1-2-3 Come Read Some Dr. Seuss Books With Me!

I totally agree with Dr. Seuss when he said: "You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child!" 

Reading to my young 5 students was my favorite part of our day. A time to relax and travel the world on all sorts of "ed-ventures" right there in our room, fueled by a splash of imagination. 

March was an especially fun reading month for us.  Our school celebrated March is Reading Month, took part in Read Across America, and had a Celebration of Seuss Week as well. 

I personally have a collection of over 40 Dr. Seuss books.  It was amidst this pile of fun, that I wondered just how many children's books Dr. Seuss had actually written. 

I thought the answer would be a no-brainer.  Simply Google my question and a number would pop up right?  Wrong! 

To my surprise, no one really quite agreed.  I found guess-timates from 40 to 60.  I couldn't even find a complete bibliography!  How could this be?  Hmmm...did I want to make the time to take up this challenge and figure it out for myself? 

My curiosity got the best of me.  Zillions of hours of research later, I'm proud to present to you, an alphabetical list of Seuss's books.

Finding and getting all of the covers on one page, was no small feat.

Since I was on a roll, I also wrote a synopsis of all of them and even included all of the stories that were published as collections. Synopsis of 79 Seuss books/stories. 

(While doing research and discovering books and stories I had never heard of, I had to find and read them of course! Thus the "zillions" of hours, which was definitely time well-spent!)  I hope you think so too, and find it helpful.

So why the variety of answers? I think some of the discrepancies happen, because certain "counters" only include the books written under Theodore's pseudonym: "Dr. Seuss" and not those he wrote (but did not illustrate) under his pen name, Theo. LeSieg (Geisel, his real name, spelled backwards.)

A lot of lists also don't include the 2 books (The Seven Lady Godivas & You're Only Old Once) that he wrote for adults. (Most people don't even know that Seuss drew cartoons and wrote for an adult audience prior to writing children's books.)

Another, often "uncounted" Seuss, is the adorable little book "A Little Bug Went Ka-Choo", which he wrote under the pen name Rosetta Stone. What? Why on earth would he add yet another pen name?

It seems that Dr. Seuss was writing a book with Michael Frith. He didn't want to use his name on the book, so Mike suggested he use his wife's name instead. Audrey's maiden name was Stone.  Frith thought of Rosetta and the rest is history or not...

The rather expensive, The Many Mice of Mr. Brice, which was made into a 1989 pop up book: The Pop-Up Mice of Mr. Brice (Theo LeSeig) often escapes counting as well, perhaps because of the price.  If you're lucky enough to find a "new" one, you'll likely be shelling out over $300.

Counting confusion can also be attributed to the fact that Dr. Seuss wrote several books that were collections of stories.  Some of these stories were later made into separate books, like What Was I Afraid Of? which first appeared in The Sneeches.

Books like Daisy-Head Mayzie and My Many Colored Days, which were published after his death, also allude many lists. As with the other LeSeig books, he did not illustrate these.

Does the "to illustrate or not to illustrate?" add to the confusion? Perhaps; who knows what factors people use to make up a list of Dr. Seuss books. 

However, my research included them all, which resulted in 64 books!  So why does my cover page say 65?

Although Seuss did not write Horray For Diffendoofer Day, Jack Prelutsky, expanded and completed Seuss's original work, so I thought it only fair to include it in my count. After all, it features Miss Bonkers. a teacher.

Alas, just when I thought my counting was done...Oh no! Along comes another one! 

Random house announced that they will be releasing What Pet Should I Get? on July 28th, saying: "...it was likely written between 1958 & 1962." 

OK already! One book is fine, but that is not all! Oh no, that is not all...   

It seems that the publisher plans on at least two more books, based on mysterious manuscripts found in Seuss's home in La Jolla, California, by his widow and secretary. 

I wonder if one of those will be from Seuss’ unfinished manuscript “All Sorts of Sports,” which  sold at an auction in 2010 for $34,000?

Could this be a "too good to be true" thing, or did Dr. Seuss, like most prolific writers, actually have the proverbial piles of paper, stuck like a book in every "cramped cranny and little nook?"

Be that as it may, I will not be up-dating my current lists anytime soon, at least not until they stop finding things “every-which-where".

Thanks for visiting.  I'm off to take some aspirin and curl up with a good book. 

My brain feels as fried as Sam's green eggs and ham.  Wishing you a stress-free day.

 1-2-3 Come Do Some Seuss Hat Activities With Me

Dr. Seuss's iconic hat that he created for his Cat in the Hat character, is the perfect vehicle to make some quick, easy and fun activities that help practice a variety of standards.  Today's blog features some popular Seuss-hat downloads, as well as "Rhyme Time", which I just finished creating today!

