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

Do you read “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”  by Dr. Seuss? It’s one of my all-time favorite Seuss stories.

“Oh the Places You’ll Go” is not only perfect for March is Reading Month, Read Across America, or a Celebration of Seuss Week. but the story is also appropriate at the end of the year, when students are advancing into a new grade or graduating!

With that in mind, I decided to combine reading and writing with a bit of geography, with this super-fun “Oh, the Places I’LL Go!” craftivity.

Children think of a place they’d like to travel to. Money is no object, so the world is literally at their feet.

Older students can do a bit of research to find out about a fascinating place they’d like to travel to. (Thus the geography connection, as well as great research & technology practice!)

The cover of this “flip-the-flap” hat, comes with the question words: Who? What? Why? When? Where & How? written on the stripes, which when flipped over, reveal the student’s answers.

For example, “Where would you like to travel to?”, "When would you like to go?", "Why do you want to go there?", "Who do you want to go with?", "What do you want to see?" and "How do you want to get there?"

The craftivity provides an interesting way to practice & reinforce the “5 Ws + 1 H” question words in a fun way.

I’ve included a poster, with the entire questions that you can use to introduce your lesson.

As always, patterns come in both black & white for students, as well as color, so that teachers can quickly & easily make an example to share.

There are also blank patterns, so that older students can write in their own words and title.

Completed projects make a terrific bulletin board or hallway display.

I’ve included a variety of posters that you can sprinkle among your students creations.

I rewrote a few of the story's most popular quotations in first person to match the "Oh,the Places I'LL Go!" writing prompt title, and put them inside speech bubbles, as if your students are saying them.

Besides the quote posters, there are two others featuring students reading their way to wonderful places.

I had a lot of fun designing background papers using the color scheme from the cover of the "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" book.

I thought maybe teachers would like to use them for their own personal creations, so I've included those as well.

I also designed a set of letters which spell out the caption: “Oh, the Places We’ll Go!” to add some extra pizzazz.

Simply print, laminate & trim; then hang above your display. 

To add a bit of a "geography look", I created several globes, which can be substituted for the capital and lowercase letter O.

You can leave the hat “as is” or have students glue their completed craftivity to the suitcase pattern.

A luggage tag for a student’s name, adds some 3D pop, when the top portion is glued to the handle of the suitcase, then bent up.

Today's featured FREEBIE also has a Seuss theme featuring the Grinch. 

Celebrate Seuss with these two rhyming & writing, Grinch-themed "craftivities". One features two writing prompts. 

Students think of things that make them grin like the Grinch,  jotting these down on the left side.  On the right side, they list things that make them "grinchly and grumpy".  

The other craft is a "doorknobber".  On the front, students glue their photo face over the Grinch's, after they color it.  On the back, they list all of the words that they can think of that rhyme with whatever word you assign.  I chose Grinch and Seuss. 

Samples of both are included, so you can easily show examples to your students to help explain what you want them to do.

 Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

The sun is shining, which makes the cold and windy weather almost bearable. 

Wishing you a wonderful week.

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." - Henry Ford

1-2-3 Come Do A Seuss Craft With Me

It's "March is Reading Month" and Seuss is on the loose!

"You may have heard of Thing 1 and Thng 2.  They are a bit silly and a pretty bright blue.

I wonder though, if you've heard of Thing Three.  I doubt that you have because that would be me!"

And so begins the introductory poem that I wrote for a super-fun, Seuss inspired, writing prompt craft that I feel confident your students will really enjoy!

An added bonus is that completed Thing 3 projects make an amazing bulletin board.
I’ve included 2 posters for the center of your display.

This is easy-easy “print & go” prep for you, with a lot of bang for your time.

The packet is very versatile so that you can easily diversify your lessons.

Pre K kiddos can make their “Thing 3” and leave it at that, or dictate their answer to one of the writing prompts.  

Students can color my Thing 3 pattern, or use the blank-face pattern and draw their own. 

I made matching turquoise hair for my example, but for more variety, give children a choice of rainbow bright or neon colors, which make for an especially vibrant display.

