The Lorax and other fun Earth Day Activities for Kids!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not”.

Have you read The Lorax (or seen the movie)? It's yet another wonderful Seuss book and one that would be perfect to share with the kids for Earth Day (April 22nd). As a high school biology teacher, I can attest to the fact that the book is great for teaching about topics relating to ecology, the environment, sustainability, etc.--even for "BIG" kids! 

In addition to just reading the book (and/or watching the movie), you can visit Seussville's Lorax Project! There is great information, plus all kinds of games & activities. There are some great classroom activity ideas here too.

 Then, for a fun crafty activity, you could also make this adorable Truffula forest!! 

If the Lorax isn't for you, there are so many other wonderful ideas!  As always, Tip Junkie has a fabulous round-up of Earth Day crafts & recipes!. And, I have a post on Savvy Sassy Moms today with a few other simple Earth Day ideas.

What eco-friendly/Earth Day activities do YOU like to do with your kids?

Dr. Seuss Birthday Dinner

After a fun day of Dr. Seuss crafting, watching the "Cat in the Hat Knows a lot about That", and reading, we topped things off with a Dr. Seuss birthday dinner.

Green eggs & ham with Cat in the Hat bow-tie pasta salad. A little pinch of powdered food coloring goes a long way! Mix in with the yolk mixture to get green eggs and then with the dressing on the pasta for some red bow-ties!

 

 Mmmm...Little Brother sure did like his green egg yolk! :)

 We topped dinner off with Things 2 & 1 cupcakes! (Inspired by this post and perfect after our Thing handprint craft)

Big Brother was quite fond of them! (Not so fond of green eggs though)

 

Happy Birthday to You, Dr. Seuss

"If we didn't have birthdays, you wouldn't be you. 

If you'd never been born, well then what would you do?"

*All kinds of other Dr. Seuss fun food ideas here.

Dr. Seuss Crafts & Activities

We're having so much fun celebrating Dr. Seuss--reading lots of fun Seuss books, coloring some pictures, watching some "Cat in the Hat", and making a few fun crafts:

Our Family Foot Book

 and Thing 1 and Thing 2 handprints (inspired by this Stuff by Ash post)!

 

Aren't they SO cute?! I love them! :)

In the post about "Reading Week", I shared quite a few Seuss-tastic sites from which to get fun Dr. Seuss activity ideas. But, I also wanted to highlight some of the great things floating around the "blogosphere". Here are some of my favorites:

 Adorable Horton clovers from First Born Insanity.

A Lorax Truffula Forest from Frugal Family Fun!

A "Ten Apples Up on Top" early preschool counting activity from I Can Teach My Child.

Simply adorable Seuss blocks from Sugar Bee Craft Edition.

 

 Make an easy Cat in the Hat headband from Roots and Wings.

Or, if you are looking for a fancier Cat Hat, try this one from Mama Lusco!

And, if you're looking for a whole unit's worth of activities, 2 Teaching Mommies and What the Teacher Wants have developed great ones, complete with free printables for you!! Fantastic!

If you've made any Seuss-tastic ideas, please leave a comment & share!!

Celebrate Dr. Seuss with Fun Foods!

Oh say, can you say, Today is a very special day! 

The birthday of Dr. Seuss is cause for celebration...

And, making fun foods will bring jubilation!

So, grab a pot or a pan, 

bring your kids (and your man).

Enjoy sweet cakes or silly green ham...

and do something fun with your whole fam!

Here's some inspiration:

  

The Food Lab makes an incredible Dr. Seuss cake!

 

The fabulous Alison at Oopsey-Daisy made green eggs & ham as part of her Seuss-extravaganza!

 Or, how about these sweet green eggs from The Girl who Ate Everything!

Make fun cupcakes with a wocket in your pocket from Southern Plate!

Or, make Good Life Eats' cupcakes of Thing 2 and Thing 1.

 

And Everything Sweet has some very Seuss-tastic cake pops to check out!

 The Amazing Mess made these adorable (& I'm sure very tasty) Cat in the Hat treats.

And, can you believe these Dr. Seuss Pancakes from Jenni Price illustration?! WOW!

Have YOU made any fun Dr. Seuss celebration treats?

*You can see our birthday celebration foods here! :) 

Make your own Foot Book!

As part of our reading week activities, we made our very own "Foot Book" inspired from one of our very favorite Seuss classics. If you've read the blog for awhile, you know I'm a sucker for hand & footprint crafts, so making a foot book with our feet was a perfect activity!

 

Materials:

-card stock, tempera (washable) paint, paintbrush, marker, stapler and/or glue, and feet! 

 

We used 3 sheets of cardstock, folded in half like a book. It helps to have your wording at least roughly planned out ahead of time so you can figure out how many sheets you need.

Then, I painted big brother's feet for the first round of pages!  

We had to make it in shifts to let the paint dry (it would be faster to have the pages cut, do it all at once, then glue pages back to back).

Daddy, Little Brother, and I all did our footprints too! :)

 

 Once all the prints were dry, I stapled the pages together (and added a little glue for good measure). Then, wrote the words about our lovely family feet.

 You can see "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish" had some influence on our Family Foot Book too.

I thought I'd spare you pictures of every page, but here are the words to "Our Family Foot Book":

One foot, Two feet

Red foot, Blue feet

Left foot, Right foot

A foot that is BIG, a foot that is small,

 Daddy's foot is the biggest foot of us all!

Feet. feet. feet.

Our family's feet are pretty neat!

 Have you made any fun Dr. Seuss-themed crafts or activities? For more inspiration, you can check out the roundup post of all kinds of Dr. Seuss fun.

*Linked to some of these great sites and the Simply Create Contest.

Favorite Seuss Books

It's Reading Week here on Mom Endeavors! Throughout the week, I'll be sharing some of our favorite books from various categories. So, to start things off, here's a list of our favorite from the one and only, Dr. Seuss:

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!

The Foot Book

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?

 I love this one because I remember reading it to my little sister (who is 7 years younger). She would get such a kick out of the tongue-twisting antics!

Oh, Say Can You Say?

This one is a GREAT teaching tool for Ecology or Environmental Science--even at the high school level! It would definitely be a great one to read as part of some Earth Day activities!

The Lorax
Perhaps somewhat cheesy and cliche', but I think this book makes such a fantastic high school or college graduation present!!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Thanks so much for stopping by to have a look, now please do share your favorite Dr. Seuss book!

Reading Week

What?! What's that you say? This week is Dr. Seuss's birthday?!

 

Yes, it's true! The man behind the wonderful characters & rhyming tongue-twisters was born on March 2nd! So, to celebrate (and in conjunction with Read Across America)I'm declaring this "Reading Week" on the blog! I'll be highlighting some of our favorite books and (hopefully) some fun Seuss themed activities.

If you'd like to join in the fun, here are some sites to get you started:

- Seussville is a FANTASTIC site for all things "Seuss". Check it out for all kinds of Seuss-tastic fun!

 

- One of the PBS Kids' Shows is "Cat in the Hat". On the site, you can find all kinds of activity ideas. And, on March 2nd, PBS will run a 2 hour "Cat in the Hat" marathon.

- If you're thinking about doing some Seuss-inspired baking, Katie from Good Life Eats might spark some inspiration for you.

- And, you can check out "ObSEUSSed" for all kinds of fun ideas!

Hope you stop back by this week to share in our reading week!

Are YOU planning anything fun to celebrate Dr. Seuss or reading this week?