5 fun & easy dr. seuss activities during read across America week

It’s almost Read Across America week! And that means it’s time to plan alllllll the fun Dr. Seuss activities for our first grade classroom. I love spending the week before Dr. Seuss’ birthday studying poetry, rhyming, and using his books as mentor texts during our writing time.

Here’s a look at 5 of my favorite ways to celebrate Dr. Seuss in kindergarten and first grade!

We start off our week making a “Write Like Dr. Seuss” anchor chart.

Not only does this help us identify what makes his books and texts different than other authors, but it also helps guide our lessons for the week. Once we identify the characteristics of Dr. Seuss books, we are ready to practice each of the characteristics in our own reading and writing!

Rhyming Activities

Dr. Seuss is famous for his rhyming books, which is one of the first things kids notice about his books. Plus, it’s one of the easier skills to copy, so it’s a great place to start!

First, we work on brainstorming rhyming words. We read The Cat in the Hat, and make word family rhyming hats. This can be done together with preschool and kindergarten kids. But by first grade, we do one together, and then they get their own hat to brainstorm rhyming words with.

Aren’t those so cute? Leave them as is, or cut out the hats for a fun display!

Easy Poetry: Rhyming Sentences & Writing Couplets

After we master matching rhyming words and listing rhyming words, we are ready to start writing poetry just like Dr. Seuss!

We start this Dr. Seuss activity by reading Hop on Pop. This book is the perfect introduction to poetry writing because of the pattern it’s written in….

Up, Pup
Pup is Up

The entire book is written in this pattern, so it gives kids a ton of exposure to rhyming sentences and makes it a great mentor text.

After the read aloud, I model how to create our own rhyming sentences. And we do it the same way Dr. Seuss did. First, I come up with two rhyming words. Then, I create a sentence using both words. Once we do 2 or 3 together, they are ready to practice their own rhyming sentences.

My first graders always have a lot of fun with this one!

One of the most popular Dr. Seuss activities in my first grade classroom is always writing couplets!

For this couplet activity, we brainstorm our two rhyming words and write them in the boxes…similar to what we did with the writing sentences. Then, we go back and write the couplet. We talk about how they should have similar beats. The rhyming sentences activity is a great activity to do right before the couplets and makes the couplets much easier!

For this one, we write the first 2 or 3 couplets together. The hardest part for them is counting the beats and making sure the rhyming words are at the end of each line. For additional support, you can have kids add dots under each syllable to check their beats.

After we do 2-3 together, they are released to write a few more on their own. These make great hallway displays during Read Across America week and would look so fun displayed with the rhyming hats from earlier in the week.

real & nonsense Word Sorts

During our reading time, we practice decoding words AND comprehending them so that we know if they are real words or nonsense words. Reading and sorting these fun and wacky words is a super engaging way to practice our nonsense word fluency during Read Across America week!

Notice the extra square that this friend added with his very own wacky, nonsense word! 🙂

Dr. Seuss Activities with Antonyms

You’ve probably read The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, but have you heard of the Dr. Seuss book called, The Foot Book?

This book typically comes as a board book and is great for younger kids, but I love using it in first grade too! We start by reading the book and talking about what Antonyms are. We chart the pairs of opposite words as we read.

After we finish reading and charting, I pair up the kids. They trace their feet and decide on a pair of opposite words to write and illustrate on their feet.

There is also an independent page for this that works great for a Dr. Seuss center or more independent practice.

We display all of these together in the hallway for Read Across America Week!

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Snacks

When Dr. Seuss’ birthday actually arrives, we celebrate all of our learning with some yummy snacks!

I used this food pen to draw the faces on the marshmallows!

You can find all of these literacy Dr. Seuss activities in my store!