Extra, Extra: Books on the Menu for March 2nd

By: National Education Association and Rachael Walker (2010)

Combine two great American treasures — Dr. Seuss and your local newspaper — for some reading and writing fun in your classroom or at home.

How would you like to dine with Sam-I-Am, the Grinch, the Lorax, and the Sneetches?

Ted Geisel, the children's author otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, once remarked in an interview, "If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up."

Seuss was probably concerned about how all the Whos and the Wockets and the Wumps would behave together in one room, but he might have also been thinking of his stomach!

Worried perhaps that the menu would be green eggs and ham and cake made with peppermint cucumber sausage-paste butter?

What would be on the dinner table in Seussville?

It's a fun thing to think about. Ted Geisel firmly believed that a rich imagination was one of the most important possessions in life. Normal everyday things — just like the simple act of reading the newspaper — were the kinds of things that triggered Dr. Seuss's creative juices. These activities will help kids take their imaginations out for a walk today!

• Seuss's Sam-I-Am mounts a single-minded campaign to introduce another Seuss character to the culinary delights of green eggs and ham. Read for other kinds of persuasive arguments in the Op-Ed section. Then write your own Op-Ed to convince family or friends to eat an unusual (real or imagined) food or adopt a new healthy diet.
• Look at the classified ads in today's newspaper. Find the "Help Wanted" section and look for jobs in the food service industry. Write an ad looking for a chef with the unique qualifications to prepare a bill of fare appropriate for your favorite Seuss character(s).
• Find a news story about a place in a foreign country. Find out what some of the meal time customs and traditions around food are in this country. Compare this to your own eating habits. Then create an etiquette booklet for dining in one of Seuss's imagined lands.
• Scan your newspaper for grocery store advertisements. Create your own produce, dairy products, or canned goods sale of the (real or imagined) foods Dr. Seuss's characters eat.

More 'read it, eat it' Seuss fun!