Today, March 1, 2013, is Read Across America Day at our school! Promoted by the National Education Association, this happens to be one of the most educational-disguised-as-so-much-fun days on most school calendars.
I could not find many photos of anything Dr. Seuss-related in our archives, which is weird considering T used to have all of these Dr. Seuss T-shirts that he wore constantly. However, I did find this wonderful photo from Halloween 2009. One of T’s friends was the Cat-in-the-Hat, her younger brother was Fish, and the parents (not pictured) were the Things. T is the little engineer there on the right.
While usually celebrated tomorrow, March 2, as this was Dr. Seuss’ birthday, that happens to land on a weekend this year. So our school along with several others moved it to Friday so that the kids can all partake of the wonderful reading, activities, and crafts that go along with this very special day dedicated to the promotion of literacy. Word.
Book Drive 2013 for ChildNet Youth Services in Long Beach, CA.
The earlier days of this year’s used book drive at T’s school.
Our book haul for the book drive. Yes, all of this for around $20! Don’t forget about the discount retailers and your local libraries for new and gently used books on the cheap!
T placing his donations on the shelves for his school’s used book drive. This was held as part of the activities for Read Across America 2013.
One of the first things our school did to promote Read Across America this year was to kick off a book drive a few weeks in advance for a local children’s charity. The idea here was for the kids to go through their books and donate one (or several) used books still in good condition toward the cause. However, since T and I just did this for our play group’s hand-me-down in January, we really didn’t have much to give from his stash. That’s OK though; I just took myself over to the closest TJ Maxx and our local library and bought about $20 of books in all reading levels and genres. Really, $20 toward helping kids develop a love of reading is worth the extra cost to me. It’s also way better than fighting with T to part with any more of his precious book stock.
Lots and lots of books! This was as of yesterday morning. Oh, the places so many kids will go now that they’ll have all of these books!
The next notice that came home for Read Across America was that the school would allow all of the kids to dress like their favorite literary character for the day. Since there’s rarely “free dress” days for everyone at school, I know T was excited for this one. Sadly, however, T’s in this rut of wanting to read those reader-style books that are more marketing materials for superheroes, Star Wars, or (fill in the blank here for whatever television show or movie that is popular amongst kids). I tried to explain to him that these were not “book characters” but to no avail. We touched on him perhaps dressing like the “Wimpy Kid” as we’ve actually read a couple of those books together, which I thought was a brilliant idea and entirely age-appropriate both. However, after hearing what he wanted to wear, I quickly realized he wanted to dress like some outfit he saw in the movie (read: not appropriate for the event), not in black and white like the drawings in the book. Sigh.
T as Spider-Man for Dress-Like-a-Literary-Character Day at school. Yeah, I know, not so literature-based, but given the TK age-range, T’s teacher loosened the guidelines a bit and allowed the kids to dress like any book character, including comic book characters. Still, no masks, props, or face paint allowed (there have to be a few rules after all).
So after all that, we were back to comic book characters. OK, totally more superhero than super-literary, I know, but after getting the OK from his teacher that these would be OK to choose from since they technically did originate in “books” (still, no masks or props allowed though!), I gave T a choice between two things: A Captain America T-shirt (that has an actual comic book on it, so going with the literary theme there at least); or dressing in his red Spider-Man T-shirt, red pants, and red light-up shoes. Well, I think it’s obvious which won out there. Oh, and in case you’ve not figured it out by now, yeah, I don’t make costumes.
T brought this project home yesterday. I guess they celebrated Read Across America Eve, too!
Need some ideas for Dr. Seuss activities with your own kids?
Today in class, T will get to do such things as make a “Cat-in-the-Hat” hat, listen to Dr. Seuss book after Dr. Seuss book being read aloud, and probably craft up some other artwork to go along with today’s theme. Also, our school’s PTA coordinated a cross-reading event; here, the older grade scholars (middle school) will go into the younger classes to read, and some 2nd and 3rd graders will go and read to the middle school classes aloud, too. Now that’s awesome, and a real definition of a read-across event if you ask me! T’s teacher asked all of the kids to bring in their favorite Dr. Seuss book for the event, so there’ll be at least 20 or so to pick from… or maybe they will be reading all day today!
T’s contribution to the Dr. Seuss lending library in his classroom for Read Across America Day 2013: The Nose Book.
After school, the fun will continue at a friend’s house for a Dr. Seuss “birthday party.” We had to miss last year, so we’re really looking forward to this one.
I hope you all have a Cat-tastic day, in every way, on Read Across America Day!
(I’ll post more photos later once I have them!)
RMT’ers: What are you doing this weekend with your kids to celebrate Read Across America 2013?
Real Mom Time (RMT) 