Today, we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with a special breakfast of ...what else? ...green eggs and ham (bacon) and I threw in some Cat in the Hat pancakes for added fun.
This morning I sent out an invitation for the students. I used AI to help me write it quickly and I wanted to make sure the parents knew they didn't need to fix breakfast. Here's the invite:
Oh what a day! Oh what a treat!
Put shoes on your toes and bounce to your feet!
We're throwing a bash that is silly and grand,
With wiggly giggles and fun that is planned!
It's a birthday hooray for a man we all know,
With stories that zig and stories that zo!
So come one, come all - yes every girl and boy -
For a morning of munchies and Seuss-ical joy!
We'll flip-flop pancakes in tall tippy stacks,
Like the tricks of a cat with red and white slacks!
"Cat in the Hat" pancakes, fluffy and round,
With syrupy swirls dripping all around!
And what will we eat? You already may guess -
Green eggs and ham in a Seuss-y success!
Would you eat them here?
Would you eat them there?
Would you eat them in uniform with neatly combed hair?
We'll laugh and we'll rhyme,
We'll read and we'll play.
With hats that are striped in spectacular way!
There'll be games and good cheer and giggles galore,
And maybe some Thing One and Thing Two at the door!
So mark down the date -
Don't dawdle, don't wait!
This birthday breakfast will truly be great!
So come if you dare!
Come hungry - if you care!
Join me for fun that is
beyond compare!
Because a Seuss-style party
Is simply the best -
It's topsy-turvy, tasty, and
Better than the rest!
Almost right away, we started breakfast. I had already made tall red and white striped hat pancakes for the students, so I just had to warm those up. I brought my electric griddle to heat up the meat and cook the eggs. I just added some green food coloring to the eggs and cooked them up like normal.
While I was finishing the breakfast off, students were coloring a Dr. Seuss coloring sheet. I told them it was for a coloring contest, so now I have to think of a prize.
Next, we watched the reading of Green Eggs and Ham on YouTube. I didn't have a copy of the book, so YouTube came in handy.
After that, we worked on rhyming words. I had the students do five rounds of a Scattergories-style game. I gave them a beginning word such as cat and they had one minute to come up with all the real words they could that rhymed with it. Then we shared our words and students had to mark off any words that others also had. After 5 rounds, we awarded first place winners from each grade level (I teach three grades) with a mechanical pencil...simple and they were super excited to get the pencil since they very rarely have mechanical pencils.
Afterwards, I showed them how to create rhyming sentences and I placed them in small groups. Each group got a list of spelling words and they had to create a story that included their words (as a team) and also rhymed like the Dr. Seuss stories. I found a cute 20 minute timer that I placed on the board. It was Dr. Seuss-themed. We shared our stories with the class.
When we came in from recess, we watched an about the author video for Dr. Seuss. We learned about other things he did in his life and how he became the famous Dr. Seuss. We read a short biography on his life (found for free on TPT) and answered comprehension questions with text evidence.
The next book we read was The Cat in the Hat. We also did part two, The Cat in the Hat Returns. Both books were a ton of fun, and the first is a classic, so we had to do that one for sure. For the extension activity, we did a directed drawing, using Art for Kids Hub, of the Cat in the Hat.
Later we read Mr. McElligot's Pool at our read-aloud time. This one was just for fun.
We ran out of time for everything I had planned, but tomorrow I hope to finish it all off. Here's what else we will do:
We will read the book, What Pet Shall I Get? and write persuasive essays about the pet we want. The students will write strong reasons why their parents should get them this pet.
We will end with a book that was written with a little help from Jack Prelutsky. It is called Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! This one was finished off after Seuss' death. He had left some drawings and notes, but the text was not made, so this poet, Prelutsky took what he could find and created the rest in the style of Seuss. ...pretty amazing!
And to end the day, I got a sweet message from one of my parents telling me that their child came home and wanted to read his Dr. Seuss books. For him, the day was inspiring! Absolutely LOVE that!
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