Thursday, March 3, 2011

A Heartfelt "Thank You" to the Good Doctor

Quick - what's your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

The Cat in the Hat?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas?
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish?
Green Eggs and Ham?


I love them all.  There are so many "favorites" out there! Theodore Seuss Geisel wrote over 40 children's books. I'll bet the vast majority of English-speaking people age 60 and under would cite one or more of his books as giving them a boost in their early reading.

Yesterday, March 2, schools across America celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by hosting all kinds of reading events. While most of those events occur at elementary schools, Oregon City High School, where I teach, go into the act, too.

We asked teachers to allow students to read for 12 minutes in every class. Students take 5 classes, and we have over 2000 students at our school, so when you do the math:

12 minutes x 5 classes x 2000+ students = over 2000 hours of reading in one high school in one day!

Here's a link to the school website with some photos and an article about the kids and the reading.
3 girls reading during PE class during
"Read Across OCHS" day

If you'd like some wonderful books and activities to share with young readers, check out the read-along going on over at "Helping Little Hands." My daughter, Polly, hosts this blog, and she's posting links to books and activities galore for the month of March, in honor of National Reading Month. Stay tuned...I'll be posting a grandma/grandpa related reading activity for children later in the month!

Thank you Dr. Seuss! And...happy reading!

1 comment:

Dorothy said...

"Horton Hatches the Egg"