Teachers assign a word, or give students a choice.  Children write the word on the brim of their Seuss hat and then think of as many words as they can that rhyme. They jot them down on a sheet of scratch paper, then write the rhyming words in aphabetical order on their hat. 

As is often the case with Seuss, have students dream up one nonsense word, which they define on the back of their bookmark.  Completed projects make a sweet Read Across America bulletin board. Caption: "Hats Off to Wonderful Word Work!" or "Rhyme Time With the Cat in the Hat."

I do this Cat Hat Place Value Mat  activity, as a whole group. Students take turns calling out 3-digit numbers.  Using a dry erase marker, children write that number on the hat brim and then put the correct number of tiles in the appropriate columns. 

This is a quick, easy and fun way to practice, as well as whole group assess place value.  

Another way to practice place value is with this Cat in the Hat place value game.

The 3 red rings show the 1s, 10s, and 100s columns.  Children "spin" them to make whatever 3-digit number is called out. 

Are your kiddos learning to identify coins?  Then I think they'll enjoy this "Cent-sational" Seuss hat craftivity, which reviews the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar coins.    

For more math fun with the cat's hat, I designed a How many ways can you show a number, Popsicle stick game, which includes a variety of ways to play. 

Students choose a  "How many ways can I show the number ______." hat brim strip, and then place all of the Popsicle stick equations that make that number on their Seuss-hat mat.  (Reinforce addition OR subtraction, or combine both).

This is an easy and fun way to practice and whole group assess a variety of concepts, including fact families. I've included number tiles from 0-120 with a blank sheet for you to program with even higher numbers. 

Time to the hour was another math standard that we practiced via Seuss's hat.  Students add digital time stripes to their hat by rolling dice.

They trace the stripe, place it on their hat and then manipulate the paperclip hands to show the analog time.

Besides using the hat for math, I made a few hat activities for language arts.  The Cat Hat AT slider, was my 1st hat "craftivity", which was made years ago before I had all of the graphic programs I now use, but it's still a popular download. The packet includes a variety of worksheets too.

I will read... is a hat bookmark that can be used as a writing prompt.  Share my example with your students and challenge them to write verses of their own. 

I've alluded to a variety of Seuss books in my poem. "I will read with Mr. Brown; I will read upside down.  I will read with duck feet; I will read because it's neat."

Challenge your students to figure out which books I've used.  

After reading The Cat in the Hat, review story elements with this Cat in the Hat language arts packet.

The packet includes pocket chart cards, a beginning-middle-end graphic organzizer, plus sentence strips to sequence the Cat in the Hat story.  This can be done independently, or as a whole group activity. 

Finally, because the punctuation pocket chart cards have been so popular, I decided to tweak this idea, and make the "cards" into stripes for the cat's hat. Cat's Hat Grammar "craftivity" packet.

Students underline the letters that need to be capitalized and add punctuation. 

They cut their stripes and glue them to their hat in an ABAB pattern, leaving a space, so that the hat will look like it has alternating red and white stripes. 

If you want, have students re-write the corrected sentences on the red stripes. I made up 108 sentence choices, from a variety of Dr. Seuss stories, so  each students' hat will be different.  Completed projects make a nice bulletin board. 

Thanks for visiting today.  If you're looking for more Dr. Seuss FREEBIES click on the link to pop on over to that section of TeachWithMe.  I also have an entire board of Seuss-themed activities on Pinterest, with lots more ideas and freebies.   

"From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere!" -Dr. Seuss

28 pages.

A brief synopsis of 79 Dr. Seuss Stories, including ones that are in his book collections: For example, The Sneeches and Other Stories. Plus stories from The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories that were published posthumously. 

11 pages.

Review capitalization and punctuation with this Cat in the Hat "craftivity."  Students choose 5 sentence strips, underline the capital letter, add punctuation and then glue the stripes to their red construction paper hat in an ABAB pattern.  If you want, have students rewrite the correct sentence on the red "stripes."

7 pages.

After reading Dr. Seuss's ABC book, create a silly, creature-filled alphabet book of your own.  Print and trim the mini letter tiles.  Toss them into a Seuss hat.  Students choose one, glue it to their page and think of a creature that starts with that letter. 

1-2-3 Come Seuss With Me!

Anyone else out there "ob-seussed" with the works of Dr. Seuss?  I enjoyed some of his books as a child, but when I really appreciated his prolific writing, was when I became a teacher.  I could see first hand that his goofy pictures, silly words and rhyming technique caused giggles and helped my students learn how to read. 

His birthday is March 2nd. This year he'd be 110 and many will celebrate with a Cat in the Hat Day or by simply reading Seuss books through out the month. 

With over 60 titles to choose from, you could read a different one each day  as you join with others to "Read Across America."

