Picture from 5 Ways to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday on March 2
Jim Carrey provides the voice for the gentle elephant who wants to save the Who people in the animated movie Horton Hears a Who. Image ©2008 Twentieth Century Fox

5 Ways to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday on March 2

If you love reading The Cat in the Hat or any of the other whimsical, rhyming stories by Dr. Seuss then get ready to mark Dr. Seuss Day on March 2. The National Education Association is sponsoring the annual Read Across America Day to celebrate literacy on the author’s birthday.

While events will take place in many schools, libraries and community centers across the country, families can also host their own parties at home.

Share some fun facts about the author including these. Seuss’s first children’s book, And to Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before it was finally published in 1937. He wrote the book Green Eggs and Ham after his editor Bennett Cerf bet him he couldn’t write a book using only 50 words. And his final book Oh, the Places You’ll Go, published in 1990, sells an average of 300,000 copies a year and given to high school and college graduates.

Make green eggs and ham for breakfast or any other food idea inspired by Dr. Seuss.

Share your favorite Dr. Seuss quote. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” Or “We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” Dr. Seuss

Make some Grinch Heart slime.

Watch a favorite Seuss movie. The 1966 holiday classic Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas stars Boris Karloff as the narrator. Jim Carrey put on green face paint and bushy eyebrows to play the cold-hearted character in the 2000 live-action adaptation of the story.

The G-rated animation Horton Hears a Who is a gentle and colorful story about a miniature being living on a microscopic speak. Jim Carrey voices the elephant named Horton who is the only one that can hear the tiny voices of the Who.

In Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, a young boy decides to impress the girl of his dreams by setting out on a journey to find a tree. This film comes with an environmental message that reflects the controversy that accompanied the book’s release in 1971. While the film doesn’t offer any real world remedies, it may inspire families to reconsider their own footprint on the world.

More details about the movies mentioned in this post…

Horton Hears a Who

Horton Hears a Who

Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Dr. Seuss's Christmas bad guy comes to life in this classic animation.

Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas

A live-action version of the classic tale.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax