Whole Child Development
Horton Hears a Who is a Dr. Seuss classic, with revived interest from the younger generation thanks to Hollywood. This story is a great tale of the commitment and unselfishness of Horton, and the importance of cooperation and individual contribution from the Who’s.
It’s no secret that I’ve long had a love for all things Seuss. As a child, as a teenager, as a teacher, as a mom. I have just always loved those books! (In fact, here’s a piece of trivia for you. In my high school it was tradition to decorate the top of your cap for gradutaion. My artistic older brother gave me one of the best graduation presents by doing a perfect ink drawing of the Cat in the Hat on mine! So there’s the proof. I’ve always been a Seuss-ophile!)
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Dr. Seuss. Not only is his writing creative, humorous, poetic, and lovably quirky, but as an educator I’ve found it to be the perfect vehicle for promoting phonological awareness, a critical skill for building readers. With his birthday looming just around the corner (March 2), this is a popular time of year for all things Seuss!
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
This was Dr. Seuss’ first book to be published. He said that as he was riding on a ship on a trip back from Europe, he became enchanted with the rhythm of the ship’s engine. As he listened to the rhythm over and over in his head, the words forming this book’s title seemed to flow right into the rhythm. This is great for helping children hear the rhythm in words (a key phonological awareness skill) as well as another great book celebrating the fantastic imagination of children!
OK, for those of you looking for more Dr. Seuss activities, here are five favorites to start off with! More to come!
(Does anyone else ever feel like they’re juggling this many things?)
I have always loved Dr. Seuss! As a child and even a teenager, I was drawn to the wackiness of his themes and made-up words juxtaposed with the reason of his perfect prose. As I’ve studied early education and early literacy, I’ve come to love Dr. Seuss even more! His books are pretty much the best for building phonological awareness, the development of which is critical for reading (read more here). They not only expose children to rhythm and rhyme in an enchanting, almost intoxicating way, but they also introduce rhyming with invented words, which emphasizes further the importance of sound in rhyming – not meaning. These “nonsense words” also open the imagination and creativity of children in a simply magical way. In my opinion, his work is so critical to a good education, I refer to him as the Shakespeare of childhood!
It’s no secret, I love Dr.Seuss. From a young age, I became enamoured with his silliness and his rollicking rhymes. As I studied education and child development, I fell in love again as I realized how beneficial his playful prose were for building young readers (learn more about phonological awareness here). I would say Dr. Seuss is the Shakespeare of childhood. Any well-read (or well-read-to) child should be familiar with him!
Bartholomew and the Oobleck is an enthralling story to read with children! It follows a king who wants something new to come from the sky, so he orders his magicians to make “oobleck”. As with many alterations of Mother Nature (Michael Jackson comes to mind) this, of course, turns out to be a disaster! It is only remedied when his page, Bartholomew, convinces him he needs to say the words, “I’m sorry.”
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