You don’t have to, but to make it even more of a keepsake, have students trace one of their hands on a folded sheet of complimentary-colored construction paper, then cut once to make two hands.

Glue them to the sides of the back of Thing 3’s “belly” circle. Bend them a bit forward for some 3D pop.

For beginning or advanced writers, there are 11 writing prompt pages.
Pick your favorite or give children a choice. 

Another option is to make a “Things Journal”, doing all of the writing prompts.

Students can create their booklet on one day, then each day afterwards, complete a writing prompt page. 

Time constraint? Making & assembling the booklet can be done as a homework assignment, then returned to complete the writing in class.

Finished booklets make a nice keepsake and your “Writing Block” is taken care of for several weeks! Woo hoo.

I’ve found that when students get to share things about themselves, they are excited to get right down to the business of writing.

These interesting prompts not only do that, but they are also thought provoking.
I’ve actually had students who have no clue what they’d like to be, or places they’d like to go. They simply have never really thought about it.
When I tell them “The sky’s the limit” imaginations take flight.

How much you want students to write is up to you; share one “thing” or as many as three per prompt, leaving enough room on the bottom to illustrate one of their thoughts.

I chose 3 examples to go along with the "Thing 3" theme.
Be prepared for some enthusiastic writers to ask if they can list even more “things”!

As a fun way to get to know their classmates better, have a time of sharing when everyone has completed that prompt for the day.

Another booklet option reviews the 5 senses.
You can do this “instead of” the writing prompt pages or in "addition to"; creating a journal that will now last 3 weeks!

Using your five senses to describe things you like seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, makes for some wonderful descriptive writing too. Remind students to use plenty of adjectives.

As with some of the writing prompts, I’ve included my completed "5 senses" example pages, so that you can quickly & easily make a sample to share.

The student pages include a graphic for each of the 5 senses that they color.  Have them illustrate one of their thoughts on the bottom as well.

Today's featured FREEBIE also has a Seuss theme.  I designed this word work packet to go along with his book Green Eggs and Ham.

Did you know that Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham on a bet that he couldn’t write a book with fifty or fewer distinct words? 

After doing some checking, I discovered that the bet was made in 1960 with Bennett Cerf, the co-founder of Random House, and was for $50.  Ironically, even though Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham using EXACTLY 50 words, it's been reported that Cerf never paid up.

Green Eggs and Ham ranks in the top 3 best-selling Seuss books, so it's definitely worth reading.  I painstakingly found all 50 words in my copy, then alphabetized them in a handy list, as well as on an anchor chart poster. All but 8 of these words, appear on the Dolch word lists (6 of the 8 are nouns; the other six nouns in the story ARE on the Dolch noun word list!)  

Use the 50 word cards to play a variety of games like "Speed", Memory Match and "I Have; Who Has?". Students could also pick a partner, and play "Speed" against them, to see who can arrange their set of cards in alphabetical order first. The packet also includes a 2-page tip list of ideas, like Kaboom!

For writing practice, print, laminate and trim the cards.  Toss them into a Seuss hat and have students choose 2-3 and incorporate those words in sentences.  Remind them to use proper spacing, capitalization and end punctuation. 

So that children can practice long and short vowels, I've included two green eggs vowel sorting mats.

For some rhyming practice, run off the two "trace, write and alphabetize" worksheets, which use words that rhyme with Sam and green.  All of these activities are perfect for your Daily 5 word work block. 

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.

March has roared in like a lion here in Michigan, so it's time for a cup of hot chamomile tea and a little reading by the fire. 

Wishing you a carefree, lamb kind of day.

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather, mixed with a positive attitude." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Horton The Elephant Activities With Me

The first week of March we do a lot of Cat in the Hat activities to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. For the rest of March is Reading Month, I sprinkle in activities for some of his other popular stories, like Horton Hears A Who.  This blog article features 4 of my new packets. 

First up is "Hangin' Out With Horton".  Since so many teachers have the 5 senses as one of their science standards, I decided to make this sweet flip booklet featuring Horton because he HEARS a Who.

