What would you do on a day when you're allowed to do anything? In this Seuss-inspired activity, your child will write a story about a day when she can do anything she wants! But the really fun part comes in assembling her “book.” It's made of boxes! Each box will fit inside the next (like nesting dolls) so to find out what happens next in the story, you'll have to keep opening those boxes. This interactive book will take your child’s storytelling to a new level!
What You Need:
- Various sized cardboard boxes that fit inside each other (cereal boxes, shoe boxes, etc.)
- White paper
- Markers or crayons
- Pencil
- Paper
- Glue
- Scissors
What You Do:
- In Happy Birthday to You!, the main character gets to do anything he wants because it’s his birthday. Encourage your child to write a story in which she describes a day when she's allowed to do anything.
- Help your child write her story on some paper using markers or crayons. Decide ahead of time how you are going to split the story up onto the different boxes. Help her divide the story up into at least three parts make sure that each part is spaced so that you'll be able to cut each one out with scissors.
- Once your child has written her story, cut each part out to later be glued onto a box.
- Pick at least three boxes that fit inside each other (you'll want to make sure that the number of "parts" you've split your story into corresponds with the number of boxes you have).
- Glue white paper to cover the outside of the boxes and trim the excess with scissors.
- On the largest box, glue the beginning of the story to the top of the box. On the middle-sized box, glue the middle of the story to the top of the box. Finally, on the smallest box, glue the end of the story to the top. (If you have more than three boxes, work in this same manner from largest box to smallest box and from the beginning to the end of the story.)
- On the outside of each box, your child will illustrate the part of the story told on that particular box.
- After she has completed all of her boxes, help her assemble them with the largest box as the outside cover (and beginning of the story) and then fit each box within it according to size.
- When you're done encourage your child to read her story to the whole family, opening the boxes as she goes, showing off her Seuss-inspired work!
This activity will bring story telling to life and help your child get excited about reading and writing!
By Melissa Blough
This activity was inspired by the book "Happy Birthday To You!" by Dr. Seuss. Random House, Inc. New York. 1959.
Add your own comment