Read Across America

Today elementary students are celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday.  During the last 4 years of teaching 1st grade this was always one of my favorite days.  The 3-4 1st grade teachers (depending on the year) would rotate their classes.  Miss O. would read Green Eggs and Ham and the students would help prepare and then eat green eggs and ham.  Mrs. C. would read The Cat in the Hat and draw a cat nose and whiskers on each student, and the students would make a Cat in the Hat craft.  I would read To Think you saw it on Mulberry Street and the students would come up with their own sentences... To think I saw it on Old Farmers Road (the street the school was on).  They would think about their day dreams to and from school.  They would write their own little story.  

One of the other 1st grade teachers and myself would always dress up.  She would wear black and a Cat in the Hat hat.  I would wear black and a big red bow tie.  Of course we put the cat nose and whiskers on our faces too.

Now that I am a stay at home Mom (YEAH!) I have felt a little sad on some of these 'big' days.  

Today I decided to do something about that.  The boys and I had our own Dr. Seuss day.  It was nothing spectacular.  I didn't make green eggs and ham, I didn't paint their faces, but we did acknowledge the day.  

During the boys morning nap I went up to the attic to my school supplies.  I pulled out a bunch of my Dr. Seuss books.

I felt like I was in my classroom again.  I stood all the books up so that when the boys woke they would see them and they would go right to them.

 

M 'reading' I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

The boys basically went right up to the books and just 'threw' them on the floor.  They did finally pick one or two up and quickly took a look.

G 'reading' Mr. Brown can Moo!  Can You?

M moved on to The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.

After looking at ('reading') all of the books that were on display we had lunch.  Lunch has NOTHING to do with Dr. Seuss or Read Across America, but it was cute so I thought I would share it.

I bought some new cookie cutters.  They are train theme.  I was so excited about them!  I found them online for under $10.  It came with a train, 4 train cars, and 3 signs.  I knew that they were going to be bigger cutters but I wasn't expecting them to be HUGE.  I was SO happy with the size!  I used the train to cut the boys sandwich.  Hubs doesn't like the idea of cookie cutting their sandwiches because he doesn't like the idea of the scraps being tossed (the one time I did cookie cut their sandwich they ate the scraps after the 'special' sandwich).  He would be very pleased with this one.  There were barely any scraps.  All that was cut off was basically crust.

At first they weren't pleased with the amount of puffs I gave them.  I used the puffs just to make it look like the train was steaming.  Don't worry I brought along little bowls of puffs for each boy too.

M eating the train steam.

M standing up his train and making it chugga-chugga choo-choo.

M taking a big bite.

G taking a big bite of his train.

G described each bite he took before he took it.  For example before he took this bite he said, "Big bite, wheels!".

 After we ate lunch we went back into the living room and read some Dr. Seuss books.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed this day more than if I was at school teaching.  I LOVE that I have been blessed this year with the privilege to stay home with my boys.

I have some great ideas for 'special' school days for the boys as they are getting a little older.   :)