Tag Archives: Dr. Seuss

Read Across America Week 2017 (Grades K-5)

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Hello Everyone,

Image retrieved from KET EncycloMedia

Last week (February 27 – March 3, 2017) was “Read Across America” week in honor of what would have been Dr. Seuss’ 113th birthday.

Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Geisel, wrote many wonderful books for children. Sometimes, his books were written under the pen name of “Theo LeSieg,” most likely only when he didn’t do the illustrations for a children’s’ book as well as the words.

Each day of the past week we celebrated with a theme for students and teachers, and Dr. Seuss stories were read aloud in classrooms. Monday was “Crazy Sock” day; Tuesday was pajama day; Wednesday was “Wacky Dress” day; Thursday was “Dress as Your Favorite Book Character” day because Dr. Seuss was born on March 2nd; Friday wrapped up the week of celebrating reading with “Crazy Hair” day.

In the library, we read different Seuss books in each class, from kindergarten through fifth grade. Below is a picture of all the titles we shared. I even heard the students had green eggs and ham for breakfast on Thursday. A true Seuss-ian menu of which Sam-I-Am would be proud!

Book covers retrieved from Goodreads.com

Enthusiastically,

Ms. Tyler

Note: This post was originally published or was adapted from what was originally published on a school library media center blog.

LME 590 Practicum Week 9: Part 2

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Hello Everyone,

It was bittersweet for my last day of Practicum to be the school–wide celebration of “Read Across America Day” on March 2nd. I was finally able to reveal the correct answers to my bulletin board display, which was exciting since the library media specialist said a couple of the students had told her they knew who the “twins” where, which I took to mean they knew the silhouettes of Thing 1 and Thing 2.

seuss2

To make it possible for each Special Area teacher to celebrate what would have been Dr. Seuss’s birthday with all the students in the school, each Special Area teacher had an activity station in the school gym through which students rotated in grade-level groups. At the library station, each student received a paperback book and colored a Dr. Seuss bookmark. At the P. E. station, students participated in a Green Eggs and Ham relay obstacle course.  At the science station, students participated in a One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish chemical reactions activity. At the Art/Music station, students practiced singing of the “Green Eggs and Ham” song from Seussical the Musical. This particular “No Color Day,” where every class goes to the gym at their grade-level’s Special Area time, was at the request of the library media specialist, so each student could celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday on the actual day, rather than her celebrating “Read Across America Day” with only the Wednesday group of students and having to carry over the activities deeper into March and April, when it would no longer be relevant. After assisting with the library station for a few classes, I became responsible for the science station. It was also determined that the school would encourage faculty, staff, and students to dress as their favorite storybook characters, so I spent the day dressed as the Cat in the Hat.

cat

A reporter from the local newspaper visited the school that day, and I spoke briefly with him about “Read Across America Day” being a way to honor the life and work of Dr. Seuss, highlighting that the school was celebrating by dressing as book characters and that the library media center, specifically, was giving away free books of various types and topics by different authors and Seuss-related bookmarks to the students, so each child would have his or her own book. Almost two weeks later, my photograph made it into the slideshow posted on the newspaper’s website, showing how different schools across the district were celebrating “Read Across America Week!” It was fantastic to get to represent “my” library in the media.

cat2

Enthusiastically,

Ms. Tyler

LME 590 Practicum Week 7: Part 4

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Hello Everyone,

Friday, February 19, 2016, I had more time without students in the library media center than with students the center. Although I did conduct a few readers’ advisory sessions, I mainly worked on putting up the bulletin board on Dr. Seuss. My title was “Guess who is wishing Dr. Seuss a Happy Birthday?” which helps students know they are expected to guess the character silhouettes. I also included a photograph of Theodore Geisel to help students recognize the author with his real name and birth-date to aid students in understanding that “Dr. Seuss” is a pseudonym. To get the bulletin board up, I had to die-cut all of the letters for the question title and the check-out invitation, as well as die-cutting and laminating the number plates to show the correct answers on “Read Across America Day.” Currently the bulletin board has the character names and book covers scattered across the board, not close to the character silhouettes. This was at the suggestion of the library media specialist so students would know what books the characters were from, as a sort of scaffolding to their enjoyment of guessing the characters. On March 2nd, I will turn over the black silhouettes to reveal the colored characters and move the book covers with the character names next to the correct number plates.

seuss1

Enthusiastically,

Ms. Tyler