1-2-3 Come Do Some Dr. Seuss Lorax Activities With Me   

Ever since the movie came out, my students absolutely love the Lorax. He's such a cute little fluff ball, and the inspiration behind my "Shapin' Up With The Lorax" packet.   

This craftivity is quick, easy & super-fun and includes a variety of game options.

There's also an emergent reader, which practices capitalization and end punctuation as it reviews shapes.

I’ve provided 2D shapes (circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, pentagon, octagon, trapezoid, rhombus, heart, star & crescent), as well as the four, 3D ones: cone, cube, cylinder andsphere. 

Make a set to use for a bulletin board display.

Make an extra set; cut them in half, and use as puzzles for an independent math center and an interesting way to review symmetry.

Play 4-Corner FREEZE; a game that practices a variety of life skills, like listening and following directions, as well as the 2D/3D shape vocabulary, plus recognition, and counting backwards from 10 to 0.

My kiddos absolutely LOVE this game. Easy-peasy for me, and only takes a few minutes, so it’s perfect for the end of the day. I’ve included directions in the packet.

You can also use the Lorax shapes as big flashcards. Hold one up. Children call out what shape it is, along with its attributes, like the number of vertices.

Play “Who’s Missing?” Display a set on the wall. After children leave, take one away. In the morning, children guess which one is missing.

I’ve also included a 2-on-a-one-page template, so children can pick their favorite shape and create their own Lorax.

There are 2 mustache options: “I ‘mustache’ you a question. What shape am I?” is written on one, the other is blank.

For a cute keepsake idea, students can use their hand prints as the mustache, and add accordion-folded legs and arms. (Super fine motor practice!)

Have older students write attributes on the back. 

Next up is a Telling Time With The Lorax Game, which practices analog and digital time to the hour.

There are several ways to use the packet.  Make a large Lorax teacher’s clock to use as a whole-group assessment tool. 

You can also have children make their own, mini (4-on-a-page pattern) Lorax clock, to whole group assess in another way.

Ask children to show you 11:00 or whatever time. Sitting at their desk/table, they manipulate their paperclips to display that time.
You walk around the room making sure children have the correct time.

Another option: Instead of using paperclips, children can use a dry erase marker to draw hands on their clock, to show you the time, then erase it with a tissue.

The “clocks” can also be used as spinners to play the “It’s Truffula Tree Time!” game.

To use for a math center activity, laminate the full-size truffula trees, and medium-size spinners, and attach a large paperclip with a brass brad.

Using a dry erase marker, children play with a partner, spinning the paperclip to see what time they will trace on the truffula tree trunk.

The winner of the game, is the first one to fill in all of the times, or who has the most times traced when the timer rings.

So that children practice numbering a clock, I’ve also included mini-blank clocks without numbers. 

When students spin, they not only trace the time on their truffula tree, they also write that number on their mini clock worksheet.

I’ve included 2-on-a page templates of the game, so that you can play this as a whole group activity too. 

Children can play with a partner or in a group of 3-5.  Each student makes their own truffula tree, has their own blank clock, and shares the spinner. 

Today's FREEBIE also features Seuss's Lorax.  It's a super-cute writing prompt. Making a mustache to launch a writing prompt, is an interesting and "Suessical" way of doing things. I think your students will enjoy it.

For an adorable bulletin board, take everyone's photograph wearing their mustache and put it next to their writing.  Your bulletin board title could be the same question you are asking: "We mustache you, would you save a truffula tree?" 

Flank the board on either side, with 2 colorful truffula trees, made out of strips of neon-colored tissue paper, and rolled up green bulletin board paper for the trunk. Stripe it with brightly colored boarder.

Well that's it for today.  I can't believe spring is just around the corner, as it's bitter cold today and the bleak view out my window is still snow covered! 

Wishing you a wonderful week!

"Life is like a mustache.  It can be wonderful or terrible, but it always tickles!" -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Count and Flip Stripes With Me!

This Seuss flip hat is a bit more complicated than the money “cent-stional” one that I designed earlier, but it is still a pretty easy project that nails a lot of Standards in a fun way. Common Core State Standards: K.CC.4a, K.CC.4b, K.CC.4c, K.OA.1,K.OA.5, K.CC.6, 1.MD.3

How To Make A Hat:Run off the templates. I’ve made a teacher answer key with the time-consuming parts done, to expedite making a sample to show your students.  Because of the cutting. gluing, and assembling, this is a terrific fine motor skill activity.

You can have students either color every other stripe on the front cover flip portion of the hat, in an ABAB pattern, or you can run off the cover template on red construction paper.

Cut the stripes so that one child gets the odd numbers to glue to his white cover, and another child gets the even numbers.

By gluing the stripe to the matching number, you are reinforcing sequencing, one-to-one correspondence, as well as odd or even numbers, plus skip counting by 2’s for the even numbers.

Before assembling, have students fill in the inside of the hat.  If you have them use a yellow and green highlighter, you can revisit the science fact that apples come in red, yellow and green.  You can also have them color their apples in an ABC color pattern when they get to that portion of the hat.

I used apples for the group/set of things, because it’s a school theme, easily recognizable by students, and is a terrific transition activity, if you read Seuss’s 10 Apples Up On Top to your kiddos.

There is plenty of room to have your students write the numbers in as well.  I did this AFTER the tally marks, so that the first column of numbers stays separate from the writing of the numbers, so that the first number does not look like an 11, the next a 22 and so on.

Children draw hands on the clock to the hour.   Remind them that the hour hand is shorter than the minute hand.

Making A Hat: Students cut and glue the correct matching dice to the appropriate column.

I purposely used part of the fact family of 5.  Counting the dots on the dice and adding them together to = their number, will reinforce yet another Standard.

Students trim their front and back covers, and cut out their hat.  I found that it was easier, to fold the edge of the front and back covers and then glue them to the front and back parts of the hat, before cutting the stripes.

This way everything wasn’t flapping all over the place, with the risk of getting torn or completely ripped off.  This will also help prevent children from cutting their strips entirely off, if they don’t stop at the dashed line.

My Y5’s often did that because they were simply on a roll and kept cutting.  Once students complete their hats, there are all sorts of things you can do with them.

How Can I Use The Hats?  They are great for whole group assessing. Call out a number and have students flip to it.

Have them flip all of their even or odd numbers over. As they flip the even numbers, have them count by 2’s. Call out a number and have them flip over all of the numbers that are greater or less than that number.

Call out a time and have them flip to that. Do quick story problems by saying: “Flip to 2:00 o’clock. If 3 hours go by, flip to what time it will be.”  Call out 2 numbers, have them flip them and then add or subtract them.

Students can choose a partner and take turns rolling first one dice ‘til they have flipped numbers 1-6 and then add the 2^nd dice to roll and flip numbers 7-10.  The first one to flip over all of their flaps, or the one who has the most flipped stripes, by the time the timer rings, is the winner.

If you happen to think of more ways to use this number hat, I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com, or post a comment here if you like.   Click on the link to view/download the I've Got Your Number Dr. Seuss Hat.

Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.

“The most precious jewels your arms will ever have around your neck, will be the arms of a child.” -Unknown