Take part in the largest reading event in the United States on Wednesday, March 2! Gather books and readers for NEA’s Read Across America Day, celebrated on or around the birthday of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. The NEA shared teacher-tested ideas for celebrating reading. Here’s how you can integrate ReadWriteThink.org into these activities:
Door Décor
In “Opening the Door for Reading: Sharing Favorite Texts to Build Community”, students build classroom community by exploring environmental print and a teacher-created display that focuses on a favorite book or author, such as Dr. Seuss. They then create and share their own presentations.
Cook Up Some Reading Fun
Students can cook up red and white food or make green eggs and ham. They can get busy “Cooking and Creating in the Kitchen”!
A Chorus of Readers
It’s hard not to join in on a reading of a Dr. Seuss book! Boom! Br-r-ring! Cluck! Moo! Everywhere you turn, you find exciting sounds. Students use these sounds to write their own poems based on Dr. Seuss’s Mr. Brown Can MOO! Can You? in this lesson plan from ReadWriteThink.org.
Literary Field Trip
In “Reading Everywhere with Dr. Seuss” young readers celebrate all the places they can read by creating a classroom book modeled after Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham.
Looking to get older students involved?
- Seuss and Silverstein: Posing Questions, Presenting Points
Students will enjoy this blast from the past as they read the works of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein to analyze the way social issues are addressed in selected works. - From Dr. Seuss to Jonathan Swift: Exploring the History behind the Satire
Use Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book as an accessible introduction to satire. Reading, discussing, and researching this picture book paves the way for a deeper understanding of Gulliver’s Travels. - Id, Ego, and Superego in Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat is used as a primer to teach students how to analyze a literary work using plot, theme, characterization, and psychoanalytical criticism.
For background on Read Across America and for additional resources and information, visit the ReadWriteThink.org calendar entry.
Want more Seuss-filled ideas? Visit last year’s post for more!