Dr. Seuss Crafts by obSEUSSed

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is just a few weeks away.  March 2 falls on a Saturday this year so it will be a great day to celebrate by doing crafts and activities at home with my kids. I’m sure we will be celebrating for several weeks. I’m helping plan a big Dr. Seuss style carnival for our school read-a-thon mid March and will share more about that soon.

When I started this blog, I wanted it to be a place to share craft ideas and activities inspired by Dr. Seuss. I also wanted to share other children’s book crafts and activities to keep kids excited about reading.

I created the Dr. Seuss Link Collection as a place for bloggers to share those Seuss inspired ideas.  Make sure you take a look at nearly 300 fabulous ideas that bloggers have shared. I’ll be featuring a few of them in the next few weeks.


Dr. Seuss Ideas on Pinterest
Then Pinterest came along and it has become the place I’ve gathered more than 1,500 Dr. Seuss crafts, activities, snacks, party ideas and more.  I’m blown away by the creative ideas I’ve seen.  I’ve loved to see other people just as obSEUSSed or even more obSEUSSed than I am. This love of Dr. Seuss connects us all.
If you have access to Pinterest you must browse through some of these ideas I’ve been gathering.  They are overflowing on one board so I am in the process of splitting the pins onto more distinct boards.  This is the best place to find all your Dr. Seuss inspiration.


I hope you’ll pick up a book and read to a child and plan an activity to go along with it. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Reading is the most important part.

Here are a few of the projects I’ve created and shared on obSEUSSed. I hope you find some ideas to help you get started.

Click on a picture below for more details about the projects.

Oh the Thinks You Can Think Dr. Seuss Activities and App Review

“Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!,” a book originally written in 1975 by Dr. Seuss, is now an interactive book app kids can read and play on their Apple devices.



Oh, the Thinks You Can Think App Review:
My kids and I love reading the classic Dr. Seuss hardback books and now I can’t believe I can carry all the interactive books in my pocket or purse for my kids to read and play while shopping and traveling around town.  I’ve got my Dr. Seuss collection in my pocket! Instead of saying“There’s a Wocket in My Pocket,” I should say “there’s a touch in my clutch.” 

The Oh, the Thinks You Can Think omBook app has a variety of kid-friendly interactive elements. It can read to your child or your child can read it by themselves and go at their own pace. My kids, ages 5 and 7, easily flipped (swiped) through the electronic pages.

Oceanhouse Media,the creators of omBook apps, did an excellent job at keeping all of Dr. Seuss’ original illustrations. This specific story had question marks that would pop up for the kids to touch to progress the story on each page.  My kids have played with this book over and over making sure to tap each question mark causing pictures to move and pop up, and tap each picture on the page making the vocabulary word pop up. When it tells you to “think right” the question mark appears on the right encouraging the child to tap it, “think yellow” they tap the question mark and yellow birds appear.  Or my favorite, “Think about beautiful schlopp with a cherry on top” and you tap the schlopp causing a cherry to appear. How fun is that?

Get little ones excited about reading:
The great literacy connection for this story is that as your child thinks about the words, they tap the question marks to immediately see what they thought about. They make it happen. They think it, they see it. Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! 

The Oh, the Thinks You Can Think omBook app is a Seusstastic way to keep children imagining and exploring the world of Dr. Seuss while experiencing early literacy and thinking skills.



More Dr. Seuss Apps:
Oceanhouse Media, in partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises, plans to create 44 of the author’s books as omBooks (Oceanhouse Media Books). There are 34 Dr. Seuss apps available right now including a handful of free apps to get you started. Check out Dr. Seuss’ ABC’s and the Bday Camera (photo app). Oh, the Thinks You Can Think omBook app is available for $3.99.


Disclosure: I received a free version of the “Thinks” app to let my kids try for this review. We had already been playing with multiple Oceanhouse Media Dr. Seuss apps (they are on the top selling apps list and have an excellent reputation for great products) and have enjoyed the variety and interactivity of each one. 

They just released “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket” omBook app last week. What book do you think they’ll do next?

Giving Away 20 Dr. Seuss Apps:
Oceanhouse Media is giving away 20 of their Dr. Seuss apps to one random person who comments on their Facebook page by Aug. 31.  All you need to do is like their page and leave a comment of your favorite Dr. Seuss quote. Fun, quick and easy to enter. Take 1 minute now to share your favorite quote and enter. Contest details here.

Twitter Party:
Monday, Aug. 29 6 pm PST. Use hashtag #OMB2S to discuss back to school with @OceanhouseMedia and others on Twitter. These chats are fun and I am looking forward to participating.


 
Here are a few activities I came up with to go along with Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!


Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! Free Printable Worksheet:

Personal or classroom use only. Click on picture to enlarge then right click to “Save As” to your computer. You could also copy and paste into a ‘Word’ document.

Reality vs. Imaginary Thoughts:
Have children think up something real in the first thought bubble, then something pretend in the second thought bubble. Depending on their age they can draw pictures or write words. They could make a list or fill out several worksheets.  Get them thinking. They could draw pictures from the book (i.e. Schlopp or a Rink-Rinker-Fink) or make up their own.
 

A Great After School or Classroom Snack: Beautiful Schlopp with a Cherry on Top




Super easy to make Schlopp: Apple Sauce, 1-2 drops food coloring and an M&M for the cherry on top.



Balancing Activity:
Let the kids stack rocks or wood chips to see if they can balance them. Then ask if they would dare yank the tooth of a Rink-Rinker-Fink, see if they can pull a rock out of the middle of the pile to see what happens.



Zoo Field Trip:
We went to the zoo today and I asked the kids the question from the book, “How much water can 55 elephants drink?” My son answered, “I don’t know, maybe 135 tanks. Then they use their trunks to give each other showers.” Ask your kids that question too the next time you visit the zoo.


Posting this project at the following blogs with more great ideas: