Seussical Celebrations!

If you have anything at all to do with the world of children's literature, you would pretty much have to have been in a coma to not know that Dr. Seuss's birthday was this past Saturday. As luck would have it, Saturday was also our library's birthday (113th - no wonder we are so tired!), so we decided to celebrate in Seuss style.

 

Sky Yates makes our cakes every year, and she always refuses to tell us what it is going to look like beforehand.

 

 

But, it's always awesome! I tried to get the Mayor to stop them from cutting into it, but to no avail. There were smaller goodies as well, made by Sky and our FOL President, Nadia Sikes.

 

 

Many guests came dressed for the occasion.

 

 

Or, tried to dress their parents:

 

 

And when I say "many guests", I mean standing-room only!

 

 

I tried to get a close-up of this very sweet young lady holding Grandpa's hand, but I got called out of the room.

Staff members who were smarter than I, stationed outside the packed room.

Nadia began the party with a Seuss-style welcome.

 

 

Then, Mayor Susie Galea read a special proclamation.

 

 

The next hour was interspersed with songs from the musical "Seussical", performed and sung by Earl's Trio.

 

 

drawings for door prizes,

 

 

awarding of the Adult Reading Challenge prizes,

 

 

and, the main attraction, readings of Seuss books by local celebrities:

 

Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, read by a local college professor.

 

 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, from our Library Board President.

 

 

I am Not Going to Get Up Today, read by a local judge.



 

That's my Daddy!

 

A drama professor reading Green Eggs and Ham

 

And, last but not least, reading the most difficult Dr. Seuss book ever, WITH NO TIME TO PRACTICE, our new police chief.

 

 

He rocked it! At the end of the party, he was overwhelmingly voted best reader.

 

I still think my Daddy was best.

 

There were a few other readers I didn't get pictures of, and all were great! The entire event was covered live on radio station KUPR

 

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For those who couldn't make the party Saturday, we had a couple other opportunities this week to celebrate all things Seuss. Monday and Wednesday are our usual preschool story times. Normally we read a few books, then do a craft. This week, I set out a few different centers, instead:

 

To go with Ten Apples Up on Top (a favorite at home), we tried to walk a line while balancing an apple on our head.

 

 

This young lady kept practicing, and got REALLY good at it! On a completely unrelated note, I want that cape.

For One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, we graphed colored goldfish crackers.

 

 

 

I got the printable graph from Oopsey Daisy (please read her terms of use if you want to use it, too.)

 

 

Kids could either glue their goldfish down, or color the graph and eat the fish. Or, do as L. did: glue the fish down, then lick all the glue off and eat the fish. Grandma was helping him, and when she asked him, "Where does the green one go?" he looked at her like she was mental and put it in his mouth.

 

Finally, for Fox in Socks, we decorated socks.

Everything is better with sequins!

 

 

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Tuesday, we held our first ever home school theme day. I have been wanting to do something specifically for our home schoolers ever since I started working here, and when a parent approached me about a Dr. seuss program I decided this was the perfect opportunity to dive in. I tried to come up with activities that different age groups could enjoy, and which would cover different areas of a 'curriculum'. For PE, we had the apple activity:
 

Why, yes, that IS a walking truffula tree!

And this is just the cutest little Who ever!

For math, we had the fish graphing. To make it more difficult (and more fun) for older kids, rather than sort by hand, they had to flip their fish into labeled cups using plastic spoons. That was a mess, and more fun than practical, but that's just fine!

For language arts I had some writing prompts on the wall, and booklets in Cat-hat shapes.

Before we ever started, I knew who I would see spending the most time here:)

For dramatic play, we had "Green Eggs and Be a Ham" - green plastic Easter eggs, each with a charade clue inside. Kids would pick one and act it out for the rest of their group members to guess.

 

Crying? Home Alone? Zombie? We need to work on this skill a bit.

Finally, for science: the old stand-by Oobleck, of course! Scientific American has a great step-by-step that guides kids to explore the process, rather than just pouring and mixing. I printed the whole thing out and put it up as my instructions! I'll be visiting them again for future projects.

Before:

During:

 

Oh, dear:

 

 

A huge thanks to the mommies who helped clean up the chairs...and table...and floor...and doors...and walls...

 

 

This is where home schooling (or any schooling) success shows up: no, not the blue hand. M. made his own Chinese finger trap with the Oobleck - he was carrying this cup around, asking people to put their finger in slowly (which worked just fine), then try to pull it out (stuck!) He took what he had learned, connected it to a time when his mother got stuck in some mud, and then developed something entirely on his own. Well done, M's Mom - as it says it Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, you have taught him how to think!