The rhyming world of Dr. Seuss makes words and imagination come alive for children. Harness that creativity through fun Dr. Seuss inspired activities for your child or even a whole class. These aren't just for littles either; older kids can enjoy the Dr. Seuss activity fun too.
Becoming a Zookeeper
Use the wonder and imagery of Dr. Seuss' If I Ran a Zoo to let children explore a zoo and what it might be like to be a zookeeper. You'll need:
- Building supplies (Legos, popsicle sticks, cardboard boxes, etc.)
- Plastic animals
- Paper and crayons
- Internet access
Using the book as a guide, you can allow students to actually design their own zoo. This is a great activity for older kids but can work for younger ones as well with simplified instructions.
Step One: Make a Plan
On paper, allow kids to use the crayons to design their zoo. They should think about the animals they want to include (real, imaginary or both), enclosures, habitats, etc. They want to really focus on creating at least 3-5 animal enclosures. For example, they might have an area for horses, dragons and sea monsters.
Step Two: Build their Model
With their blueprint in hand, allow kids to build their zoo that they created. In addition to making the enclosures and adding the animals, they can use the crayons to add the vegetation and water elements.
Step Three: Discuss Their Zoo
For their animals in their zoo, children can use the internet or their imagination to write up a little blurb about each of their different animals in their zoo. These can also be colored and decorated.
Step Four: Discuss the Zookeeper Responsibilities
Once their zoo is complete, kids can discuss what their responsibilities would be as a zookeeper at their zoo. They can use the internet to do this or even their imagination for fantasy creatures like dragons or gryphons.
Rhyming Circle
Use a Seussian introduction into rhyming words and phonics through the book Hop on Pop. No materials are needed for this game beyond lots of younger kids from 4-6.
- After reading the book, gather kids in a circle, sitting.
- Starting with one child, give them a word like pop.
- Moving clockwise around the circle, each child should go to the middle, say a rhyming word and do a little dance.
- Keep going until they run out of rhyming words then start a new game.
- The words should get progressively harder as they go.
Foot Monsters
Everyone's feet are a little different and this is on display in The Foot Book. Allow kids to display their unique feet through this fun activity. You'll need:
- Paint or markers
- Paint brush
- Construction paper
There are a few ways to do this depending on how opposed to a mess you are. After reading The Foot Book, you will have kids from ages 6-8:
- Have children paint the bottom on their foot. (They can also draw their foot with markers.)
- Stick their foot on the piece of paper.
- Allow to dry.
- Use the markers to create fun creatures or monsters out of their feet.
Colorful Fish Game
Another great activity for younger kids from 4-6, the colorful fish game starts with reading the book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish together than diving right in to this counting and rhyming game. You'll need:
- Fish drawings or printable
- Crayons or markers
- Scissors
- Timer
Half of the fun of this is allowing kids to make the fish that will be used in the game.
Step One: Print the Fish
Using the Adobe guide if you need to, you are going to print out the fish template linked in the list above. You will want to print several of these for coloring and playing the game.
Step Two: Decorate the Fish
Using the crayons and markers have kids decorate the fish and cut them out. You will then give them several rhyming words to add to the fish like top, pop, stop, me, tea, be, do, shoe, boo, etc. along with the numbers 1-10.
Step Three: Playing the Game
Mix up all the different fish. Start a timer and have children put the rhyming words into groups and the numbers into order. They will do this multiple times. For one child, they are trying to beat their time. For multiple children, they should try to beat each other's time.
Truffula Trees
The Lorax is all about environmental awareness. Allow kids to get their environmental awareness ears on by creating Truffula trees. Designed for kids from 8-12, you'll need:
- Colorful pom-poms
- Pencils
- Sharpies
- Hot glue
- Small slips of paper
- Glitter pens
- Glue stick
Step One: Create the Truffula Trees
To create a Truffula Tree, kids will start by hot gluing the pom-pom to the eraser of the pencil. Once the glue dries, they can use the Sharpies to decorate the pencils in different ways. If you have a class, have each student make one, if you only have one child, have them make multiple trees.
Step Two: Create Awareness
Have a kid or kids think about different problems that are happening in the environment and how people might change it. For example, oceans are getting full of plastic. What might be one solution? On the slips of paper, have a kid or kids write their solutions like recycle more, plant a free, pick up trash, buy recycled goods, take shorter showers, shut off lights, etc.
Step Three: Share
Using the glitter pens, have kid(s) write out their solutions on the slips of paper and glue them around the pencils. They can then give their pencils out to people they know or possibly a stranger, spreading environmental awareness.
The Power of Reading
Dr. Seuss's books aren't just meant to be read, they are meant to be acted on. Make learning fun and engaging through trying several activities with kids after a reading. You can wear Dr. Seuss costumes while you read.
