We decided to throw a birthday party for Dr. Seuss at the library. We started off by watching the animated version of Dr. Seuss' environmental story, The Lorax. This film was about 25 minutes long and was a good way to occupy our party guests while staff set up the rest of the party. NOTE: My library has a movie license which allows us to show films like this to the public. Don't try this in your library without a license!
After the movie families were invited to participate in a number of fun activities. We had lot of birthday cake and juice to enjoy:
Doesn't it look yummy? And only two cake spills on the floor all night. Huzzah!
There was a craft project for kids to work on as well. We made clovers out of pom-poms and pipe cleaners with a speck for the Whos to live on, as seen in Horton Hears a Who. This was a fairly simple craft - no cutting, no drawing, just two drops of glue. We did use tacky glue for its extra strength which required some grown-up help to keep the glue under control. We also put out several coloring and activity sheets, all of which were found at the official Dr. Seuss website. Seussville.com is a great resource for anyone planning a special Dr. Seuss event, and has lots of online games and activities for anyone who simply wants to have fun exploring the world of Dr. Seuss.
We planned three party games for kids to enjoy too. First was a fishing game based on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I made eight fish out of paper, two each to represent the titular fish, and attached a magnet to each. We put the fish in a "pond" (in this case, a large plastic bin) and then let the kids go fishing. We made a pole out of a wooden dowel, duct tape for the handle, some yarn, and another magnet. One pleasant surprise of the evening came when one of the older kids, who was having a blast with the fishing game, took the time to teach one of the younger kids how to properly hold the fishing pole with the tip in the air so that the string would hang down. He was very patient and the whole incident was so sweet.
The next game was perfect for the youngest kids in attendance - the Yertle the Turtle stacking game! Based on the book of the same name, this game recreates the story of how Yertle forced all of the turtles to stand on each other's backs while he sat on top, king of all that he could see. We covered four boxes of different sizes in colored paper, and then attached images of the turtles from the story to each box. Kids could then try to stack all of the boxes on top of each other. They seemed to have a lot of fun making towers of turtles and then taking the tower apart again. Amazingly enough, we didn't have a single incident where the tower was knocked over in a violent fashion!
Our last game, which came from the Seussville website, was a big hit as well. We played a version of pin the tail on the donkey based on Green Eggs and Ham. We printed and enlarged the image of the platter with ham, and then laminated the poster. Next I made some green eggs out of construction paper. These were also laminated. We then blindfolded the kids, spun them around, and they tried to stick the green eggs on the platter. The laminate meant that would could keep putting reuse the eggs and the poster since the tape would easily peel off of the pieces without damaging them. Of course, none of the fun and games happen if it weren't for Dr. Seuss' books. I set aside a few of his books just for this party and put them out on a table for everyone to enjoy.
All in all, the party was a great success! We had lots of activities for the kids to do, but none of them were terribly difficult to create. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and I'd love to do a party like this again next year.
At the party there were several moments where I was reminded why we plan programs like this for families. There was the moment described above where the older child mentored a younger child at the fishing game. There were lots of sweet moments where parents had kids in their laps as they curled up with a Dr. Seuss book. (Book appreciation! A literacy skill!) And there was the time when I overheard a parent comment to another that they had never been to the library before and would maybe have to start coming back. There are so many good reasons to plan awesome program like this. There is only one question left to answer: What do I plan next?
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