Alliterations and Tongue Twisters

Fun in First Grade had kids use alliteration to write crazy tongue twisters, using their names. Click here to see the full activity!

Yertle the Turtle Stacking Game

photo credit: education.com

Read Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss. Then, play Yeartle the Turtle Stacking Game! "In the story, greedy Yertle makes a stack of turtles for a throne, but in the end he stacks too many and they all come toppling down. Visit Education.com for instructions on how to make and play the game!

Click here to find out how to crack a walnut shell in half, for your turtle, without damaging it!

The Butter Battle

butter making photos via chica and joe

After reading The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, shake up your own butter with a bit of science! Kids will have fun watching a liquid change into a tasty solid!

Pour 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream in a clean jar. (Make sure the jar is no more than halfway full, so that the cream has plenty of room.) Then shake, shake, shake! Note: 1/4 cup of cream = about 1 Tbsp of butter. 

Chica and Joe: "As you shake, you’ll notice the cream go through several fascinating stages. Feel free to open the jar and take a peek whenever you notice a new texture." Check out their butter photos above! Click here to see the various stages that Chica and Joe encountered. 

After you make your butter, ask kids, "Do you prefer your toast butter-side up or butter-side down?" ;)

Celebrate Seuss!

1. Click here for The Lorax Activities!

2. Make a wocket in a pocket - Place Called Kindergarten!

3. Create pipe cleaner finger puppets: The Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2. - Craft Jr.

4. Whip your own gooey oobleck for Bartholomew and the Oobleck!

5. Make your own pet fish for One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. via Wild about Kindergarten

Or mixup a healthy Pink Yink Ink Drink:

ingredients: ½ pint fresh or ½ cup frozen blackberries or blueberries, 1 cup milk or vanilla soy milk, 6 fresh strawberries (green tops removed) or ½ cup frozen strawberries, thawed, 1 tsp honey or agave nectar

directions: Put the blackberries in a blender and puree them. Pour into a large glass. Put the milk, strawberries and honey in a blender and blend. Pour the strawberry mixture carefully on top of the blackberry mixture and swirl with a spoon. via Kids' Cooking Shop

6. Oh, the Places You'll Go! Write and draw a picture of a place you’d like to go. Encourage kids to be super creative! (ex: outer space, inside of a volcano, etc.)

7. Make a color feelings book for your "many colored days!"

8. Balance apples on your head! Can you get 10 Apples Up On Top!? If not, take a photo of yourself and put however many apples you'd like on your head! via Fun Handprint Art. Balancing Apples via Gail Pomare

The Lorax Activities

Inspiring Activities via Web Teaching:

1. Throughout the story Dr. Seuss only lets us see parts of the Once-ler (his eyes and hands). Draw a full body picture of what you think this greedy guy looks like. 

2. Dr. Seuss loved to make up his own words. Write your own definitions for the following words from the story: moof, gruvvulous, slupps, snergelly, rippulous, snargled, cruffulous, smogulous, biggering

3. Imagine you were the Lorax and were chosen to speak for the trees. What would you say to persuade the Once-lers to stop cutting down the trees?

4. Make a Lorax mustache!

5. Write instructions for how to plant a tree. 

6. Design a seed packet for truffula seeds.

Non-Newtonian Glop aka Oobleck

Non-Newtonian Glop, Oobleck, Cornstarch Quicksand, they're all the same strange substance that make us question: Is it a liquid or a solid?! You can smack it, walk on it, punch it, and try to roll it into a ball. Yet, it still drips off of your fingertips. 

Now, are you ready to make your own?! You can find instructions at Steve Spangler.

Steve Spangler tested oobleck on a speaker and it danced! Above is a photo from Housing a Forest's experiment. They added color to their oobleck! Visit Housing a Forest and Steve Spangler for instructions!