Celebrating Dr Seuss' Birthday: Math and Literacy Activities for Hop on Pop

Who doesn't love Dr Seuss books, right? They are full of goofy words and rhymes, unusual characters, and often teach pretty cool lessons! In celebration of Read Across America and Dr Seuss' birthday on March 2nd, baby bookworm and I read Hop on Pop and followed up with some math and literacy activities inspired by the book.

 

The great thing about Hop on Pop is that it's FULL of simple rhymes, which makes it an ideal match for children ages 3 and under. Here's how we learned from Hop on Pop by Dr Seuss:

1) We read the book together.

• I pointed out the rhyming words to baby bookworm on each page
• Since the words are repeated in the book, I asked her to find and point to each rhyming word as well

2) We played a rhyming game.

• We created two cards, one that said "yes" and another that said "no"
• I called out two words from the book such as "house" and "mouse"
• If the words rhymed, baby bookworm would hold up the "yes" card; if they did not rhyme she would hold up the "no" card

3) We created rhyming lists.

• I selected four of the rhyming words from the book
• I asked baby bookworm to name as many words as she could that rhymed with each of these words
• We wrote down our words on a white board

4) We made a graph based on the words that we rhymed

•  We tallied up the number of words in each group
• I asked baby bookworm which word had the most rhymes, and which had the least
• Then, we created a graph using dot paints; we put number of words along the y axis (vertical) and words along the x axis (horizontal) (she loved this activity so much that she asked to do it again the next day)

Graph

So I ask you now: What are you doing to celebrate Dr Seuss' birthday? What is your favorite Dr Seuss book?

 

 

Sharing at: 





An Easy School Bus Project to Help Teach Shapes, Colors, and Counting

I'm happy to introduce my very first guest post, written by Ms Maria who has been a preschool teacher for nearly 30 years.  She has taught in a private preschool setting and for the Head Start program. 

Today she shares with us a quick lesson that she uses in her classroom to help strengthen young childrens' knowledge of colors, shapes, and counting.

                                 ********************************************************

In my classroom I use this activity with the children to introduce several learning concepts in the same lesson. 

We begin by reading a Donald Crews book called School Bus.  It tells of the travels of school buses in the course of a day.  It is a book that I generally read at the beginning of the school year since children are just becoming accustomed to riding the big yellow bus all on their own.

Following the story, we do a school bus project that incorporates math skills.

What you will need to do this project:
1. Black, red, yellow, blue, and green construction paper
2. Scissors
3. A glue stick

Prior to doing the project with your students or child, you will need to cut the yellow paper into the shape of a bus.  Then cut out 1 blue rectangle for the door of the bus; cut out 2 black circles for the wheels; cut out 3 green squares for windows; cut out 4 small red triangles for lights.  If your child is older you can also add an octagon for the stop sign.

Once you have everything cut out, you can then begin the project with the child.  The child will glue each object onto the yellow bus.  While doing so, ask the child a few questions such as: "Where does the door belong?" or "Where do the wheels go?" 

Don't forget to review the colors and shapes of each object with your child, and to count everything as you go along!

A school bus project that teaches colors, shapes, and counting

You can even follow up the activity with another story.  My favorite is Wheels on the Bus because my students enjoy it so much.

                                    ********************************************************

Happy learning everyone!