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Celebrating Dr. Suess’ birthday! March 2nd marks a special day in the literary world–the birthday of beloved author Dr. Seuss. From “The Cat in the Hat” to “The Lorax,” his books have captured the hearts and imaginations of readers of all ages for decades. The story of how Theodore Seuss Gisel never set out to be a children’s author, but oh how the stars aligned for some of the most loved readers of all times to come into being. His true love came in the form of his love of drawing and creating whimsical creatures used to illustrate his timeless readers.
The Man Behind the Magic: A Brief Biography of Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss’ career originated at a young age. Around age 4, Ted developed his love of drawing. His father was a zookeeper, and he would visit the local zoo often. Ted would try to recreate the animals in his drawings, but they always came out more whimsical rather than bearing resemblance to the actual animal. Another favorite childhood past time was going to the library. There his love of reading was nurtured into what would make him a world-renowned author today.
Ted never thought he would be able to make a living off his art, so he pursued a degree to become an English teacher. He eventually realized this wasn’t the right career path, but he desperately wanted to marry his sweetheart and finally managed to sale one of his cartoons. This led to another job, leading to freelance selling cartoons for different magazines. It was around this time Ted began doing a regular cartoon drawing for Judge, to sound more professional he signed his cartoons Dr. Theophrastus Seuss later to be only Dr. Seuss. He had aspirations to become a novelist and wanted to save his read name for that time. At 27 years old, Ted aka Dr. Seuss was doing quite well for himself. He and his wife, Elizabeth had a good income, they were able to travel, but Ted wasn’t staying as busy as he liked. While under contract for his current position, he realized he was still allowed to write children’s books. His first attempt was to illustrate an ABC book with his whimsical creatures, this was rejected. He then went on to write,” And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”. Rejected by twenty-seven publishers, he found a publisher willing to make a deal. Ted’s first children’s book sold for one dollar. The book went on to sell over 10,000 copies.
Many years later there was an article circulating that criticized the “Dick and Jane” books used to teach children to read. Ted was in talks with Random House soon after to work on his own children beginner readers. With a list of 223 easy-to-read words, he went to work. Teachers everywhere were not big fans of this new reader, The Cat and the Hat. In fact, parents had to seek after it in bookstores, causing them to fly off the shelves. Because of this great success, Random House developed Beginner Books and put Ted in charge of it with his wife Helen, vice president to this new division. He went on to write many more beginner readers, but one of his most famous books, Green Eggs and Ham, came into being because of a bet. He made a bet that he could write a book with just fifty simple words and that is how Green Eggs and Ham came to be written.
Lessons from Dr. Seuss: A Look at Dr. Seuss’ Writing Techniques
As you may have gathered, I love the history of Dr. Seuss. It is such an inspiration to everyone. This makes celebrating his birthday, his birthday week so enjoyable and I can’t wait to share our plans with you!
Here are a few books we will be reading to learn more about the person who goes by the name Dr. Seuss:
To dive deeper into Who Was Dr. Seuss, we will also be using Waldock Way Who Was Dr. Seuss unit study. This is a brief study that can be done in day or spread out over many days. I love that she has QR codes for videos and books included in the study packet. She also has a ton of printables that she sends out each month, this month includes dot to dot and color by number Dr. Seuss themed printables!
As we celebrate Dr. Seuss week, we will enjoy studying the power of rhyme and rhythm. I have pulled out all the books we have written by Dr. Seuss and we will read each one. Some we will have an activity for, such as write what you would do if the Cat in the Hat showed up at your house. Or what would your Wacky Wednesday look like? Others we will graph do a stem activity with like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. And to wrap up the school days, we will watch the movies of these timeless stories, like Horton Hears a Who, The Lorax, The Cat and the Hat, etc.
Celebrating Dr. Seuss’ Birthday: Fun Activities and Games
We will be celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday this week through playing games and lots of read alouds. Every year I have wanted to do something special for Seuss week and I am always behind, but not this year. This year I was able to grab a fabulous deal on some Dr. Seuss plush stuffies. The kiddos will be able to hold them while reading a Dr. Seuss book and hopefully this will create a calm, magical time that will be memories they will cherish for years to come. We will also have some fun snacks on hand, such as: goldfish, Swedish fish, Oreos and more. Oh and games! I found some great games to share with you! I can’t wait to play Something Wild! Dr. Seuss with Cat in the Hat Pocket Pop! and Dr. Seuss Pattern Party Game. And the best part? If you join our newsletter, you will receive a free Dr. Seuss themed BINGO printable game!
If you want to follow along to see what all we are doing Dr. Seuss week, join our facebook page: www.facebook.com/embracingthechaosofmotherhood or follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/embracingthechaosofmotherhood.
Do you celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday? Do you celebrate the day or for the whole week? Leave a comment I’d love to hear what you do!