Dr. Seuss™ Lesson Plan

Courtesy of Tami L. Maldonado-Mancebo
Early Childhood Curriculum Consultant, Omaha Public Schools

This themed unit allows students to develop a variety of academic skills using the Dr. Seuss™ book series as learning tools.  Individual student goals will vary according to the ability and ages of the children and can be easily adapted for children with special needs.

Learning Objectives: Learning objectives include communication skills, spatial concepts, problem solving, grouping, sequencing, identification, labeling, fine and gross motor development.

The Foot Book 
•  Paint with the kids' feet and create your own foot book.
•  Count the number of feet in your class, then recount by 2s.
•  Play Twister®.
•  Graph shoes according to characteristics.
•  Pile shoes and have a race to see who can get their shoes on first and tied.
•  Make a pattern with the kids' shoes.
•  Let students make patterns from various types of shoe pictures. 
•  Have children wear their favorite pair of shoes when you read "The Foot Book," then put on a fashion show.
•  Shoe Run – Take one of each student’s shoes and place it on one end of the gym. Have the students line up on the opposite end of the gym.  Have several students race down to find their missing shoe. 

Green Eggs & Ham
•  Make green eggs and ham in your class.
•  List green foods.
•  Play a rhyming bingo.
•  Discuss animals that lay eggs other than the chicken.
•  Create eggshell art.
•  Play tic-tac-toe to create 3 green eggs in a row!
•  Make a placemat to serve with green eggs and ham

The Lorax 
•  Discuss the importance of trees for people and animals.   
•  Design a poster to encourage the preservation of the rain forest.
•  Plant a tree.

The Cat in the Hat
•  Discuss rules for being at home when parents are gone.  Do students know their addresses in case an emergency occurs while they are there?
•  List things you can do on rainy days in the house.
•  Count and list objects that The Cat can balance.  Have a relay race balancing an eraser on the heads of students.
•  Would the story be different if The Cat told it?  Write it from his perspective.
•  Ask students to design a machine that would clean up their rooms.

Cat in the Hats
Each student will need the following pieces to make their own Cat in the Hat
•  3 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches black construction paper (to cut whiskers)
•  1 inch by 1 inch black construction paper (to cut a circle nose)
•  4 1/2 inches by 6 inches black construction paper (to trace/ cut the head)
•  4 inches by 5 inches white construction paper (to trace and cut the face and make the hat)
•  3 strips of red construction paper for the stripes on the hat.

Cat in the Hat Edible Hats
Each student will need...
•  1 round cracker
•  3 Red Lifesavers® (gummy ones work best)
•  Small amount of white frosting or cream cheese
•  Students assemble their edible cat's hats by placing the round cracker on the bottom, spreading the white frosting, placing one red Lifesaver®, spreading more frosting, etc. (alternating the frosting and Lifesavers®).  Students end up with a miniature Cat in the Hat!

Cat in the Hat Balancing
In the "Cat and The Hat" the cat does a lot of balancing. Have children try to balance different items that you set out.

Fingerplay (Make 5 tiny hats for fingers and recite the following rhyme)
“One little cat on a sunny day
Put on his hat and went out to play
Two little cats when it started getting dark
Put on their hats and went to the park
Three little cats when the sky was blue
Put on their hats and went to the zoo
Four little cats by the kitchen door
Put on their hats and went to the store
Five little cats on a sunny day
Put on their hats and they all ran away.”

Horton Hears a Who
•  Put a speck of dust on a microscope slide and examine it. 
•  Order pictures/objects in order by small, smaller, smallest.
•  Discuss the value of all people regardless of differences.

Hop on Pop
•  Create a rhyming bingo
•  Create a rhyming story.  One student says a word and another says a word that rhymes with it, and a third adds another, etc.  See how far your class can go.

Here is a fun activity that you can do to help students learn to rhyme.
You'll need:
Index cards
Pictures of objects that rhyme
Glue
Scissors
Directions:
Cut out pictures of objects that rhyme and ask each child to glue one picture on each index card.
How to play:
Ask each child to match the pictures that rhyme (or sound alike) for example, car and star.

Rhyming Game
“It rhymes with call.
If I trip over my shoelace I could ---------(fall)
It rhymes with hall.
It's round and it bounces-it is a -----(ball)
It rhymes with wish
You put food in it. It is a ----(dish)
It rhymes with that
You wear it on your head. It is a ----(hat)
It rhymes with pat
It's not a kitten, it's a -----(cat)
It rhymes with run
Up in the sky, there is a ---(sun)
It rhymes with sun
If you're having a good time, you're having--(fun)
It rhymes with snake
You put frosting on it. It is a------(cake)
It rhymes with cup
The opposite of down is----(up)
It rhymes with sunny
When something makes you laugh, it is-----(funny)
It rhymes with not
You cook soup in a ------(pot)
It rhymes with say
The opposite of night is------(day)
It rhymes with away
When you use your toys, you---(play)
It rhymes with hop
The opposite of go is---(stop).”

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
•  Classification
Cut out (or have the children cut and color) paper fish, one third of them colored red, one third of them colored blue, and the other third colored a combination of red and blue. The number of fish could depend upon the number of students. Use 2 hoops, or yarn circles, (preferably one red, one blue) on the floor, overlapping to create a third section in the middle. Lead the kids to sort red fish into the red circle, blue fish into the blue one, then ask where the 2-colored (red & blue) fish would go. Lead them to put them in the over lap (center where the 2 circles overlap).

Ten Apples Up on Top 
Make class books to reinforce your lesson plan.
Materials:
Tag board
Apple cutouts
Pictures of students
Directions:
1. To make book pages, cut an 11 x 17 tag board in half (the long way). Cut enough pages so you have one page for each student.
2. Write the sentence "________ has _____ apples up on top" and photocopy a picture of each student on the bottom of each page.
3. To determine how many apples each student will have on top, have them draw numbers, and then distribute apples to each table so children can count out their number of apples.
4. Have kids paste their apples on top of their heads.
5. The kids can fill in the blanks with their name and their number of apples.

Order each book by the page with the fewest number of apples to the highest.  "Jack" has 1 apple up on top, "Emily" has 2 apples up on top, and “Cindy" has 3 apples up on top, and so on.

Fox in Socks
•  Have students wear crazy socks on the day that you read "Fox in Socks"

Patterns
Use a sock die-cut to cut socks from different patterns of wallpaper, laminated wrapping paper, etc.  Young students can pair the socks matching the patterning.

There’s a Wocket in My Pocket
Sound Pockets
Make or purchase paper pocket shapes. Label each pocket with a letter. 
Have students sort items that begin with that letter into each pocket.  [Pocket B - ball, Pocket A - apple]  You can provide manipulative type items or picture cards.

Culminating Activity
Dr. Seuss Graph
Put all of the Dr. Seuss™ books that you have read on a graph made from poster board. Have students pick which one is their favorite and graph the results.