Read Across America Day is on March 2nd every year. This is also Dr. Seuss’ birthday. A lot of schools celebrate the whole week of March 2nd. Sometimes there are school wide dress up days or school activities to celebrate reading.
This is a list of ideas that you can incorporate into your classroom for this week. Some of these activities are focused on reading in general and some are Dr. Seuss activities to go along with his books. These ideas can work for any grade level in elementary school.
For even more ideas and resources, check out readacrossamerica.org.
Read-a-thon
Take one day out of the week to read all day long. Encourage students to read all day with some fun ideas. Turn your room into a cozy space. Allow students to read all over the room on pillows. You could also make this day pajama day. Also, while the students are reading, you can keep track of how many books were read. Another way to break up the day is by having a few read alouds by you or students in your class.
Book Recommendations
Get students excited about reading by having students recommend books. Create a way for students to recommend books that they liked to read to other students in the class. I created a fun little space in my classroom for students to write their recommendations. You could also set out the books on top of your library for all students to see.
Author Study
Another way to celebrate books and get students interested in reading is by having an author study. Choose a favorite author and explore all their books. Look at common themes, common language, common characters, etc in these books. You could even have students write their own book or story based on this author’s stories. For Read Across America Week, you could do an author study on Dr. Seuss.
Guest Readers
Plan to bring in some guest readers to your classroom during this week. Ask parents to come in and read a story to the whole class. Or even ask another teacher, or even the principal, to come in and read a book to your class.
Another idea, is to bring in a bunch of guest readers. I did this once in a second grade classroom and they loved it. Basically, each volunteer reader chose one book to read. I divided the students in small groups. Each group rotated around the room. During each rotation, the students would listen to the book from the guest reader. Then, they would rotate to a new person.
These ideas would be great during an all day Read-a-thon, or even on Read Across America Day on March 2nd.
Read to Other Classes
This is always a favorite of my students. They love reading to younger kids! Set up a time to go into a younger classroom to read books. If you teach a younger grade, ask an older grade to read to your students.
Watch Read Alouds on YouTube
Did you know you can find a ton of read alouds on YouTube? I love showing these videos to my students. It gives them another person to listen to (besides me all the time). You can also find famous people reading books or even the author themselves. I especially love this if I can’t find a specific book I want to read to my class in the library.
This would also be a great way to break up the day if you plan to do a read-a-thon!
Make Bookmarks
A fun craft you can do during the week is making bookmarks. Students are so creative, so I usually just give them a blank template on cardstock and the freedom to draw anything. I do usually say it needs to be centered on a book or just reading in general.
Also, you can make copies of bookmarks on cardstock, cut them out, and give them to all your students! This is great to vote on a class favorite, or even to give to other classes!
Another idea is to make bookmarks for a little gift to students. I love to make Dr. Seuss themed bookmarks to give to my students this week. It is a thoughtful and creative gift! Click here to print your own for your students!
Reader’s Theater
I absolutely love reader’s theaters! This is a great way for students to practice becoming fluent readers and a way to get some students out of their shell. I found Dr. Seuss reader’s theaters for some of his books (here). I split up my class into groups, depending on the characters needed for each reader’s theater. The students practice their parts all week and give a class performance at the end of the week. I sometimes allow them to make a few props or costumes, which adds to the performance.
Another idea is to invite parents to watch or even go perform to other classes or younger grades. My students always love this!
Research Dr. Seuss
Students are always fascinated by the real life of Dr. Seuss. Sometimes, I will read some books about his life to the students. One of my favorites is “Who Was Dr. Seuss.” This is a great read aloud that you can do leading up to this week.
One year, a student researched Dr. Seuss for their Wax Museum Project. She shared her presentation with the class again during this week. If you want to read more about the Wax Museum project, click here. You could also just assign a research project researching his life as well. I love when students make magazines for the person they are researching to share with other students!