The pages of the booklet act like a "stem" for the clover that Horton is holding. Each page features one of the senses.
Students complete the simple writing prompts by filling in what Horton sees, hears, tastes, smells, and feels.

This can relate to the story, or be whatever they imaginations dream up. 

The last page is also up to them, as they finish the sentence: "Horton...

For that finishing touch, have them glue their school picture to the clover. They are now an official member of "Whoville". 

Next up is Horton Hears, which also reviews the 5 senses and matches the above packet.  

The packet includes . . .
* An alliterative and "tongue twisting" writing prompt craftivity
* Alliteration and tongue twister definition posters
* A class mini book: “Horton Hears A Who. How About You?”

* “We spy an elephant’s eye and these Ee words:” posters, with matching worksheet
* Horton’s senses whole group activity, with matching individual worksheet

* Label the elephant poster, with matching worksheets
* 5 photo-posters of elephants, featuring one of the 5 senses

* “My favorite sense” writing prompt with a “What’s Your Favorite Sense?” graphing extension
* “If I had to give up one of my senses it would be . . .” writing prompt with graphing extension plus a ...

* “Where might an elephant walk?” photo-poster, with matching writing prompt. 

An elephant is my favorite animal, so I'm also big on the Elmer stories by David McKee. 

I thought it would be fun to design a packet with both pachyderms , and just finished up-dating Horton & Elmer Fun.  This 102-page jumbo packet includes:

* 4 “Craftivities”
* Games
* Pocket chart cards

* Worksheets
* Posters
* Writing prompts

* Graphing activities
* Venn diagrams
* Itty Bitty color booklet

* Rhyming activity
* Lollipop certificate of praise plus
* Bookmarks.   

Finally, I just finished the "I Saw An Elephant" packet today. 

I designed these color activities specifically to go with Horton, but I kept this packet generic, so that it would work anytime of the year, and fits in nicely with a zoo or animal theme as well.     

It's differentiated for PK-1st grade, plus I've also included the UK "colours" and "grey" spelling options.

The packet includes a variety of posters, games, writing prompts, pocket chart cards for 12 colors, with a matching bookmark.
My students keep theirs in their writing journals.

There's also an emergent reader, “Elephant Colors” booklet, filled with lots of Dolch sight words, plus  a "favorite color elephant" graphing extension, with matching “color me” worksheet.

Besides the Memory Match games, there's also 2 options for a “Roll and Color” dice game, with numbers 1-6 for PK children, plus a game sheet for numbers 1-12 with addition practice and two dice, for older kiddos.

To mix math with literacy, there are full color, plus black and white number puzzles (sequencing numbers from 1-10 for PK kiddos, plus skip counting by 10s to 100 for older students.

There's also a set of Color mixing (primary to secondary colors) pocket chart cards, with a matching black & white template for students to color, which I staple together as a flip booklet.

The “mixing colors” elephant craftivity will be a big hit. My students absolutely LOVED mixing colors with finger paints.

They got so excited when a new color appeared as if by “magic”. The results are awesome and make an interesting bulletin board. A caption could be: “Mixing It Up In (Kindergarten)”. 

Today's FREEBIE also features Horton. It's a sweet writing prompt craftivity, that includes the puppet craft, plus 22 writing-prompts!

Well that's it for today.  I hope you still have some time left in your busy March schedule to fit in some fun with Horton. 

The weather's hit 60 today, so the dreary snow is finally melting like crazy!  Woo Hoo; I can smell spring in the air.  Wishing you a wonderful day. 

"Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes." - Carl Friedrich Gauss

1-2-3 Come Do Some Seuss Hat Craftivities With Me

Since Seuss's hat is so iconic, with the stripes making it an easy vehicle to cover an assortment of standards, I decided to design a few more activities featuring the cat's hat to celebrate Seuss.

First up is a Seuss-hat, “flip the flap” ABC booklet. My kiddos absolutely LOVE making these emergent readers. I enjoy the versatility.


The packet contains a booklet for each letter of the alphabet. 

