For Other Professionals
NEA's Read Across America
The National Education Association's Read Across America Day is the nation's largest reading event, occurring each year on or near Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd). Reading Rockets is pleased to be a national partner of NEA's Read Across America project. To help mark the event at your school, we've gathered some resources you can use to celebrate reading on Read Across America Day and every day!
What you'll find here:
Seuss in the classroom
Classroom writing resources from Reading Rockets
- Celebrate Dr. Seuss and Music In Our Schools Month
Share music and playful rhythms to help students generate and organize writing ideas. - Pre-writing with Dr. Seuss
Seuss silliness is contagious! Spread it to your classroom writing centers. - Extra, Extra: Books on the Menu
Combine two great American treasures — Dr. Seuss and your local newspaper — for some reading and writing fun in your classroom or at home.
Classroom activities from NEA and Random House
- New! Read Across America 2013 calendar
- New! 2013 Read Across America "Hats Off to Reading" Activity Guide
- 2012 Read Across America Community Reading Chest Activity Guide
- 2011 Read Across America Science Explorabration Field Guide
- Reader's Oath
These classroom strategies incorporate Dr. Seuss books
- Elkonin Boxes (Hop on Pop)
Elkonin boxes help students build phonological awareness by segmenting words into sounds or syllables. - List-Group-Label (On Beyond Zebra)
List-group-label is a form of semantic mapping. The strategy encourages students to improve their vocabulary and categorization skills and organize concepts. - Onset/Rime Games (Fox in Socks)
Onset/rime games help children learn about word families, which can lay the foundation for future spelling strategies. See this related article: How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities (There's a Wocket in My Pocket) - Tape Assisted Reading (Green Eggs & Ham)
Tape assisted reading helps to build fluency skills, including proper phrasing and expression, and improve sight word recognition. - Word Hunts (Cat in the Hat)
Word hunts are one way to focus spelling study on patterns within words. Typically used within word study, word hunt activities engage students with texts they have previously read.
Resources from our sister site, AdLit.org
- Dr. Seuss for Older Students
"There is fun to be done!" along with learning when you bring Dr. Seuss into the secondary classroom. This article includes Seuss-inspired service learning ideas and activities.
Seuss at home
Go on a "Lorax" reading adventure! Our Lorax-themed reading adventure pack encourages hands-on fun and learning centered around a paired fiction (The Lorax) and nonfiction book (Tell Me, Tree). Create a collage from real twigs and branches or make a "poetree" and invite others to add their poems. Lorax reading adventure pack: All About Trees >
See our other Seuss-inspired reading adventure pack! Make a food mobile, throw a tasting party, or try your hand at writing a convincing ad to get a friend or family member to try something new. Green Eggs and Ham reading adventure pack >
Kids love hearing Dr. Seuss books over and over again — they're fun! The rhyming helps young children develop an ear for language and encourages word play. Nursery Rhymes: Not Just for Babies!
Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith: Inspired by Dr. Seuss
Poet Jack Prelutsky and illustrator Lane Smith collaborated on Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! — a story that Dr. Seuss had begun but never finished. Prelutsky wove Seuss' verses with his own. He says the book is a wonderful homage to teachers: "It's all about teachers — teachers teaching us how to think." Lane Smith created a new set of "hybrid" drawings — his unique style but with Seussian flourishes. "That was a real rare, fantastic experience. I think Seuss was probably a big influence on myself and Jon Scieszka. You can talk about Green Eggs and Ham or The Cat in the Hat. I mean it all goes back to that. That guy was the most subversive of all," says Smith.
Send an e-card
Send an e-card, featuring an illustration from the 2010 NEA Read Across America calendar, to your favorite readers and get them excited about this special day of reading!
Bookmarks in English and Spanish
These bookmarks look especially great on colored or glossy paper. The English version says, "Reading is a blast on Read Across America Day… and every day!" The Spanish version says, "Today we're going to Read Across America!"
Download English bookmark (400K PDF)*
Download Spanish bookmark (400K PDF)*
A video interview with Mrs. Seuss
Watch video clips from Reading Rockets' interview with Audrey Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, Theodor Geisel. It's a fascinating glimpse into the life of the man who's had a lasting influence on children's literature and American culture.
More Read Across America resources
- Discounted Dr. Seuss books (First Book Marketplace)
- Seussville (Random House)
- Dr. Seuss: An American Icon (NPR)
- Dr. Seuss Collection (UCSD)
- The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss (Amazon)
- The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss (Amazon)
- Dr.Seuss Collection (University of California, San Diego Library)
* To view this file, you'll need a copy of Acrobat Reader. Most computers already have it installed, or you can download it now.