To help you celebrate, I designed a few activities to put in centers or play games with, as a way to review a variety of standards.

The number puzzle strips have been downloaded quite a bit, so I thought it would be fun to make a few with a Seuss theme. 

Thanks to the wonderful graphics by myclipartstore.com they turned out adorable.  The puzzles help your kiddos practice counting to 10, count backwards from 10 to 1, as well as skip count by 10's to 100.  Click on the link to view/download the 14 Dr. Seuss puzzles.

Another cute way to practice skip counting by 10's is to have your students make Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Add 10 turquoise hair strips that they've "curled" on a crayon (5 on each Thing) and then count them by 10's.  

Click on the link to view/download the Count by 10's With Thing 1 and Thing 2 "craftivity".  

Many teachers have told me that they collect my different alphabet cards, so that they can switch things up a bit each month to keep their students' interest. 

In the Dr. Seuss alphabet packet   you'll find Thing 1 and Thing 2  ABC cards that show both upper and lowercase letters on the same card, as well as separate upper and lowercase letter cards, so that you can play all sorts of games like Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" 

Use them as flashcards, a border, cut them up into puzzles etc.  I've provided a 3-page tip list of all sorts of things you can do with them, as well as Kaboom cards to make games even more fun.  Click on the link to view/download the Dr. Seuss Alphabet Cards.

Finally, I also made some number cards from 0 to 120.  There are math symbol cards as well, so that students can make and solve equations, plus an odd and even sorting mat and a tip list of ideas.  Click on the link to view/download the Dr. Seuss Number Cards.

That's it for today.  I hope you can stop by again tomorrow for the newest Seuss FREEBIES.  In the meantime, scroll down to see other blog articles and ideas, or click on the link to pop on over to the Dr.Seuss section of TeachWithMe to find even more.

 "Don't cry that it's over; smile because it happened." -Dr. Seuss

3 pages. Common Core State Standard: 1.MD.3 A fun game for your Seuss-themed activities. Students make their analog cat clock and add digital time stripes to their hat by rolling dice.

Stripe It Up With Seuss And Show Me A Pattern!

Let’s face it, when you have a lot of little munchkins and not a whole lot of time to get assessments done, it’s nice to be able to do some whole-group activities with your students, so that you can see at a glance who has the concept and who is still struggling.

An effective, as well as fun way to do this, is by making the assessment into a hands-on activity.  To assess patterning, run off my stripe template on a variety of colored construction paper and then laminate.

There are 20 stripes per sheet, so if you have 25 students in your class, you will need 5 pieces of each color, so they can make an ABAB pattern and fill their hat.

I like to use every color, as being able to recognize colors is a report card standard for the Y5’s. I can use this game as a “teachable moment” to hold up different colored stripes and have students say the colors in English, Sign Language, as well as Spanish.

Laminate the construction paper and then cut out the strips using a paper cutter.  If you want to keep colors organized keep them in plastic baskets.

This also helps students practice sorting and several life skills, or you can opt to dump them all into plastic shoe boxes and set one on each table.

Run off the Seuss hat on white construction paper, laminate and cut out.  Tell students that you want them to show you various patterns using the stripes.

Explain to them that the white stripe will always be one of the color stripes.  This will help expedite the game.  Call out a pattern that you want the children to show you such as ABAB.

The students pick up 4 stripes of one color and place them on their hat: red-white-red-white etc. Other patterns I assess:  ABCABC -  ABBA  &  AABBAABB. You look around the room and see that everyone has it correct and help strugglers.

If you want to have a sample to show students one that is done correctly, run off extra copies of the hat and color in the various patterns, or put magnet strip on the back of the hat and strips and demonstrate on the white board.  I've also included a spinner and tally sheet if you want to make this into an independent game.

Children play with 2-4 players taking turns spinning the Cat In The Hat spinner.  Whatever pattern they land on they stripe their hat and make a tally on their "I Can Pattern How About That!" sheet.  Play continues 'tl the timer rings.  Teacher walks around to check and see how everyone is doing.

After the game, pass out copies of the hat for students to cut out and color whatever pattern and colors that are their favorites.

Remind them that the stripes no longer have to be white and could even be rainbow-colored.  Students write their name on the brim.

To help strengthen finger muscles, students can also do a rip & tear Dr. Seuss Hat. For a nice variety, allow students to choose whatever colored construction paper stripes they want.

Click on the link to view/download Dr. Seuss Hat Patterning Activity

When everyone is done, give them a "Hats Off To You!" Cat in the Hat bookmark.  Click on the link to view/download the Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat bookmark.

Do you have a patterning tip you’d like to share?  I’d enjoy hearing from you.  diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to comment here especially if you use one of my ideas.   Thanks in advance.