Dr. Seuss Math Activities

Just because Dr. Seuss is celebrated with reading, doesn’t mean you can’t add a Seuss spin to other classroom activities. There are lots of great math games and activity ideas out there! Here are a few easy ones to check out for Seuss week and beyond.

Ten Apples Up On Top is a classic book to pair with easy math, and Learning Here N There has an easy activity based on it using a felt board. Or you can make apple blocks to stack and count as you read the story, like these from What We Can Do with Paper and Glue. If you don’t have bulletin board apples handy, you could find an apple printable to cut out and color for this purpose.

Using dot markers to decorate a red fish and blue fish isn’t necessarily a math activity, but it’s an easy thing to count the dots as you mark them or count how many dots are on each fish after you color them. Get the printables from The Resourceful Mama.

These Cat in the Hat math mats are colorful and fun. There are sheets for rolling dice, adding the numbers and covering up the solution on the hat, as well as one where you can make patterns with red and white pompoms, buttons, colored beans or other objects. Grab these from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Upcycle an egg carton and make an art project into math with this Yertle the Turtle math activity from There’s Just One Mommy.

Speaking of combining crafts and math, grab some craft sticks to make simple math manipulatives like these from Lalymom. You can punch stars to add to the ends for counting, pattern making and other activities, or you can draw shapes on the ends or use stickers. You could also make shapes or letters with the sticks and then count the number of stars or marks on them. Or just see what your child does with them!

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Apple Sensory Play Ideas

If you want to teach kids the basics of Hanukkah in the classroom or at home, the picture book Hanukkah by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Rotem Teplow is a nice place to start.

The book explores the Jewish holiday through the eyes of Lior, a boy whose name means “my light” in Hebrew, which is appropriate for talking about the Festival of Lights.

The book goes through all the preparations the family does, including cleaning, setting the table and cleaning the menorah. It talks about what the menorah symbolizes and the Hanukkah story of the oil in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem lasting for eight days when it should have only been a one-day supply.

The meaning of the letters on the dreidel are also explored, in that when you are in Israel they have a different fourth word (the letters symbolize the Hebrew letters for “a great miracle happened there” or, in Israel, “a great miracle happened here”).

Because the story of Hanukkah involves oil, a lot of the foods that are eaten during the celebration are fried in oil, such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts). Other foods mentioned include challah, noodle kugel and sour cream and applesauce, which are served with the latkes. Family and friends drop by to share their food, light their menorahs together and play dreidel (the game is explained in the story). It also talks about how the candles are lit through the eight days and what happens at the end of Hanukkah.

The book includes Hanukkah blessings in English and Hebrew and talks about the lunar cycle of the Hebrew calendar, which is why Hanukkah is sometimes celebrated in November and sometimes in December. It also talks about why Jewish holidays are celebrated beginning at sunset rather than in the morning.

Other topics covered include Hanukkah greetings; how to spell Hanukkah; how to make an edible menorah and an tzedakah box (to collect money for charity); recipes for latkes and applesauce; and a more detailed story of Hanukkah than is included within the story of the book. There’s also a quiz to see how well you were paying attention.

This sweet little book is a quick read and a cute overview of the basics of Hanukkah and what the symbols, foods and games mean. It’s a great book for classrooms or at home for sharing basic knowledge.

About the book: 48 pages, hardcover. Published 2024 by words & pictures, suggested retail price $14.99.

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