You can make these as a whole group activity, as an independent center, for a bulletin board, for a class-made book (each student contributes a letter) or have each child do all of the letter booklets as a “letter a week” activity, and keep them in their ”portfolio" file folder.

Students trace and write the upper and lowercase letters, as well as the words that begin with that letter.  They read the sentence and add end punctuation.

I have used almost all of the words from the Pre-Primer, Kindergarten and 1st Grade Dolch word lists, plus many of the Dolch nouns!

There are covers for the class book, as well as the file folder, and I’ve also included a mini, set of letter cards that you can toss into a Seuss hat.

Children choose one, and that’s the letter they will contribute to the class book.

The packet also includes upper & lowercase letter assessments, plus "trace and write" upper and lowercase letter worksheets, plus a "Hats Off To Wonderful Work!" poster.  

From letters let's go to numbers with “I’ve Got Your Number!” Seuss hat booklet.

This is super-fun for your kiddos and easy-peasy for you to "print & go". 

The booklet helps review quite a few math standards as you flip from left to right, and then again, with another section, of "flip the flap" pages, from right to left, to show a group/set of apples.

I chose apples as the object because of Seuss’s story: 10 Apples Up On Top

You don’t have to add that extra flap to make it simpler for PK kiddos, but it’s really not hard at all, and provides great fine motor cutting practice.

I've also included a pattern without clocks for them, as well as completed teacher samples in full color, to expedite making a sample to share.  

For more math practice, I designed a simple "print & go", "Show Me The Number!" worksheet that covers a variety of math standards.

Teachers can choose a number, give children a choice or have them roll dice to figure out what number they will use to fill out their worksheet.

Interest remains high, even though you can use the worksheet for an entire week or even all of March, because the number changes daily.

Students look forward to working on their Cat Hat Math Mat, because they know what to do, which empowers them.

They can get right down to business, without waiting for directions., which is a real time saver.

Use the large template to explain and demonstrate what you want your kiddos to do.  To conserve paper, I created a 2-on-a-page worksheet for students.

I’ve also included a completed sample. Laminate & hang up as an anchor chart poster, which will help remind children of the directions.

The beauty of this worksheet, is that you can use it for any number. Younger students can work on numbers less than 10, kinders can work on those toughie teens, while older kiddos tackle bigger numbers.

The worksheet is also an easy way to whole-group assess, is great for early finishers, homework or a sub folder too.

Laminate several large worksheets and keep in your math center. Children fill them out with a dry erase marker.

The packet also includes a helpful cat’s hat bookmark with math symbols, which my kiddos keep in their math journals.  

Finally, "You Can Count On Seuss" can be a worksheet or a workbook.   I absolutely LOVE making “print & go” workbooks for my kiddos.

I become queen of the copy room for a bit, which is well worth the effort because after I’ve got them done, I’m free and have reduced my stress level a ton!

My students enjoy working on a page a day, and I have a little lesson for 10 days! Woo hoo. 
There are full-page, large templates to make a worksheet, poster, bigger booklet, and teacher’s edition.

I’ve also made 2-on-a-page worksheets to conserve paper, plus a cover if you’d like to make a workbook like I do.

When my students complete their booklet, they earn a “Hats off to you!” bookmark. These come 5 on-a-page, as well as 12-on-a-page.

I also laminate a set of the large patterns and put them in my math center.  Children use a dry erase marker to do X number of pages.

I complete a set using Seussical colored markers, mount them on turquoise and red construction paper, laminate, and hang them up as posters.

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

 Seuss is on the loose and I'm celebrating with some super-fun Seuss-themed activities. Today's blog features some of my favorite ways to practice standards using a Seuss hat.

First up, word families. The "Stackin' Up Word Families With A Seuss Hat" packet includes 39 word families! Not surprisingly, a lot of these words appear in Dr. Seuss’s stories!

Simply choose the word families that your students are working on.  

Use them for a bulletin board display, your word wall, centers, games, assessing and worksheets! 

