A Week of Dr. Seuss Inspired Art Projects

One fun thing to do if you’re celebrating Seuss for a whole week in your classroom or at home is to devote each day to a different book. At my daughter’s school they would do this and have kids dress the theme if they wanted, but I think it would be fun to have a book each day to read and do activities around. So with that I’ve collected a week’s worth of art projects from different Dr. Seuss books.

You can pick one for a book your kids love or do the whole week!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: make some colorful fish with mini cupcake liners, like these from I Heart Crafty Things. Don’t have liners handy? Cut or punch circles out of construction paper or poster board. Or you can make a fish out of a paper plate, like these from Oh Hey Let’s Play.

The Lorax: There are so many great craft projects out there related to The Lorax. Here are a few to get you started. Make truffula trees and learn about color mixing with this craft from Schooltime Snippets, or make them with yarn with this idea from 3 Dinosaurs. Grab the Lorax template from Mom Brite and you can make a scene with your trees and the Lorax itself.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Make a hot air balloon like the one of the cover of this classic book. Preschool Inspirations made this into an open-ended process art activity where kids could pick what they wanted to use to decorate their own balloons.

If I Ran the Zoo: This book full of nonsense animals gives you lots of options for imagining what some of the animals might look like or designing your own funny animals to go in the zoo. Check out the Tizzle Topped Tufted Mazurkas from The Elementary Art Room for inspiration.

Green Eggs and Ham: Of course you can make green eggs and ham to eat if you have access to a kitchen, but you can also make egg art. Play Teach Repeat has a simple green eggs stamping activity, while Glued to My Crafts has a fun craft for eggs on a paper plate painted silver.

Bonus projects: Looking for some more open-ended projects for older kids? I love these ideas for how to draw Dr. Seuss style houses and characters, both of which are from Deep Space Sparkle.

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Celebrate Reading with Read Across America Day

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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Have you read?

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