Reading Hats: students and staff were each given a Dr Seuss hat to "fill" with books they read during week. The teachers displayed them in many cute ways in the classroom and out in the halls.
Red, White, and Black Day: students and staff dressed in black, white, and red, along with Dr. Seuss style hats. The kinders made paper hats - so cute! At least one class also did Wacky Wednesday, which would be so fun to do school-wide. Dress up days really help create a celebratory feeling in a school.
Guest Readers: classroom teachers had parents come in to read to their classes. Our Superintendent also came to read to a K class!
Fun Facts: Some of my 5th graders pulled together a few facts about Dr. Seuss to be read over the announcements each morning.
Staff Breakfast: we had a lovely staff breakfast one morning. I made these banana-strawberry skewers, originally seen on Pinterest (of course!) that look like red and white striped hats. I used blue toothpicks so they were shorter (maybe 5 pieces of fruit) but still very cute.
This was the first time I've done a Dr. Seuss birthday celebration. I had a wonderful literacy aide who co-planned and came up with some of the activities we did as a school, such as red, white, and black day. It's much easier when you have someone to help coordinate multiple activities!
Overall the week went very well. The only thing I would do differently would be to start preparing earlier next year. The week snuck up on me and it would have been great to have a more coordinated guest/mystery reader program set up in advance. Also, copying 500+ student hats plus all those for our staff and writing names on them was very time consuming! I waited until the week before to do all of the hats and wouldn't have finished them if it weren't for a parent volunteer, 4th grade helpers, and an aide!
What are some fun school-wide activities you do in your school to celebrate Read Across America or Dr. Seuss's Birthday?
Awesome range of activities! :D
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