Next up are the "Flipping Over 2D and 3D Shapes!" emergent reader booklets.   

Students read the simple sentences, underline the capital letters and add end punctuation.

They trace and write shape words, then trace, color and draw the various shapes.

Gluing the top square to their cat’s hat, then snipping on the lines, creates a "flip the flap" booklet.

I really think it’s important for students to not only be able to identify the various shapes, but pick them out in real life and give examples. 

With that in mind, I designed both booklets with graphics of real life things.

When everyone is done, read the booklets together as a whole group, to reinforce concepts of print.

I specifically used lots of Dolch word pronouns for more teachable moments. I’ve also included a graphing extension.

Finally, I created some Seuss-hat, telling analog & digital time to the hour and half hour activities for the "It's Time For Seuss!" packet.

There are dice games, worksheets, an anchor chart, cat clock craftivity, clothespin clip game, sequencing time "Speed" game, pocket chart digital & analog time cards to the hour and half hour, an Itty Bitty Time booklet, praise certificates and an assessment!    

The featured FREEBIE today is a Seuss hat writing prompt with a "Seussism" quote poster. 

Use the poster to introduce the lesson, then display it in the center of your bulletin board display, surrounded by your students' completed hats. 

Simply run off the template. Students write the things that they enjoyed doing the most during their day at school, writing something on each stripe of the cat's hat.

They write their name in the oval on the bottom.  Add a school photo for that finishing touch.

Since a lot of teachers decorate with Seuss for back-to-school,  I’ve also included a template for that special first day.  

Well that's it for today. Time to get busy with Horton and Green Eggs & Ham stuff!  

Wishing you a non-crazy, carefree day!

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go!" -Dr. Seuss

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

Seuss's birthday is March 2nd, so I'm featuring 3 of my all-time favorite writing prompt "Seuss-tivities" that have recently been up-dated. 

First up is the perfect "go-along" to Dr. Seuss's book, "Oh The Places You'll Go". This packet features 3, quick, easy and fun writing prompt craftivities.

On the large bucket, students think of 5 places they want to go, then write the place, followed by what they want to see there, or what they want to do while they are there.

There’s also another writing prompt option of “Oh the top 5 things I want to do are…” 
I’ve included a full-page pattern, as well as a smaller, 2-on-a-page template to conserve paper.

The 3rd prompt is a mini-bucket “slider", where students think of all of the things they'd like to do, and jot them down on a strip of paper.

This can be for the month, year, in 5, 10, 20 years, or a list of all they want to do before they die. They include this time commitment on their hat.

Students can color their large bucket to look like an upside down Seuss hat, or color the stripes however they want.

Some of my students used the color scheme featured in the “Oh The Places You’ll Go” story: pink, powder blue, purple, light green, orange and yellow.

Completed projects make sweet bulletin boards for March is Reading Month or a Dr. Seuss celebration. 

Another writing prompt craftivity to also go along with this book, is my hot air balloon, which turns out absolutely "awww-dorable" making a wonderful keepsake.
Completed projects look terrific suspended from the ceiling, swirling and twirling.

I've designed it with 3 different writing prompt balloons, so that it's 3 dimensional; however, you can simply do just one with your PK kiddos, and display them on a cloud-filled bulletin board.

I do this during my "Celebration of Seuss" week, but it's also a super-fun activity for the end of the year when students will be "sailing into the next grade".

With that in mind, I've also included a set of posters for your display.  There's one for preschool-4th grade, with several generic and blank options for anything else.

I've also included blank balloon patterns, so that you can program with a different writing prompt, making it suitable for back-to-school as well.

There's a large, full-page pattern, as well as a smaller, 2-on-a-page template to conserve paper. 

Finally, "If We Ran The Circus" packet, is based on Dr. Seuss's book "If I Ran The Circus".   

After reading Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran The Circus, have students transition to either of these interesting writing prompts.

One is a class book. There are two writing prompt options, plus a blank page for you to program with whatever.

Students complete their page and illustrate it.  Collect and collate the pages and add the cover. There are two options.

