In the mood for a Dr. Seuss Storytime! Me too! With Read Across America Day coming up, why not celebrate!

It can be hard to find Seuss books that are short enough for a Storytime crowd. In the end, I chose:

 

 

Dr. Seuss’s ABC
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
Hop on Pop ( I read pages 1-31, ending with, “No Pat No, Don’t Sit on That!”)
Green Eggs and Ham (I read pages 1-25 and then skipped to page 49 and read till the end.)
My Many Colored Days

How it went: 

Early Literacy Tip curtesy of Mel’s Desk
“LITERACY TIP: Phonological Awareness
Reading Dr Seuss books is a great way to introduce lots of rhyming words to your child! Rhyming words are great for kids because they help them learn how to hear if beginning sounds and ending sounds of words are the same or different. They will need to be able to hear the smaller sounds of words when they start sounding words out as they read!”

Opening Song: If you are happy and you know it (clap your hands, stomp the floor, rub your tummy, pull your ears, say hello, etc…)

Read: Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
This is a wonderful, wonderful book! The kids took almost no coaching at all to repeat the phrases. I had 2 and 3 years old in Storytime, and all of them got into this.

Write: I wrote capitol and lower case A, a, B, b, C, c on the white board and we talked about the differences in the letters. I then showed the kids how to make a sign language A, a sign language B, and a sign language c with their hands.

Read: Dr. Seuss’ ABC
I only read the first three letters of this book. Kept it short and simple.

Sing with shakers: Popcorn Kernels, I, 2, Shake it on your shoe!

I had a little girl have a total meltdown that she did not get a pink shaker after I handed the shakers out. She laid on the floor and began to cry and scream. I quietly went to the mom and told her that every child has a bad day, and she was welcome to leave the room with her child for a break, but then to please come back in when her child was ready. The mom took the child outside the room and we finished the songs. Because it was a little disconcerting for the other children to see another child upset, I decided to cut Storytime off there.

Closing Song: Tickle the Stars

Craft:  Green Eggs and Ham on a Pan! (Would you…would you…on a pan?) 🙂

I then invited the kids over for a craft. This was prepared by one of my library summer interns! The kids just glued all the pieces to a paper plate. Very simple and fun! And, by then the child who was upset calmed down and was able to join us back in the room for the craft. By the time she was ready to leave the library, she was happy and smiling again.

My intern simple cut out small green circles to be the yokes of the eggs, and white paper in a 8 kind of shape to represent the whites of the eggs. She also cut grey paper into handles for the frying pan.

Here is the template for the ham pieces. Simple print on green colored paper and cut out!

Color: Green Eggs and Ham Template

A good Dr. Seuss ending, indeed!