Read Across America Day - Make a Wocket for Your Pocket

Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2) is Read Across America Day, where schools and libraries all over the country celebrate early literacy. Some places have kids dress up as their favorite characters, and they eat Green Eggs and Ham for lunch, or wear crazy socks (like Fox in Socks). 

As for me, it's usually a storytime with a craft. Since most Dr. Seuss books are super long (seriously, try to get through Fox in Socks and still have your toddlers paying attention), it's hard to pick some that will work. For my kids, I did:

 
The Foot Book - not one of my personal favorites, but the kids loved it. The surprise hit of the day! They all told me how they had feet, and their dolls had feet, and their cats had feet, and Mom has feet, and we counted the feet of every stuffed animal, doll, and little brother in the room.
 
A Great Day for Up - illustrated by Quentin Blake, so we talked about how Dr. Seuss wrote the words and drew the pictures for most of his books, but this one was illustrated by someone different.

There's A Wocket in my Pocket - some of the kids loved this one, others didn't quite get it. ("There can't be a ZLOCK behind the CLOCK! There's no such thing as a zlock!") Even the resistant ones loved making their own wockets, though. We used clothespins from the dollar store, feathers, foam stickers, and googly eyes. I actually didn't have any pockets, but we decided it could be a zeater for my sweater. (One little one also didn't have pockets, and ended up making a goot for her boot, and a lirt for her skirt.)

 Here's what my wocket ended up looking like. You need:

• Clothespins
• Googly eyes
• Assorted decorating bits, like feathers, foam stickers, or sequins
• Glue
• Crayons or markers (optional)  

If you use the springy kind of clothes pins, you can make the face on either end, because it'll clip on either way. If you have peg clothespins, make sure the face is at the closed end, so you can tuck him in your pocket.


I also try to do themed songs and fingerplays with my stories, and this week, I lovingly ripped them off from a couple other librarian blogs.  This song is from Miss Meg's Storytime.

I Don’t Like Green Eggs and Ham
(to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down”)

 I don’t like Green Eggs and Ham
Eggs and Ham, Eggs and Ham
I don’t like Green Eggs and Ham
Sam I Am!

Would you like them here or there?
Here or there, here or there?
Would you like them anywhere?
Green eggs and ham?

I don’t want them here or there
Here or there, here or there
I don’t want them anywhere
Sam I am!

You should try green eggs and ham
Eggs and ham, eggs and ham
You should try green eggs and ham
You might like them!

And this fingerplay is from Mel's Desk:

One little cat on a sunny day
Put on his hat and went out to play
Two little cats when the sky turned dark
Put on their hats and went to the park
Three little cats when the sky turned blue
Put on their hats and went to the zoo
Four little cats by the kitchen door
Put on their hats and went to the store
Five little cats on a sunny dayPut on their hats and they all ran away.

Yes, I made my own little hats. Not as easy as it looks, but they worked! I put a hat on each finger as we said each line, and we counted that our little hats had the same one, two, three red stripes; and one, two white stripes, as the Cat in the Hat's hat.

Thoughts:

Overall, it went well. I do three different storytimes - a BabyTime, a StoryTime, and a Pajama Time (at night, for working parents - this one is only once a month). I use the same theme for all three, but usually different books. But, honestly, I have parents bringing older kids to BabyTime, and babies to StoryTime, so they end up being pretty similar. I can't do a "bounce your baby!" rhyme when half the group is 3 years old. But, everyone seems happy with it, so we'll keep going.

Also: this post took me forever to write. Maybe I'll get quicker at it? Hmm...