Read your class book aloud by having each student share the page that they wrote. I keep our class-made books in a basket in our classroom library.  It’s one of my students’ favorite “go to’s”.

Remember to display your class-made books for conferences too. They are a great resource to show improvement.

The other writing prompt is a circus tent “craftivity” with 3 tent options in black and white.

Students color and cut out their tent and attach their "If I ran the circus..." paper to the edges, bending it so that their tent is now a 3D cylinder. (Don't forget to review that shape.)

For that finishing touch, students glue their photo to the face of either a clown or a ringmaster. Punch holes on either side, add a yarn loop and suspend from the ceiling.

You can also opt to simply have students use the tent as a “header” gluing their writing prompt underneath.  Completed projects make a cute bulletin board.

I’ve included a circus clown poster to use for your display, as well as full-color tents, plus my 2 completed writing prompt samples, so that you can quickly & easily make examples to share. 

The featured FREEBIE today also has a Seuss-theme. 

I bought some darling clip art on etsy an made a set of Dr. Seuss Number Puzzles.  I hope your kiddos enjoy them!  

Well that's it for today.  Time to go throw some salt on my sidewalk, so I don't break my neck taking the dog out. 

Looking at all this snow, one would never guess that it's the tail end of February here in Michigan!

Wishing you a warm and cozy day.

"As he approached his 28th birthday in February 1840, Dickens knew himself to be famous, successful and tired. He needed a rest, and he made up his mind to keep the year free of the pressure of producing monthly installments of yet another long novel." -Claire Tomalin

7 pages.

Celebrate Seuss with these two Grinch "craftivities". One features two writing prompts.  Students think of things that make them grin like the Grinch.  They jot these down on the left side.  On the right side, they list things that make them "grinchly and grumpy".  

1-2-3 Come Do Some Seuss-Themed Writing Prompts With Me

Louis L'amour said: "Start writing no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on."  However, if "It's time to do some writing..." is greeted with a cacophony of classroom groans, it's definitely time to fuel your students' imaginations, peak their interest, and tweak what they write, so that they'll WANT to.

Many Dr. Seuss books, lend themselves to interesting and fun writing prompts.  (For a complete list of his books, scroll down to yesterday's article.) Today's blog features some of my most popular, Seuss-themed, writing prompts. Hopefully, writing time, will be met with the more harmonious and intellectual sounds of engaged and busy minds happily working away.

After reading Dr. Seuss's ABC book, create a silly, creature-filled class-made alphabet book.  Print and trim the mini letter tiles.  Toss them into a Seuss hat.  Students choose one, glue it to their page and think of a creature that starts with that letter.

Stress imagination and creativity.  These should be made up creatures like the ones that Dr. Seuss thought of.  Younger students can simply name their animal and draw a picture.

Encourage and challenge older students to make a rhyming sentence, using plenty of tongue-twisting alliteration like Dr. Seuss. 

For example, Zz is for a Zigglewag who likes to play wiggle tag.  He eats zinnias, zingles and zag, all of which make me personally gag.  or Bb is for Boomtoot, who's from Bangladoot and likes to eat fruit, especially bapples, belon and bloot. 

The packet includes a page for students and one for the teacher, a sample, plus 26 Seuss-font letter tiles.

Another Alphabet book I think your students will enjoy making is On Before Ant. This is a take off of Dr. Seuss's book On Beyond Zebra, which is about all of the letters that come after  Z. In the beginning of the story, Cornelius is bragging that he knows all of the letters from A to Z. 

He's shocked to find out that there are more!   "Then he almost fell flat on his face on the floor, when I picked up some chalk and drew one letter more. A letter he never had dreamed of before..."  like the letter Snee, which is for "...sneedle, a terrible kind of ferocious mos-keedle.  Whose hum-dinger stinger is as sharp as a needle. "

All of these goofy letters have a name and symbol.   I thought it would be fun to make a class book of all of the pretend letters that might possibly come before the letter A. 

Run off copies of the inside page and have students think up a letter, design it, and then give an example of something that starts with that letter,  finishing up with an illustration.  After students share their work, collect the pages, collate and make into a class book. 

