Students and faculty at an East Peoria Elementary school celebrated the 106th birthday of Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel with a week filled with Seuss-inspired activities.
“To celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday, I’m going to read you a story,” Woodrow Wilson first-grade teacher Shannon Crawford said to students gathered at a morning assembly March 2.
Crawford dressed as one of Seuss’ most acclaimed characters, The Cat in the Hat, while reading the book that made the cat, and ridiculously tall striped hats famous. First-grade teachers Kaylee Sharp and Lexi Ginzel, as Thing 1 and Thing 2 respectively, had students laughing as they ran through the room in costume.
Each year on March 2, the National Education Association’s Read Across America program calls on children to celebrate reading.
Katie Snider, Woodrow Wilson’s Title 1 reading teacher, said that teachers responded by reading a lot of Seuss’ books to their students throughout the week.
Many teachers also created Seuss-themed lesson plans. Snider told her second-grade students they would be designing an attraction, such as a show, roller coaster or restaurant, for “Dr. Seuss Land,” a new collaboration between Dr. Seuss and a famous theme park. Once it was designed, students wrote a persuasive paragraph to entice people to visit. The theme of each attraction was a Dr. Seuss story or character.
Snider’s first graders made a class book similar to Seuss’ “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” Snider said their version, titled “And to Think I Saw It on Oakwood Street,” is a collection of exaggerated scenes the children saw while walking along Oakwood Street, where Woodrow Wilson is located.
There was something fun planned each day last week, including Hat Day, Wacky Wednesday, Pajama Day and Silly Sock Day.
“They’re excited for Pajama Day. We have another Pajama Day during the year and they really like it,” said Snider.
Snider said this is the first year the school has celebrated Seuss’ birthday with a week-long celebration, but she said she hopes to continue and make it a tradition.
How well do you know Dr. Seuss?
• Dr. Seuss used only 50 words in “Green Eggs and Ham” after his editor, Bennett Cerf, bet him $50 that he could not.
The 50 words are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would and you.
• Dr. Seuss had a closet next to his studio filled with hats sent to him from fans around the world.
• Seuss is Geisel’s mother’s maiden name. He added “Dr.” to please his father, who hoped for his son to become a professor.
• His first book, “And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was rejected 27 times before he finally found a publisher.
Source: www.seussville.com and www.catinthehat.org
