MARCH CURRICULUM

Start out the month of March by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd)

Dr. Seuss books listed by reading levels

I vividly remember reading Dr. Seuss books as a child, and I have been looking forward to the day Aikman can read those books to me! We have a fairly extensive collection of Dr. Seuss books, and I assumed that most of them were for “just learning to read” beginning readers. Was I wrong!
I’ve been carefully reviewing the reading levels for the Dr. Seuss Bright and Early and “I Can Read It By Myself” Beginner book series. A majority of these books are by Dr. Seuss (or his alias), but several others are by the Berenstains and a few others. I determined the reading level for each book using the Accelerated Reader grade level equivalent. The books are listed in numerical order, based upon the reading level. So if a book is listed at the top of a section then it is easier to read than a book at the bottom.
Late Kindergarten: **These books are primarily sight word books. Each page contains one 5 word or less sentence.
The Foot Book
The Ear Book
Great Day for Up!
The Eye Book
Bears In the Night
Bears on Wheels

Beginning 1st grade:
**These books are more structured. They contain longer sentences with sight words from the Dolch 1st grade list, CVC words, and a few long vowel words.
Inside Outside Upside Down
Hand Hand Fingers Thumb
Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!
The Berenstain Bears and The Spooky Old Tree
Snug House, Bug House
Fred and Ted Go Camping
Fred and Ted Like To Fly
Go, Dog, Go!
Wacky Wednesday
Old Hat New Hat

Middle 1st grade: **These books deal with word families and use long vowel letter combinations.
Put Me In the Zoo
The Nose Book
Green Eggs and Ham
Hooper Humperdink…? Not Him!
Hop on Pop
Are You My Mother?
The Bike Lesson

Late 1st grade:
**The text in these books are getting smaller, the storyline is becoming more involved, and is relying less on word families.

FileA_Fish_Out_Of_Water_(book)_cover_art

A Fish Out of Water
Little Black, A Pony
Sam and the Firefly
The Big Honey Hunt
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
I Want To Be Somebody New!
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
Robert the Rose Horse
The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur
A Fly Went By
The Bears’ Christmas
The Bears’ Picnic
The Berenstain Bears On the Moon
He Bear, She Bear
In a People House

Early 2nd grade:
**These books begin to introduce the 2nd grade Dolch word list. The storylines are more complex, and many of these books are great transition books as a child gets ready to for chapter books.
Flap Your Wings
I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words
Mrs. Wow Never Wanted a Cow
Stop, Train, Stop!
The Bears’ Vacation
Dr. Seuss ABC
Fox in Socks
Have You Seen My Dinosaur?
I Am Not Going to Get Up Today!
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
the Tooth Book
There’s a Wocket in My Pocket
Thomas and Friends: Trains, Cranes, and Troubles
Because a Little But Went Ka-Choo!
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
I Wish That I Had Duck Feet
Please Try to Remember the First of Octember!
The Bears Detectives

Middle 2nd grade:
Babar Loses His Crown
The Bear Scouts
The Digging-est Dog
Honey Bunny Funnybunny
It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny

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

New! 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 for March 2nd
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

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 family literacy bag encourages hands-on fun and learning centered around a paired fiction (The Lorax) and nonfiction book (Tell Me, Tree). Download "The Lorax" Family Literacy Bag: All About Trees > (301K PDF)*
Coming March 2, 2012: the new 3-D animated film The Lorax. You'll find lots of games and downloads on the movie website, including this interactive writing activity, Letter Factory.
See our other Seuss-inspired family literacy bag! Download the "Green Eggs and Ham" Family Literacy Bag > (557K PDF)*
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.

Jack Prelutsky: Collaborating with Dr. Seuss
When Prelutsky was chosen to complete one of the late Dr. Seuss' unfinished manuscripts, it actually helped to save his own life.
View more from Jack Prelutsky >>
Lane Smith: Hooray for Diffendoofer Day
While working on Dr. Seuss's unfinished manuscript, Smith had the honor visiting the Geisel home.
View more from Lane Smith >>

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.

Go to interview

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