Another interesting writing prompt, has to do with Seuss's book If I Ran The Circus.

The packet includes a class book with two writing prompts to choose from, as well as a 3D cylinder "craftivity."

Students color and cut out their circus tent and then attach their completed writing prompt paper to either side, so that they can bend it into a cylinder shape. 

The photo shows the various views of a completed project.  Punch holes on either side, add a yarn loop and suspend from the ceiling.

For that finishing touch, children add a toothpick flag, and then choose either a clown or a ringmaster to color and glue their photo on top of that face, so that it looks as if they are peeking out of the tent flap. 

Two more writing prompt "craftivities" go along with Seuss's book, Oh The Places You'll Go.  Ironically, this was the last book published before his death in 1991.

On the large bucket, students think of 5 places they want to visit. 

They write the place, followed by what they want to see or do there.

On the small bucket, students think of all of the things they'd like to do. 

This can be for the month, year, in 5,10,20 years, or a list of all that they want to accomplish in their lifetime.  Completed projects make terrific bulletin boards.   

I've also designed a 3-dimensional "Oh the Places You'll Go" writing prompt balloon, which features 3 simple prompts younger students can do: "My favorite place to go is _________. " "A place I'd like to go is _________." and "A place I've been is ________." 

Run the basket template off on brown construction paper. For that finishing touch, students glue their photograph inside.

This is one of those "awwww-dorble" keepsake activities that mommies are especially fond of. 

Another one is the Lucky Ducky writing prompt craftivity, which was inspired by Seuss's book Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? 

To read more about it, and grab this sweet FREEBIE, click on the link.

Finally, after reading Dr. Seuss's book, What Was I Scared Of?  discuss what kinds of things people are afraid of, and how they can overcome their fears.

The packet includes a class book writing prompt, as well as a more advanced writing prompt for older students.  There's also a list of 19 quotes about fear.  Share a few in discussion, or have students choose their favorite and comment on it, including why they like it and if they agree with it. 

The book, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams, is a wonderful comparison story, and offers more opportunities for writing and discussion.  I've included a Venn diagram to help students compare and contrast these two stories.

Well that's it for today.  If you're undecided, why not give your students a choice. You may be surprised to find that they want to do more than one!  Time for me to go do some writing of my own.  Wishing you an imaginative day filled with wonder.

"Fill your pages with the breathings of your heart." -William Wordsworth

1-2-3 Come Do S'more Seuss Activities With Me

To help get the wiggles out after story hour, we sang songs.  Singing lightened up the day and taught a variety of skills. 

With that in mind, I thought other teachers might be doing the same thing and looking for something with a Seuss theme, so I used the tune to B-I-N-G-O and substituted the letters with Seuss. 

I've included letter cards, so that you can put them on your flannel or white board and then take one down as you sing each verse. (This is also a teachable moment for subtraction.)

As I was singing, to make sure of the beat, my husband walked in and started singing a goofy little ditty to the tune of Brother John, so of course I had that song stuck in my head and wrote a second Seuss song.   Click on the link to view/download Some Seuss Songs.

I'm working on a list of characters and nonsense words in each book, (a massive under taking, so who knows when I'll finish!) To do so, I'm slowly reading all of the Seuss books that I have in my vast collection (almost 50). 

Since I'm always multi-tasking, I jotted down writing prompts that popped into my head while reading.  Here are a few that I've finished.  These make wonderful class books, and there's more to come, so stay tuned!

First, hot off the press, is a class book entitled: Feature Creatures Plus One Teacher.

This is a different way to have students practice the alphabet, along with their writing skills, and is an interesting transition after you read Dr. Seuss's Alphabet book.  

Make a copy of the letter tiles; toss them into a Seuss hat and have students  pick a letter card and glue it to their page.

Children write their upper and lowercase letter on the blank and then think up a creature that starts with that letter, afterwards drawing a picture underneath.  This should NOT be a real creature like Zz is for Zebra. 

