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NEW: I have created a round-up of our rhyming and Dr. Seuss printables and activities: 15+ Activities to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday.
Lately, NJoy (at 3.5 years of age) has been exploring rhyming all on his own. I’ve listened in as he’s said things like, “chimp and bimp; they rhyme.” Many times, it’s made up words and sometimes it’s WAY off; but for the most part, he’s got it! NJoy also has a thing for The Cat in the Hat. So much so, that he was The Cat in the Hat for Halloween this past year.
And a cute one at that! 🙂
So, to honor Dr. Seuss’ upcoming birthday on March 2 (and to combine his love for The Cat in the Hat) we spent our week rhyming away. Yes, I know we did our celebrating a little early, but if all goes according to plan, I will be in the hospital on March 2nd, doing my own celebrating of our little one being born! Exciting!
I put out all our Dr. Seuss books (and a few other rhyming favorites) in the schoolroom. His face lit up when he saw them all. It took no time at all for him to surround himself with all the books.
I also put a few rhyming books out for MBug. She found her beloved Brown Bear, right away. {Find more of our favorite rhyming books here.}
Rhyme Time Activities
Most of the rhyming activities you’ll see in this post are ones that I created in my Rhyme Time Packet. You can download the activities by clicking on the image above or HERE.
A-Rhyming We Will Go! All three kids immensely enjoyed this one. MBug chimed in every time we sang “go”. FUN!
Cut & Paste Rhyming Mats-There are five different rhyming mats included in the download.
Clip a Rhyme
Hat on a Cat Emergent Reader: I read it aloud to him and he glued on the pictures that rhymed.
ALuv decided he wanted to read the book to NJoy afterward, so off they went!
That’s Not a Rhyme! This is one of the last activities we did because it requires a little more higher order thinking to find the one that does NOT rhyme, but he did very well with it. {We also have FREE clip cards that ask kids to do the same thing, if you’d like extension activities.}
Rhyming with File Folder Games: I had a few file folder games (from Carson Dellosa) in my files. I pulled them out and he rhymed away!
The Cat in the Hat Games
Find that Cat in the Hat!
The objective: To listen to the rhyme to find The Cat in the Hat. Prep work: I took this coloring page picture and shrunk the cat by 50% on my scanner, colored, and laminated him. I picked 6 pictures: fox, bell, bug, hat, dish & dog to put in the pocket chart. (My pictures came from my teaching files, but you can find FREE pictures in every lesson of Reading the Alphabet). I asked NJoy to close his eyes while I hid the cat behind one of the pictures. Then, I gave this clue: “The Cat in the Hat is hiding behind the picture that rhymes with bat.”
He would then say the name of each picture and try to find the one that rhymed with bat.
He greatly enjoyed this game!
We finally played with his new Dr. Seuss matching game. I only pulled the 4 cards that went with The Cat in the Hat story.
The next few activities all came from Making Learning Fun.
Cat in the Hat coloring page: Except for the red tummy (oops!), he tried his hardest to color his cat just like The Cat in the Hat. He even drew in his own black tail.
Cat in the Hat Beginning Letter Sounds-He did GREAT with this! I picked 8 random letters to print off and laminate: B, F, H, K, L, R, W, & Z.
Cat in the Hat Craft
To integrate a little math, we made these patterned hats this week. First, I drew out the cat’s head onto card stock, and copied it for both boys.
I pre-cut strips of colored construction paper (red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and white–about 8 of each color) and modeled how to make different colored patterns with my strips of paper. Then, I let them choose the colors they wanted to make their own patterned hats.
I hope you enjoy Dr. Seuss’ birthday as much as we did!
More Rhyming Fun:
- Roll-a-Rhyme {3 levels of rhyming fun!}
- Rhyming Books that You Can SING!
- Listening for Rhymes with Clip Cards {That Doesn’t Rhyme!}
Follow This Reading Mama’s board Dr. Seuss Fun on Pinterest.
Follow This Reading Mama’s board Pre-Reading Skills: Rhyming & Phonological Awareness on Pinterest.
~Becky
I hope that both you and baby have a speedy and healthy delivery. Congratulations on your newest addition to your family!
P.S. Fantastic Cat in the Hat ideas and activities!
Thanks, Jill! If you want to guest post any time in March, let me know! I’d be happy to schedule you!!!!
Thank you so much for the valuable downloads. I am looking forward to Dr. Seuss’ birthday. We will actually be making a week of it!
Sounds like you’re going to have a fun week! Thanks for stopping by!