Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Read Across America is an event that is near and dear to my heart for obvious reasons: I majored in literature in college, taught language arts and literacy, adore reading with my boys, and voraciously devour anything in print! B has a rather enormous collection of Dr. Seuss books thanks to Mommy’s aforementioned love-affair with text and Daddy’s appreciation for nonsense and silliness. Daddy’s favorite is probably Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? He’s excellent at the sound effects. Mommy’s favorite is hard to pick between I Can Read with My Eyes Shut and Oh the Thinks You Can Think. I have a fondness for the light-hearted but genuine message of each. B can’t commit to a favorite. It depends on the day, but it seemed only appropriate to enjoy Happy Birthday to You! in honor of Dr. Seuss and it is one of B’s top picks.


Celebration Time!

We began our celebration in preschool a day early (since B's program only meets two days per week) with a cute striped hat project and a reading of There’s a Wocket in My Pocket. The creation of all the nonsense words for the purpose of entertaining rhymes emphasizes the importance of recognizing rhymes for preschoolers and understanding the letter and phonics patterns present. (But it’s really fun to read aloud too! *wink*) All the kids in their hats were adorable – so what if they didn’t all get the red-white pattern! My privacy-minded readers will appreciate the blurred faces in this shot of the class, and the rest will just have to understand. For the official birthday, we’ll celebrate with green eggs and ham for breakfast. (I’ll update with a photo if they come out remotely appetizing.) We’ll enjoy some more of our Seuss collection and other favorite books. And what better outing for Read Across America Day than a trip to the library? It just so happens to be preschool story day, and I’m hoping for some Seuss-inspired fun there too.



Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast
B was leery at first, but gobbled them up!

Who wants a Cupcake?

We love our library staff, and B has many friends that we see regularly at story-hour, so I decided to whip-up a little birthday treat to share. I intend to create Cat in the Hat cupcakes in the morning before library time – hopefully it will be both a fun celebration activity and a cool treat to share. I’ve got some inspiration for marshmallow hats from Sugar Swings and smaller scale lifesaver hats from Kara’s Cupcakes, but I’m toying with a creation involving ice cream cone hats… will certainly post photos if successful.

Chocolate cupcake baked in ice cream cone.
Oreo cookie "head" attached with frosting.
Paper hat and face.

The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About…

Reading. When the National Education Association created Read Across America in 1997 to motivate young readers and encourage adults to make reading to children a priority, selecting Dr. Seuss’s birthday to mark the event only added to the significance. Dr. Seuss books are among the most widely recognized, easily readable, thoroughly enjoyable, timelessly collectible books to be had. The flagship of our celebration, Happy Birthday to You, is appropriate any day of the year. Whether your birthday celebrations are small family affairs or complex extravaganzas, you’ll enjoy the birthday adventures in Katroo, escorted by the Birthday Bird. In classic Seuss-style, the language and imagination are over the top, but the underlying message is at once simple and profound. The focus of the celebration in Katroo is “If we didn’t have birthdays, you wouldn’t be you.” Besides enjoying hotdogs on spools and mustard-off pools and the Birthday Pal-alace, readers are encouraged to shout out loud, “I am what I am! That’s a great thing to be!” And that is a message I think anyone could use, any day of the year.

Appropriate for everyone!


Will you be celebrating Read Across America? What are your plans?



Check out more fun projects and ideas at Obseussed!