This year our school wide theme is "Celebrating American Ideals." Simplified into easier vocabulary terms for all students, the media center lessons stressed the importance of being the best student, the best son or daughter, the best brother or sister, and a good friend to as many people as possible. Dr. Seuss wrote several books in rhyme that convey this serious issue message. In the first lesson, the children watched the story, The Cat in the Hat Gets Grinched, and then had a discussion about how bad the Grinch was, how good the Cat in the Hat was, and how the Grinch's dog, Max, was treated. Excellent vocabulary words that described each situation were encouraged.
In our second media center lesson, we recalled the video, The Cat in the Hat Gets Grinched, and investigated what made the Grinch act the way he did. We then discussed how each of us comes to school in different moods each day based on situations in our lives such as a good or bad night's sleep, an upcoming event that we are looking forward to, perhaps someone is worried about a close relative or even about an argument which occurred that morning. Regardless of what happens, we all experience different moods based on a variety of occurrences in our lives that determine our frame of mind for the day. Dr. Seuss's My Many Colored Days further helped us understands why people act differently every day, and we should all do our best to be understanding of others. Then we listened to the story on tape of Thidwick - The Big Hearted Moose, and thought about how the animals who lived on his horns took advantage of him, and why his moose herd liked him and included him in the beginning of the story and shunned him from their group when he looked differently from them. Lastly, we played a Bingo game to practice the meanings of excellent character quality vocabulary words. The students listened to different scenarios which might occur at home or at school and then they needed to find words on their boards that fit the situation described.
Kindergarteners learned about Dr. Seuss's life
including the following facts:
-Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, MA.
-His given name was Theodore Geisel.
-Dr. Seuss was never educated as a medical doctor or doctor of
education.
-Seuss was his mother's maiden name.
-He married a lady named Helen Palmer.
-When Theodore Geisel wrote and illustrated a book, he used the
name Dr. Seuss.
-When he only illustrated or only wrote the book, he used the
name Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards).
-His publisher told him that children didn't like to read, handed
him a list of 400 sight vocabulary words children should be able
to recognize at about the end of first grade, and asked him if
he could include half of the words in a new book. Dr. Seuss was
able to accomplish this task using 220 of the words in The
Cat in the Hat.
-He and his wife started the series of books called Beginning
Readers. They can be recognized by the Cat in the Hat logo on
the spine and cover.
-Dr. Seuss died on September 24, 1991 and left children and grown-ups
with more than 40 books.
Then the kindergarteners watched the video The Cat in the Hat, and tried to listen for rhyming words that were on the list of sight vocabulary.
We touched upon how expensive it was to publish
books in color in the 1940's and 1950's but at least The Cat
in the Hat had three: blue, red, and pink, instead of just
black and white.
Why did we all wear hats?
We discussed why winter hats are worn during the winter. Students were asked to wear a hat on Dr. Seuss's birthday to keep excellent character qualities inside themselves and let all the bad characteristics escape with the heat through their heads prior to the celebration.
First thing, during the morning of our celebration, all students in the school watched the video of The Sneetches. Afterwards, a discussion took place in each homeroom. Children were asked to think of the following:
Explain how the Star-Belly Sneetches and the Plain-Belly Sneetches felt about themselves and each other at the beginning of the story.
What are some qualities of the Sneetches that you don't admire?
What lesson do the Sneetches learn at the end of the story?
Relate the story to our world. Make connections to people of other cultures.
How are people in the world different on the outside? (Dress, language, customs)
How are they the same inside? (generous, kind, caring, empathetic, selfless, funny, etc.)
What qualities do you admire in people?
Imagine that a Sneetch's star stands for a person with excellent character traits. Brainstorm a list of attributes that are appealing in people.
As a class, choose the top five attributes that would describe a person you would like to know.
Write one attribute on each point of the star given.
Ms. Harvey chose a yearly favorite, Dr. Seuss We Love You, to sing. The other songs were all about excellent character qualities including Feelin' Upbeat, Optimistic, What Goes Around Comes Around, and Don't Ever Give Up.
Afterwards, all students went back to their homerooms to have green iced cupcakes to celebrate Dr. Seuss's 99th birthday.