Class Book
Another way to celebrate this week is to make a class book! Students love to see their writings become a real book. In my classroom, we made a class book based on the book “And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street.” We changed mulberry street to the street our school is located on and the students loved it! Each student got a page in the book to describe something crazy they saw on our street. They wrote a small paragraph and drew a picture to go along. When students were done, I bound the book together and read it to the class. They loved it!
Dr. Seuss’s ABC book is another fun class book to make. Each student can create a page for the letter their name starts with. Or you could assign a letter to each kid. Once the pages are done, bind them together for a fun book to read to the class. If you want the template to this book, click here.
Another way to make a class book is to use Studentreasures Publishing (here). This website will send you a kit to make a classroom book. Each child will have a sheet to write and a sheet to draw. Send all the pages back and they will make a class book that is hardback bound. This will look like a real book and my students loved this! Parents can also buy copies as well.
Yertle the Turtle
A specific activity you can do if you read “Yertle the Turtle” to your class is to invite a turtle to visit your classroom. One of my parents had a pet turtle and they brought it into the class. The students loved this! They were able to ask some questions and learn more about turtles. This is a great idea to bring reading to life in your classroom.
Another fun activity to do with this book is to make turtles! Students can easily make turtles out of an egg carton. They can decorate the turtles however they want. With the turtles, you can stack them for a STEM activity or play a counting game with them! Regardless, it is a super cute craft.
Lorax Recycle Project
There are a lot of really cute crafts to go along with “The Lorax.” I actually love to use this book to teach about recycling! We always have a recycling bin in the classroom to recycle paper and plastic. This is another reason to talk about why we should recycle.
Some recycling projects I love is to use “trash” to make something new! I have students bring in paper towel rolls, egg cartons, boxes, etc. With this collected “trash,” I let the students create something new. Sometimes, I give them specific directions and sometimes I let their imagination take over. One time, my students decided to build a little town!
The Cat in the Hat
A super simple and fun activity to go along with “The Cat in the Hat” is a STEM cup stacking activity. Students will use red cups and white pieces of paper to build a tower. You could encourage students to see who can stack cups the tallest.
Another activity to go along with this book is to decorate hats. Students can work on patterns or just freely create their own hat. I found The Cat in the Hat templates here for free. This would also make a great bulletin board!
Oh the Places You’ll Go
Another great way to spend the week is learning about careers. Reading “Oh the Places You’ll Go” is a great book to start talking about what students want to be when they grow up. Take this time to research some careers or just talk about what kind of careers are out there. This could be more of an idea for older students, but even younger students could learn about what they want to be.
A fun craft idea is to make a hot air balloon. On the hot air balloon, students can write what they want to be when they grow up or even goals that they have in school.
Fox in Socks
Fox in Socks is a great book of tongue twisters. This book can inspire students to write their own tongue twisters. You could also teach about alliteration with this book! Read students the book for inspiration, then let each student create their own tongue twister. Students can read them aloud to the class, or even challenge others to read their tongue twisters.
Another fun craft with this book is designer socks. Let students create their own sock for the fox. I found many free templates on Pinterest for Dr. Seuss socks. Again, this could be a great bulletin board display!
Movie vs. Book
Another great idea is to compare the book to the movie. There are multiple Dr. Seuss books that are turned into movies. First, read the book. Then, watch the movie. A great way to compare is to use a Venn Diagram. I like students to fill out a Venn Diagram while they are watching the movie. We always have a great conversation after watching a movie based on a book.
If you don’t have time to watch the movie (or not allowed), another great option is to just watch small clips on YouTube. This way, students can still compare the book to the movie, they will just dissect a small portion of the book to the movie scene.
Check out our FREE graphic organizer for comparing a Dr. Seuss movie to a book here.
I hope you enjoyed this list of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America ideas!
For even more ideas, check out my Dr. Seuss ideas for toddlers and preschool aged children here!
Thank you for Continually Learning with us!
Kyle and Sarah
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