"A person is a person no matter how small" ~Dr. Seuss
Today in fourth grade we celebrated Dr. Seuss's 108th Birthday! I started the day asking my students what they know about Dr. Seuss.
Immediately hands flew in the air:
"He wrote a lot of books."
"Most of his books have turned into movies."
"He rhymes throughout his stories."
"The characters in his stories are really weird."
As a beginning teacher I never thought about using Dr. Seuss's books as mentor texts. I always considered them "childish". In the hopes of doing something on March 2nd to celebrate I began to explore ideas and books. I realized that most of his books send out a deeper message for not only children, but adults too. Maybe it was my lack of exposure to Dr. Seuss or the playful drawings, but I always seemed to label him with primary classrooms.
After my simple realization that probably should have happened years ago Room 121 began exploring all of the books Dr. Seuss had to offer. We started by reading "Yertle the Turtle" and relating to an Autocracy. The language and actions could not have explained Autocracy better! Later in the day we read "Horton Hears a Who". With this text we discussed character traits, reflected on the message, and even created our own individual Whoville. My students' imaginations were flying. Some of their Whovilles were found on a raindrop and others on a simple piece of dust. Their buildings inside of Whoville were creative, colorful, and detailed. I wish I had some to share.
Overall, thank you Dr. Seuss for inspiring learning and creativeness in Room 121 today!
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