Holiday Lesson Plan: Read Across America Day: Dr.

Seusss Birthday (March 2nd)

Grade: 1st Grade

Student Learner Objectives:

Students will learn about the importance of reading.
Students will learn about the famous man that wrote all of the books that they have come to enjoy.
Students will listen multiple stories written by Dr. Seuss.
Students will sing Happy, Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss.
Students will identify word families that are found throughout Dr. Seusss books.
Students will write a short story about the places they would go, after reading the story Oh the Places
Youll Go.
Students will also draw a picture of that place.
Students will compute how old Dr. Seuss would be if he were still alive.
Students will graph assorted goldfish by color and see which had the most, etc. (in relation to One fish,
Two fish)
Students will discuss what their favorite Dr. Seuss Book is.
Students will construct a Cat and the Hat, Hat.

Materials:
Oh the Places Youll Go- Seuss. Oh, the Places You'll Go! New York: Random House, 1990. Print.
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish -Seuss. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. New York:
Beginner, a Division of Random House, 1960. Print.
Cat and the Hat - Seuss. The Cat in the Hat. New York: Random House, 1985. Print.
Happy, Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss - "Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!" Songs for Teaching Blog. Songs for
Teaching, 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://songsforteaching.net/dr-seuss-birthday-song/>.
Construction paper (red, white, and black) for the Cat Hat.
Scissors and glue
Goldfish Crackers and graph worksheet
Oh the Places Youll Go worksheet and drawing frame
Smartboard generate word families.

Curricular Connections:
Reading, Writing, English, Math, Art, and Music

Procedure:
1. Read the story, The Cat and the Hat (Reading)
2. Review the different word families that are found within the story. (English)
3. Introduce the special day that you are celebrating and continue with the Happy, Happy Birthday
Dr. Seuss song. (music)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Students will construct Cat and the Hat, Hats that they can wear throughout the day (art)
Ask the students how old they think Dr. Seuss would be if he were still alive
Work through the problem to figure out how old he would be exactly (Math)
To continue with the math lesson, we would read One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
Students will then collect data on a cup of gold fish they are given.
They will analyze how many they have of each color and which color they have the most of.
Read Oh the Places Youll Go
After reading the story students will generate their own story about somewhere they may like
to go.
12. Students will also draw a picture that goes along with their story to hang up in the classroom.
13. To wrap up we will have a class discussion about what our favorite Dr. Seuss Book is and why.
Song Lesson: Happy, Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

(Sing to the Tune of If Youre Happy and You Know It)
Theres a wocket in your pocket, Dr. Suess
There are red and blue fish, green fish in there, too
Theres the Cat in the Hat with Horton and the Whos,
Singing Happy, Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!
Oh no, Thing One and Thing Two are on the loose
Theres a fox thats wearing socks but has no shoes
Theres the Lorax and the Sneetches standing with Bartholomew
Singing Happy, Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!
There goes Thidwick, hes the Big-Hearted Moose
And the boy who ran the zoo, hes Gerald McGrew
Theres the Grinch and Cindy Lou on their way to Solla Sollew
Singing Happy, Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

Procedure for teaching the song:

1. Introduce the song, have the students listen to it once,
2. Remind the students that the tune of the song goes along to the song of If Youre Happy and you
Know it.
3. Students will then sing along the second time around (Please join me in singing Happy Birth Dr.
Seuss)
4. After singing the song, ask students if they recognized any terms from any Dr. Seuss books they
have read or heard

Teaching Tips and Information:

1. Theodor Seuss Geisel; March 2, 1904 September 24, 1991) was an American writer and
illustrator best known for authoring popular childrens books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His
work includes several of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million
copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

Common Core State Standards:

Writing:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.3
Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some
details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of
closure.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.2
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and
provide some sense of closure.
Reading:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.4
Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.

Math:
CCSS.Math.Content.1.OA.A.1
Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking
from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using
objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.