Dr. Seuss Author Study Party

We embarked on something new this month. We invited our friends over for an author study. Our first author was Dr. Seuss because his birthday was on Monday. We had 11 friends come and join the fun! I encouraged the parents to drop off their kids- it was like a birthday party...except I was the teacher!
Here are the beautiful girls. Everyone colored Horton Hears a Who coloring sheets while we waited to begin.

And here are the vivacious boys. We began our day with fun biographical information about Dr. Seuss. We also found the places he lived on a map. The kids retained the information well...especially the fun facts. (Did you know that he read 4-5 books every week? that he is left-handed? that he never had children of his own?)


We had a Seuss-themed wacky cupcake and sang happy birthday.

The kids took home Cat-in-the-Hat hats to enjoy.

We looked at Fox on Socks and play a game I recreated called "Foxy, foxy, where's your socks?" The only materials needed are a box and a pair of socks. The same rules apply as with "Doggy, doggy, where's your bone?", only we changed the chant to, "Foxy, foxy, where's your socks? Somebody stole them from your box. Guess who? It might be you. Or it might be Horton that heard a Who." The game was a big hit and took longer than I imagined. Everyone wanted to be the "guesser" and the "stealer". Simple, free game materials
Then the kids divided into groups to read Dr. Seuss books. Not all of Dr. Seuss' books are for beginning readers. More advanced-level reading can be found in books like The King's Stilts and Daisy-Head Mayzie. The older children are sent to different areas of the house to alternate reading a page for one another. I stay with the non-readers and we read several silly favorites like There's a Wocket in My Pocket.

Next, I tell the kids we will think with numbers. We read Ten Apples Up on Top!. The text is simple, but even the second graders enjoyed it thanks to my goofy sound effects. When we are done, I tell the older kids to take a math trivia sheet that I created and work on it together in the kitchen. They have 10 challenging problems to solve. The kindergartners and preschoolers stay with me. We take ten paper apples and flashcards for the #s 1-10. We practice subtracting, adding, counting, finding a missing number, and spelling the words for the numbers.

Next, we gathered their papers to take home: a copy of the highlights from the biography, a picture of Dr. Seuss, recommended reading for later, their coloring sheets, the math sheet for the older kids, and a science project and put them together in their own folders.

I was going to read Bartholemew and the Ooblek and make gloop. We would have talked about solids, liquids and gases. But we ran out of time. So we played our Foxy, Foxy game again until the parents came.

It was a challenge to meet the levels of children ages 4-8, but I think it was done. I am not sure how the other children felt, but my kids really enjoyed learning with their friends. If time allows, I think I will make this a monthly tradition!

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!