Happy 🎂Birthday Dr. Seuss!
Theodor Seuss Geisel, born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, MA, was an American author, political cartoonist, poet, animator, book publisher, and artist, best known for authoring more than 60 children's books under the pen name Doctor Seuss. Did you know that Dr. Seuss is the ninth-best-selling fiction author of all time (estimated 500 million copies sold)? (Read more here.)
Dr. Seuss could plant more meaning into a few short verses than most writers can manage to embed in an entire novel!
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!”
So, today, we are thinking left and right and, inspired by The Cat in the Hat book, we are skip counting with this🍡DIY ♻️recycled Math 🎩Hat.
- paint six recycled popsicle sticks with this red tempera paint, which dries in 90 seconds and paints perfectly vivid over the wood,
- *TIP: apply a thin coat of clear nail polish to the ends of unfinished popsicle sticks to prime the part where you will be writing numbers (otherwise, the numbers will "bleed" ~ color will spread),
- write with a black Sharpie numbers one till one hundred, skip counting by fives (on the left, I wrote skip counting by 10s and on the right by 5s). Modification: with smaller children, just write numbers one through ten.
- finally, top the🎩Hat with a hundred square!
I then offered Adrian to match number tiles from Montessori Hundred Board to the numbers on popsicle sticks. (For a detailed lesson on Hundred Board, read here Montessori 💯Hundred Board at 3 Yo).
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” And indeed, at first, Adrian thought this was too complicated, but step by step, he assembled the 🎩hat and was able to skip count by 5s till one hundred!
DIY Thing 1 & Thing 2 🙌🏻Handprint♻️Craft with a 🔢Math Twist
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Suess.
We also made handprints Thing 1 (Julia) and Thing 2 (Adrian) craft while incorporating math and skip counting by 10s.
- a washable ink pad
- self-adhesive googly eyes
- red and black Sharpies and a red tempera paint to draw a mouth
- recycled toilet paper and red construction paper to cover it
- strips of blue paper to resemble hair
- Montessori golden beads ten-bars and a hundred square
Roll strips of blue paper over the pencil to give hair a "curl."
Each hair strand represents 10, offering to practice skip counting by ten till one hundred.
I glued a red pom-pom to the top of the roll to support the handprint.
Meet Thing 1 and Thing 2!
Julia's handprint was bigger, so I glued a popsicle stick to the back.
Julia also got a pink bow made out of a pom-pom and pink construction paper.
This craft will remain a keepsake to remember how big their hands were at 8 and 4 yo.
Lastly, offer your child to skip count using golden beads ten-bars.
How do you celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday?
See here books & puzzles we are loving on March 2nd 🎉Dr. Seuss's 🎂Birthday 📚.