Students need to use their imagination and think up a silly creature just like Dr. Seuss does: "Ff Four fluffy feathers on a fiffer-feffer-feff." Pre-K kids can stop there, but encourage older students to write a few sentences. 

Challenge them to use rhyming words, as well as some tongue-twisting alliteration, to make things more “Seussical."

For example, Zz is for a Zigglewag who likes to play wiggle tag.  He eats zinnias, zingles and zag, all of which make me personally gag.  or Bb is for Boomtoot, who's from Bangladoot and likes to eat fruit, especially bapples, belon and bloot.  

I've included Suess-font letter cards, student and teacher writing pages, plus a sample.  Click on the link to view/download the Feature Creatures Plus One Teacher class book.

Another Alphabet book I think your students will enjoy making is On Before Ant. This is a take off of Dr. Seuss's book On Beyond Zebra, which is about all of the letters that come after  Z. In the beginning of the story, Cornelius is bragging that he knows all of the letters from A to Z. 

He's shocked to find out that there are more!   "Then he almost fell flat on his face on the floor, when I picked up some chalk and drew one letter more. A letter he never had dreamed of before..."  like the letter Snee, which is for "...sneedle, a terrible kind of ferocious mos-keedle.  Whose hum-dinger stinger is as sharp as a needle. "

All of these goofy letters have a name and symbol.   I thought it would be fun to make a class book of all of the pretend letters that might possibly come before the letter A. 

Run off copies of the inside page and have students think up a letter, design it, and then give an example of something that starts with that letter,  finishing up with an illustration. 

After students share their work, collect the pages, collate and make into a class book. Click on the link to view/download the On Before Ant class book. 

Finally, another fun writing prompt has to do with Seuss's book If I Ran The Circus.

The packet includes a class book with two writing prompts to choose from, as well as a 3D cylinder "craftivity."

Students color and cut out their circus tent and then attach their completed writing prompt paper to either side, so that they can bend it into a cylinder shape. 

The photo shows the various views of a completed project.  Punch holes on either side, add a yarn loop and suspend from the ceiling.

For that finishing touch, children add a toothpick flag, and then choose either a clown or a ringmaster to color and glue their photo on top of that face. 

They glue "themselves" to the inside of the tent, so it looks like they are peeking out of the door flap.  Click on the link to view/download the If I Ran The Circus Writing Craftivity packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  For another cute Seuss writing prompt, scroll down and you'll find a 3D balloon "craftivity" perfect for Seuss's book Oh The Places You'll Go.

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better.  It's not!" -Dr. Seuss

1-2-3 Go Places With Me!

This Seuss-hat bucket, provides 2 different March, writing prompt "craftivities," perfect go-alongs with Seuss's Oh The Places You'll Go book.

On the large bucket, students think of 5 places they want to go.  They write the place, followed by what they want to see there, or what they want to do there.

On the small bucket, students think of all of the things they'd like to do. 

This can be for the month, year, in 5, 10, 20 years, or a "bucket list" of all they want to do before they die.  They include this time commitment on their hat.

Students can color their large bucket to look like an upside-down Seuss hat, or color the stripes the color scheme of the story: pink, powder blue, purple, light green, orange and yellow.

Completed projects make sweet bulletin boards for March is Reading Month or Dr. Seuss. Click on the link to view/download My Bucket List Seuss Writing Prompt Craftivities

Seuss Hat Candy Bar Wrappers:

If you're looking for a Seuss treat to give you students, I designed 4 different, Seuss sayings, candy bar wrappers. 

You can print them in color or in black and white. They fit a Hershey candy bar.

I made them this size so that you could slip in any other smaller size candy bars, a stick of gum, lollipop, packet of M&M's/Skittles etc.

If you don't want to tuck in a treat, then use the printed half as a bookmark.

These make a sweet surprise left on your students' desks, or use as a reading incentive or reward for March is Reading Month.

Click on the link to view/download the Seuss Hat Candy Wrappers.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.  Scroll down for another Seuss-Hat activity.

"To teach, is to learn twice over." -Joseph Joubert