help you review colors and reinforce color word recognition, you’ll enjoy The Colors Of Seuss On The Loose.

This 4-on-a-page mini booklet, features some of Seuss’ most colorful characters like the brightly colored yellow Sneeches.

Students read the simple sentences, trace and then wrtie the color words.

There’s a color version as well as a black and white template so that students can color the Grinch green and the Lorax orange etc.

The packet includes color words and Seuss hats so your students can make Itty Bitty booklets as well as play Memory Match games. Two graphs provide math extensions.

Click on the link to view/download The Colors of Seuss On the Loose Booklet

Dr. Seuss’s My Many Colored Days is the perfect book to read to accompany this activity. It’s one of my all-time favorite Seuss books.

Because it’s about colors as well as feelings, I designed My Seuss-Hat Feelings Booklet.

This is also a 4-on-the-page mini booklet to save on paper when printing and features a blank-faced cat so that students can fill in his emotions.

This is a great writing prompt booklet that will help reinforce the use of adjectives and description as well as review color words and how they are associated with emotions.

Jamie Lee Curtis’ book Today I Feel Silly as well as Glad Monster Sad Monster are also great “Feelings” books with fabulous use of color and make nice comparison contrast stories.

Books are a great vehicle to explain this concept to children and introduce them to Venn diagrams, as well as give them more experience with graphing.

I’ve included 2 Venn diagrams, 2 graphing extensions + an assessment tool in this packet.

I truly believe that “Children don’t care how much you know ‘til they know how much you care.” Little ones have more going on in their young lives than we realize.

Giving this easy assessment every few months can really be an eye-opener for you.  Children are not always as happy as they seem.

Click on the link to view/download My Seuss-Hat Feelings packet.

Scroll down for more Dr. Seuss activities.  Whether you’re celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday or planning a Cat in the Hat day, I hope it’s simply purrrr-fect!   

A fun idea we do for March is Reading Month is have a Cat in the Hat Day!  Most everyone comes dressed in black, red and white which is pretty easy for our school because those are our school colors. 

A lot of our teachers take 10 minutes out of the day and have their students make an alternating red and white ABAB patterned Cat Hat to wear, but the big finale is we all assemble outside where our principal somehow manages to climb on the roof of our school and reads a page out of the book! 

You may not have a principal as wonderful, wild and willing as ours, but nevertheless planning a day around Seuss's famous cat is a rather easy and fun theme day to spark marvelous memories for a child and motivate students to read.

Here are a few things that I do:

Get parents involved:

I want my parents on board and I find that if I have some sort of contest going on that often helps.  I send home a letter letting them know that March is Reading month and that I'd really like them to make some quality time to read with their child. Just a few moments right before bedtime is a rewarding experience for both of them. 

I read a study while I was in college where they surveyed all of the inmates on Death Row in the early 80's and discovered that one of the things they all had in common was that none of them had ever been read to as a child! Hmmmm something to definitely think about. 

The challenge for them is to read as many books as they can, write the name of the book on their Cat in the Hat-hat and see how tall they can make it!  At the end of the month we'll display the hats and give a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize for the tallest hats. (Most books read!)  Click on the link to view/print the letter and hat stack. 

I dress up:

You don't have to, but my students always enjoy my costumes.  They are really easy to make.  Here I just drew the cat on a piece of white felt with a black marker and then outlined it with lots of black puffy paint around the edges.  

I glued it on my black jumper with "no sew" fabric glue.  I did the same thing with the red felt bow and his hat stripes and red puffy paint.  I wrote Cat in the Hat with white puffy paint around the hem of my jumper and then wore a blouse.  I scrunched up a piece of red felt and knotted it with red ribbon to make my bow tie. I hot glued 4 red poker chips together, wrote the letters R-E-A-D on each one with black puffy paint and added white puffy paint details to make my pin. 

My Cat in the Hat necklace is a Christmas ornament hung with black 1/8th ribbon, and my hat is from Oriental Trading. You can't see them, but I have red and white striped socks on, and  black-red- and white comfy oxford-looking slippers. Tah Dah! I'm all set.  If you can't draw, trace the cat from a book, enlarge it and use tracing paper to apply it to your felt.

 Theme your lessons:

Everything I do that day is themed around cats and hats. Because of Seuss licensing and copyrights I can't share.  I simply scan my book and buy coloring books and stickers to make my lessons.  We review the at family and make a hat slider.  Click on the link to view/print the templates and directions.  Cat in the Hat Skill Sheets + Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat -at family slider  

Educational Games:

I designed 2 games that we play in the afternoon in lieu of Free Play Center Time.  Again because of licensing I can't give you the template for the spinner.  I made Stack The Hat from stickers, which you can do; Or make a copy of the cat and Thing 1 and 2 from your book.

Use my photo as a guide.  I've included the cat, which I drew as well as his stacked-hat playing piece.  Students roll the dice and try to get the red stripes to complete his hat, but watch out for those naughty things.  If you land on them, you'll have to put one or two of your stripes back in the Baggie!

The other game is called On A Roll With The Cat in the Hat!  Students partner up like Thing 1 and 2 and work in pairs.  If a child rolls a 1,2,4, or 6 they can move their playing piece forward because they are behaving like the fish and 2 good children in the book, but if they roll a 3 which spells the 3 letters in C-A-T they must move their playing piece backwards 3 spaces because people who are naughty in life generally are not successful and don't move forward. 

Likewise with a roll of 5, which spells T-H-I-N-G, you'll find yourself losing a turn, for children who don't make wise choices need a time out.  The first student to hop through all of their hats and reach the cat is the winner. Click on the link to view/print these Cat in the Hat games and directions.

If you do decide to do a Cat in the Hat Day I hope it's simply Purrrrr-fect!