20 Dr. Seuss Activities to Fill Your House with Stacks of Books

March 2, Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! His books are scattered all over our house.  We will be celebrating by reading several of his books, playing games and munching on Seuss style snacks. I'm excited to share several activities and snacks with my son's kindergarten class in the morning.

"Fill your house with stacks of books...in all the crannies and all the nooks." This quote is from the movie, In Search of Dr. Seuss.  Dr. Seuss knew the average kid would pick up a book and be hooked. It has been the inspiration for my blog.  I really want children to be surrounded by books at home.   We have well over 1,000 books. I am constantly trying to sort through them and share with others. We donate many to the Burmese refugee children we work with in Salt Lake. We've held book drives to collect and donate more books for them. My children love helping pass out the books.

This is one reason I haven't been blogging as much in the last year.  I've been "in the trenches" trying to spread literacy instead of behind my computer blogging as much. I still share quick ideas and activities on Instagram but I don't have the time to share more details on my blog for now.

I'm also our school PTA president this year.  I'm currently helping with our readathon which has been a Dr. Seuss theme the past five years.  This year we have a new mascot so we are doing a fantasy reading theme. I'm helping plan a medieval festival to celebrate all the extra reading our students do.

Image by Kellie Ungritch for D. Elementary

I hope you all are reading more with your children or classroom. Share a Dr. Seuss book today to celebrate his birthday. 

If you're looking for some additional fun ways to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, check out 20 of my favorite obSEUSSed with Dr. Seuss activities, crafts, snacks and party ideas here.

Plus I’ve collected more than 1,500 Dr. Seuss ideas on several Pinterest boards.  Follow these boards for Dr. Seuss parties, classrooms, crafts, Grinchmas, activities and more.


Start filling your house with stacks of books.
We buy books at yard sales, thrift shops, local books stores and online through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. We love to give and receive books as gifts. We've also done a book exchange at church where we have a cupboard we bring a book to leave and take a book to keep. I'm also excited to start working on building my own Dr. Seuss Little Free Library house for my yard this summer.

If you don't like books taking up a lot of space at your home long term, make sure to rotate books from your local library.  Sometimes owning too many books can be overwhelming and my kids get used to seeing them and aren't as interested in reading them.  A new stack of books borrowed from the library gets them excited.  Whatever method you choose, just make sure to keep books accessible for children.  Help them find books they are interested in and get them excited about reading!  

I'd love to know how you're celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. Leave a comment below or leave a link to your blog if you've shared ideas online.

Follow me on Instagram (@reading_refuge) and Facebook: obSEUSSed.

Simple Seuss Celebrations

Next week is Dr. Seuss’ birthday (March 2). Teachers and parents around the globe enjoy celebrating his birthday through crafts, activities, special food and parties.  Some celebrations can be quite elaborate but there are plenty of simple ways to celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America day.
In fact a quick search of the web or Pinterest will show you thousands of ideas. 
Angie, from Country Chic Cottage and I are excited to share a few simple ideas to help you find something that will be just right for your home or classroom.
The ideas pictured above can be found on this Pinterest Board. Just click the links and it will take you right to the details.
Follow our Simple Seuss Celebrations board on Pinterest.

Angie has a huge variety of creative Dr. Seuss crafts and treats.

She also has a fabulous round-up of 40+ links for Dr. Seuss crafts, parties, printables and activities.

I’m sharing 20+ of my obSEUSSed with Dr. Seuss activities, crafts, snacks and party ideas here.

I have a list of 350+ Dr. Seuss activities I’ve collected on this page:

Plus I’ve collected more than 1,500 Dr. Seuss ideas on several Pinterest boards.  Check out boards for Dr. Seuss parties, classrooms, crafts, Grinchmas, activities and more.

Sarah from Bombshell Bling shares her own Dr. Seuss décor, printables, crafts and more.
She collected some fabulous Dr. Seuss ideas here:

Sara from Mom Endeavors shared 75+ Dr. Seuss crafts, activities and recipes.

Jill from Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons has amazing visually creative snacks for kids.  She has a great round-up of Dr. Seuss recipes and crafts.

