Say! Word Play and Reading on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday

I sent my children to school in pajamas today — not because it was hard to get them to dress themselves this morning (which it often is!) but because Dr. Seuss’s birthday is upon us. In elementary schools around the country, Dr. Seuss Day is the perfect excuse to turn everything just a little upside down.

Last year I wrote about the word play that Dr. Seuss inspires:

Dr. Seuss’s genius makes us yearn for more moments of play in literacy instruction. Experts on reading have been writing about the connection between play and reading for years (often citing Dr. Seuss), but sometimes we can get so caught up in the demands of de-coding that we take the fun out of it.

“Using playful teaching and learning not only makes instruction more enjoyable but also makes reading and writing real, engaging, and authentic,” wrote Patricia Scully and Hilary Roberts, an education professor at elementary school teacher, in research on playful literacy published in the Early Childhood Education Journal in 2004.

Then there’s just the delight of rhyming and reveling in nonsense. Especially in your PJs.