Most of the Seuss books we have read have been made up, silly stories.
This week, I told them a TRUE story. The story of how Theodor Seuss Giesel became Dr. Seuss.
We learned that little Theodor grew up on Mulberry Street, feasted on books, and loved animals. His mother read to him every day, and would even make up stories to make him laugh. She would often comment that she expected him to attend college and maybe become a doctor. His father was head of the parks department, so that meant he ran the zoo!
Ted was often in trouble at school, because he would get caught doodling when he was supposed to be working on math. He liked to draw and sketch, but only took one art class in his life. He walked out of class and never returned when the art teacher told Ted that he was "breaking the rules" by his exaggerated interpretations, and that he would "never amount to anything if he didn't follow the rules". (I told the kids that if they ever heard me talk like that to remind me of Dr. Seuss)
After getting kicked off of his college newspaper for a fraternity prank, he decided to still submit his comical stories penned with the name "Dr. Theophrastus Seuss" . He was now the doctor that his mother always wanted him to become.
Dr. Seuss saw a man on the subway wearing a pompous hat, which inspired the tale of "Bartholomew and the 500 hats" and Ted started a hat collection of his own. He often wore wild and silly hats to parties, and while writing his stories, he was known to put on a crazy hat to offer inspiration. And yes, he owned a red and white stove pipe hat!
We each put on a Dr Seuss hat and got to work with pencil and paper in creating our own exaggerated characters with silly, made-up names. What fun!
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