Taralyn from Keep Moving Forward with Me blog shares 6 simple Dr. Seuss ideas.

Ashlee Marie is the most fabulous cake maker I personally know.  Here is her Cat in the Hat Cake, Cake Pops and printable Dr. Seuss book invitations for parties.

Jamerrill from Free Homeschool Deals share 100+ Dr. Seuss printables, crafts, recipes, activities and more.

Great Hands-on activities inspired by Dr. Seuss at Learn with Play at Home.

Tons of Dr. Seuss teaching printables and ideas for Read Across America Day at the Teaching Blog Addict.

Katie from Clarks Condensed blog shares tons of ideas for a Dr. Seuss themed party or baby shower.

We hope you can find a few simple ideas from these lists to choose your own way to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America Day sometime in March.  You don’t have to do it on March 2nd. It is fun to celebrate with this theme anytime of year.  Happy Seussabrations!

Dr. Seuss Costume Accessories Giveaway and Photo Booth Ideas

Get ready to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday with some fun photo prop costumes.

We got to check out some fun Dr. Seuss accessories from Pure Costumes.  They sent us the Lorax Truffula Tree Boppers headband, the Cat in the Hat headband and the Lorax Accessory Kit (includes hat, sun glasses and mustache).  We also have a set to giveaway (see how to enter below). Here are my kids photo booth style.
Costume Review:
All three products are very professionally made.  They are not indestructible though, so I had to warn my kids to be soft with them so they didn’t break the first day. 
The Cat in the Hat, tiny hat, was squished when it arrived.  I tried to fluff it but it wouldn’t budge.  I finally grabbed an empty toilet paper roll and cut about 1 inch off the end then used the remaining part of the tube to stuff in the tiny hat and it fit perfectly and helped it keep its form.
As with all photo booth props, you probably want a grown-up monitoring the use of props or kids will get out of hand with them. The mustache is held on with a plastic thread that hooks around your head. It may not be great to have multi-users with this one if kids lick it or stretch the cords. 
Over all, I’m excited to use these photo booth props at our upcoming school Dr. Seuss carnival next month.
Pure Costumes offered an extra set of these Dr. Seuss costume photo props to give away to one of my readers.

GIVEAWAY ENDED 2/25/15.
GIVEAWAY RULES:  This contest is open to U.S. residents with a U.S. postal address. Must be age 18 or older to enter.  Pure Costumes is responsible for the prize package and will ship it to the winner. Contest ends Wednesday, Feb. 25 at midnight CST.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

DISCOUNT:
Pure Costumes has also offered a discount code for any of my readers.  Use code: OBSEUSSED to receive 10% off your subtotal. It cannot be combined with other coupon codes and it expires 10/31/15. Take a look at all their fun costumes, perfect for celebrating Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

Disclosure: I received the 3 Dr. Seuss accessories to review for the purposes of this post.  All opinions are 100% my own.

Pure Costumes also has a fun free Dr. Seuss Printable.

They also have a simple Dr. Seuss Pinterest Contest happening. See more details on their site.

Dr. Seuss Pinterest Contest from Pure Costumes

Dr. Seuss Photo Booth:
I created a Dr. Seuss photo booth corner at our school Dr. Seuss carnival.
I used fabric (from Wal-mart) for the background and to cover the bench.
I’ve been collecting a variety of items and creating my own as props over the years.


At the carnival we had a station to make your own photo booth props.  My son made this headband and attached a Lorax mustache with popsicle sticks.
Another way to make a Lorax mustache is to get a yellow feather boa (can be found at craft stores).  I cut it into strips (it gets messy). Then I hot glued two craft sticks (popsicle sticks) together at an angle. Then I glued the feathers on.

I found this blank wooden had prop at Michael’s Crafts Store. My son helped paint red and white stripes on it. Then we drew black sharpie marker on the lines and added extra lines to help it look like the illustrated hat from The Cat in the Hat book.

