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.

Dr. Seuss Experts: Just READ

Happy Read Across America Day! Dr. Seuss’ characters are often symbols used to represent reading on this day.

I’m obSEUSSed with Dr. Seuss but I’m not an expert by any means.  I’m inspired by Dr. Seuss’ whimsical world and his desire to help children love reading. I get a little carried away collecting Dr. Seuss ideas, so much so that I don’t have time to do all the Dr. Seuss activities I've seen on Pinterest or other blogs.  I’m busy planning a Dr. Seuss carnival for our elementary school happening mid March so I haven’t had time to plan anything to do at home to celebrate his birthday this weekend.   Yes, me, obSEUSSed. I have no elaborate Dr. Seuss crafts or projects planned this weekend. This is real life, with three kids.

So, here’s my plan:   I’m just going to READ to my kids.  Nice and simple. That is what the NEA’s Read Across America Day is really all about.  Just pick up a book and read with your kids.  Just ask the experts.

THE EXPERTS

Although it is fun to see other bloggers’ and teachers’ ideas across the web, my most favorite and trusted official resources for Dr. Seuss are the following.

SEUSSVILLE

Seussville is the Official Dr. Seuss site. They have online games, videos, a store filled with Dr. Seuss products and more.
They also have excellent teacher and parent sections including this book guide.


Random House, the official publisher of Dr. Seuss books, has official worksheets and games at their site too.


The National Education Association runs the Read Across America campaign. Today they are celebrating RAA for the 16th year.  This program focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources.  They also have a store with Dr. Seuss products (great for party planning) and excellent education resources.


Scholastic has excellent Dr. Seuss resources as well. Check out: Dr. Seuss  Everything You Need. They also have a fun Dr. Seuss Weekly Reader online


As I mentioned earlier this week, I love that PBS has joined with Dr. Seuss to present The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! The children’s TV/DVD series. You can also watch episodes online, play games and they have a store too.


I’ve featured several of Oceanhouse Media’s Dr. Seuss book apps on obSEUSSed before.  They have done an excellent job of keeping the books simple and true to their original feeling while making them interactive for kids to touch and hear the words and sounds that go along with the story. They now have the ‘Read and record’ feature so you can record your voice reading and play it back with the book.


And I can’t forget our favorite official Dr. Seuss board game creators. Wonder Forge has creative and classic games for preschoolers and grade school children. Just take a look at their site featuring all their games.


I hope you enjoy visiting these Dr. Seuss experts when you’re ready for some Seusstastic fun. Even though I haven’t planned anything other than reading, I know I can pull up The Cat in the Hat on PBS.com, or have my kids play a Dr. Seuss book app or pull out a board game without any planning – or craft supply gathering- necessary.

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Dr. Seuss Enterprises or any of these companies in any way. I have not been compensated by them for this post. I enjoy their resources and hope you will too.