Dr. Seuss Birthday Activities and Fun

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Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Dr. Seuss Did You Know?

1. Theodore “Ted” Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts, “Seuss” was also his mother’s maiden name.

2. Dr. Seuss’ editor Bennett Cerf bet him he couldn’t write a book using 50 or fewer words. The result is 1960’s “Green Eggs and Ham.”

3.  Dr. Seuss has an even bigger impact on pop culture than you might think. The first recorded instance of the word “nerd” is in Seuss’ ‘If I Ran the Zoo’ published in 1950.

Let's Celebrate

Let's draw Cat In the Hat! Follow these visual cues to draw the Cat! Too many steps or too difficult? Try this fun Cat In the Hat craft.

Paper plates, tissue paper or construction paper, and crayons is all you need to make this fun Cat In The Hat craft. 

1. Color the outside of the paper plate black and draw a face in the middle. 

2. Work on pattern copying while making his hat.  Use red tissue paper, rip into small pieces and crumple to promote hand skills.  Or you can color every other stripe red and white or practice cutting and cut stripes of red and white paper then glue to a hat shape. 

Hop-Pop, Cat-Hat Group Activity

Rhyming is the key to Dr. Seuss books! Tape pieces of paper on the floor, on  the paper/tape write words (hat, cat, hop, pop, hit, sit, lap, tap, dog, log, tin, pin).  You can use one set of rhyming words or too make the activity a little more interesting, add multiple rhyming words.

-Pair up in teams of two.

- Now one team member has to pick a word and the other has to find the rhyming word.  The team member standing on the word can call out the word and try to help their partner. 

- Teams take turns finding a match until all words are gone. 

- Once all the words are used by the students in your group, ask one student to switch their spot.  Now there partner has to find the matching rhyme word and move to it. 

- A different way to play- give each team a word- When you say go they have to move toward the word and it's rhyming word- Who can get there first?

Team work, socialization, and motor skills.  If finding rhyming words is too difficult, use upper case and lower case letters instead.  Work on math skills, with equations written on one card and the answer on another.  So 4-2 is on one card and your teammate has to find the answer, 2 and stand on it. 

Add animal walks, hopping, or jumping to you cards instead of walking!

Compiled by Lisa Walker OTR

Story Starter: Inspiration for handwriting practice or creative writing/thinking. Try it next time you find yourself waiting in line or in traffic or need an idea to write about.




Group Activity:

Have a dressing relay race!  Standing in one spot with a pile of clothes, who can get dressed first? Of course, make sure clothes are large enough that they fit over what your children wear to school.

Not Just a Cup!

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Not Just A Cup
How many activities can you do with a simple cup or two?  Here are just a few and all you need are some plastic cups!
1. Stack a cup pyramid- Place five on the bottom, then four on top, three, two then one.  How do you knock it down?  Use your motor planning skills, upper body and trunk strength and control!
- Lying prone on a scooterboard- Ready, Set, Go! Can your child      knock down the pyramid in one push of the scooter? Try sitting up if using your arms is too difficult. 
- Laying on your stomach in front of the pyramid- Can your child blow the cups down? Try using a straw to blow the cups down.  Upper body, neck, trunk strength and oral motor control at work here!
- Sitting or standing in front of the pyramid- Go bowling! Roll or bounce a ball, or crumple up paper and try to knock them down! Bilateral coordination, motor planning, and strength all in one activity!
2. Cup miniature golf- Miniature golf anywhere! All you need is a cup as the hole and a ping pong ball! Can you get a hole in one? How is that eye hand coordination?
3. Cup Stack with a Twist- Write a letter on the outside of each cup.  Now have your child stack the cups in order from A to Z, write a word on the board, have them find the letters and stack!  Visual motor skills at work!
Try any of these activities during group or as a team.  Work together to set up the pyramid or relay race to knock them down!

Product Highlight
Cup-A-Cup is a fun, clever way to work on visual processing and response speed. Game includes 9 cups each with a circle, square or triangle, in blue, yellow or red, printed on the bottom. The two dice are marked with those same shapes and colors.  So the object is to be the first player to grab the cup whose bottom shape completes the set indicated by the throw on the dice. If a red circle and a red square are thrown all players should be racing for the red triangle cup. And if a yellow square and blue triangle are thrown, be the first to pick up the red circle. First person to collect 4 cups is the winner! After the game is over, try stacking the cups. It is a fun and very motivating way to build arm, shoulder and trunk stability and control.

Compiled by Lisa Walker OTR

Let's Do Some Laundry!

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Let's Do Some Laundry
Who says doing laundry can't be fun? There are so many different activities you can do with some laundry, whether it is a group or individual session.  Here are a few!
Laundry Obstacle: You need larger clothing that will fit over your child's and obstacle course equipment.  Practice dressing while participating in sensory motor obstacle.   After setting up the obstacle course, place articles of clothing at each spot. To start your child has to put on a button down shirt, once the shirt is on and buttoned, jump five times forward.  Now stop and put on and button pants, then walk across the balance beam.  Now pull on a pair of socks and crawl through a tunnel.  At the end of the tunnel put on a pair of shoes!
Motor planning, dressing, bilateral coordination and fine motor manipulation all in one course!!
Too many steps?  Instead of an obstacle course have a dressing relay race.  Standing in one spot with a pile of clothes, who can get dressed first? Of course, make sure clothes are large enough that they fit over what your children wear to school.
Match and Fold Relay: Bring your clean socks to group! Place a pile of socks in the middle of your children, now have two at a time find a matching pair and roll them together.  When they finished have the next child take a turn.  Move along the line until all of the socks are gone or all the children have had a turn. 
Instead of rolling the socks, hang up a clothesline, find the match and squeeze a clothespin to hang the pair on the clothing line. 
Letter Laundry:  You can either write the alphabet on pieces of paper, or use the bulletin board letter cut outs.  You can string or clothespin the letters to the clothesline.  Here are a few different ways to play!
- Make a second copy of the letters and place them around the room, your child has to find a letter and clothespin it to the hanging letter
-Have different pictures around the room, now your child has to take the picture and clothespin it to the matching starting letters
- Instead of letters, you can use numbers, shapes, or words!

Compiled by Lisa Walker OTR