For the Truffula Tree we found a craft feather boa at Joann’s Crafts and cut a circle from a strong poster board. I hot glued the feather boa into a circle to cover the poster board.  We found a piece of scrap wood in our garage and painted it yellow and again added the black lines with a sharpie marker to add illustration details.

I cut out a white piece of felt and used a black sharpie marker to write THING 1. Then I used a safety pin to attach it to my son’s red shirt.  The turquoise hair is actually an old pillow cover that got ruined so I kept part of the fabric to use as hair.
I found similar fabric on Amazon (search faux fur turquoise) you could make a bunch of little wigs or cut into strips to glue to headbands.
Pure Costumes has Thing 1 Thing 2 wigs and headbands too. I really want some of the headbands for our photo booth but they are out of stock right now.  Keep checking because these will be perfect for dressing up.

I got the READ banner from Oriental Trading and the tall Cat in the Hat display from a bulletin board set. (Amazon affiliate link.)

I made the Truffula Trees using a pool noodle (again drawing black lines with a sharpie marker), a plunger from the dollar store and a spiky poof ball made out of purple and green tissue paper.  You could make so many different colors.

We were lucky to have our local PBS station, KBYU, bring their Cat in the Hat character to our Dr. Seuss carnival.  This year I plan to set the photo booth props right next to his station so kids can dress up and take photos with the cat.

Costumes are a great way to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America day. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway above.

Bloggers Inspired by Dr. Seuss

Look no further, if you need an idea to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday you can find something simple or elaborate on one of these bloggers’ lists.


There are so many fabulous ideas from bloggers, teachers, parents and more online now. I can’t keep up with it all.  I have loved gathering ideas in my Dr. Seuss Link Collection and Pinterest Board with 1,500+ ideas (see links on the right side bar).  But, I wanted to share more resource lists with you to help you prep for Read Across America Day, celebrated this Friday. I love that you can refer to these lists each year to find new ways to celebrate.

The site I see referred to most on Pinterest for Dr. Seuss activities is I Can Teach My Child.  Jenae has been one of my favorite bloggers I’ve watched over the years. She has a variety of simple activities you can do at home or school to connect to Dr. Seuss books.

Jenae is also an excellent literacy resource. She wrote this e-book, I Can Teach My Child to Read!, which is on sale through Friday (but always a great price). I’ve been browsing through it and really wish I had a hard copy to refer to more often. I love all her tips.

Mom Endeavors rounded up 75+ Dr. Seuss Activity Ideas.


Angie at The Country Chic Cottage blog created a list of 40+ Dr. Seuss activities.


She created this free printable Dr. Seuss Cootie Catcher. This is my favorite quick craft I’ve seen this year. I printed one out and my kids played with it today.


The Teaching Blog Addict has over 30+ Dr. Seuss activity ideas, including tons of printable worksheets and great classroom ideas.


The Educator’s Spin on It gathered 30+ Lorax ideas.


They also have a virtual book club which is a collection of 100+ links with Dr. Seuss book activity ideas.


Jamerrill from Free Home School Deals has over 100 ideas on this post.


Jill gathered 50+ great Dr. Seuss snack ideas.


Motherhood on a Dime collected 30 great Dr. Seuss ideas.


Learn with Play at Home features several of their favorite Dr. Seuss activities and has a great Link list of 100+ ideas.


Amy, from Some of the Best Things in Life are Mistakes, shares her favorite Dr. Seuss finds on Pinterest.


Parent Teach Play has 60+ ideas on their link list.


J Daniel 4’s Mom has 20+ ideas to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday.


Deborah at TEACH PRESCHOOL has 40+ links of Dr. Seuss activities.

Deb at PreK and K Sharing has a great Montessori Dr. Seuss activity

This post shares 27 of my personal Dr. Seuss activities.


And, don’t forget my Pinterest boards with 1,500+ Dr. Seuss ideas collected.


And you’re sure to find something that catches your eye at my Dr. Seuss Link Collection with 300+ ideas.

Add these all up (sure there is bound to be some overlap) and you’ll find thousands of ideas to pull from to celebrate reading with Dr. Seuss. Leave a message below if you have links for other Dr. Seuss ideas.