Continuing our celebration of Dr. Seuss’s beloved books, we read There’s a Wocket in My Pocket yesterday and did a fun rhyming activity afterwards.  Both of the boys were absolutely tickled with this activity and wanted to leave all the labels on throughout the day so that they could show Daddy when he got home.  :)

This is a great learning activity for two reasons:  (1) encouraging your child to recognize environmental print and (2) practicing phonemic awareness skills such as rhyming.  ”Environmental print” and “sight words” are often confused but they are not synonymous.  Sight words are words that are most commonly used in the English language, which often cannot be easily decoded and should be memorized as not to interrupt reading fluency (find out more about how to effectively use sight words with your child here).  ”Environmental print” is considered to be all the text that surrounds your child in every day life:  labels, billboards, fast food signs, etc.  In this activity, we are creating environmental print by adding labels to everyday household items.

Here’s what you’ll need:  There’s a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss, 3 x 5 index cards, scissors, a marker, and painter’s tape (or masking tape).

1.  Cut your 3 x 5 index cards in half.  I used my paper cutter, but you can just as easily use scissors.

2.  Go through the book and write the words that Dr. Seuss uses to rhyme.  Write the “real words” on one side and the rhyming “silly word” on the other side.

3.  Add a small piece of painter’s tape to the left side of the card.

4.  Ask your child to stick the label onto the corresponding item in your home.

5 . Go throughout the house and have your child identify the real word, then flip it over and read the rhyming word!

Even Little Brother had a great time identifying the real words while Big Brother helped him out with the rhyming words.  :)

Check out more of our Dr. Seuss activities!