Can you believe that it's almost March?! March is one of our favorite months because we get to pull out all of our favorite Dr. Seuss activities to celebrate his birthday and Read Across America! This year, we're taking it book by book and hope you'll be able to find something that your kiddos will enjoy...

The Cat in the Hat

One of Seuss' most beloved characters, the Cat in the Hat, turns a boring rainy day into something Seuss-tacular! After a reading of this Seuss classic, you might try one of the fabulous lesson ideas we found at our favorite blogosphere haunts!

Media Connection. Don't stop at simply reading the book to your kiddos, check out these links to find video readings by celebrities, a rap version of the story, and a complete illustrated character guide to help you and your kinders learn more about the characters in the story!

• The Cat in the Hat read by The First Family
• The Cat in the Hat {Rap Version}
• The Complete Illustrated Character Guide via Seussville

Cat in the Hat Patterning Game. Created by Diane over at TeachWithMe.com, this patterning game is sure to pique your kiddos interest. {Not to mention, the game instructions and pieces are provided for FREE at Diane's site!} To play, students take turns spinning the game spinner, identifying the type of pattern landed on, and recreating the pattern with strips of colored paper on their hat game board! A great addition to your Seuss math centers!

Cat in the Hat Shared Reading. Spice up your shared reading time with this adorable Seuss-inspired anchor chart from Mrs. Krull over at Of Primary Importance. Perfect for reviewing sight words and thematic vocabulary, as well as building print awareness skills, Mrs. Krull provides FREE printables so all you have to do is print, cut apart, and add the sentence strips to a pocket chart or use the printables to create an anchor chart from easel paper – then read the predictable sentences together as a class!

Cat in the Hat Word Family/Rhyming Word Sort. While we were unable to find a free printable of this worksheet, we still like the idea! To help her students build early reading skills, Melayne over at Under The Big Top created this activity, inviting students to first cut, then sort word cards into the corresponding word family/rhyming word column.

Cat in the Hat Matching Games. Using Cat in the Hat cutouts, Julia over at Serendipity from Jewels created several matching games for her kiddos to play together. For one set, students strengthened memory and visual discrimination skills as they attempted to make picture matches. With the second set, students strengthened early reading skills, attempting to make rhyming word matches. [NOTE: Adding pictures to the word cards will with word recognition!]

Cat in the Hat Stacking, Counting, & Patterning. Whether you use this as your own little "Minute To Win It" game - inviting your kiddos to stack as many Styrofoam circles as they can in one minute - or enjoy the activity at a slower pace, we think your kinders will have a blast with this stacking activity from Anne over at Teaching Two. Along with building counting skills, you can throw some simple patterning exercises in the mix too - AB, AAB, ABB, etc!

Cat in the Hat Balloon Toss. Help your kiddos hone gross motor coordination with this fun balloon toss game from Jordan over at Motherhood and Other Adventures. Reminiscent of a carnival/party game, Dr. Seuss' birthday is more than enough reason to celebrate and have fun with your kinders!

Cat in the Hat Unit Printables. With everything from science and social studies integration to P.E. fun and printable activities, this Cat in the Hat unit from Homeschool Share is a great way to round out your Cat in the Hat lesson plans! Be sure to download this FREE resource and check out all the activity ideas!

We hope these activity and lesson ideas help you! Have a Seuss-tastic celebration!