UMPS Students Celebrate Dr. Seuss with "Kid in a Hat Day"

Every day this week, students at the l (UMPS) participated in a fun, educational and thoroughly Dr. Seuss-inspired celebration.

The celebration honored and recognized one of the most prolific children’s authors ever to put a hat on a cat: Dr. Seuss.

“There’s a whole bunch of fun things that the whole school has done,” Emily Kiefer UMPS first-grade teacher, said.

According to Kiefer, each day the school’s kindergarten to second-grade classes participated in Dr. Seuss themed activity:

• Monday, Feb. 27 – ‘Mixed Up Day’ - students got to where their clothes inside out or backwards.

• Tuesday, Feb. 28 – ‘Fox in Socks’ – students wore ‘coolest’ socks

• Wednesday, Feb. 29 – ‘Red and White’ – students showed Seuss pride by wearing red and white clothing.

• Thursday, March 1 – ‘Kid in a Hat Day' – students got to bring in hats as interesting as Dr. Seuss’ famous cat.

On this day, students throughout the building wore their best and most unique hats, from a giant foam Flyers hockey puck to an actual Mummers string-band hat.

Kiefer said that during the week, teachers fully capitalize on the teaching opportunities in midst of all the fun and excitement.

“I love it. It’s so easy to pick out two or three lessons,” Kiefer said, adding with a smile, “I’m revisiting these books, too.’

One particular lesson, invited her students to create their own Seuss character, in which they used a paper template, but had to come up with adjectives to help describe their new creations.

According to school officials, the Dr. Seuss celebration has occurred since before the school district built its primary school in its current location.

Today, March 2, which marks Dr. Seuss’ 101st birthday, the UMMPS celebration wraps up with a “Drop Everything and Read” (DEAR) time. This event, which is a part of the National Education Association’s Read Across America event, invited the whole school community to come out of their classrooms and into the hallways, dressed in their pajamas, where they just got lost into a good book.

“Reading Dr. Seuss is big at the Primary school level,” Leigh Anne Hall, the event’s coordinator and UMPS second-grade teacher said.

According to Hall, today marked the second year for the school’s DEAR time. She credits the school’s principal, Susan Smith, with the idea of the event. Hall said that the entire UMPS school community comes together for this time dedicated to cultivating a lifetime of reading.

“The teachers at our level are really interactive with the children,” Hall said. “It really brings out the love of reading with the kids.”

According Hall, UMPS also held a fundraiser in October of last year, whose partial proceeds went toward purchasing every UMPS teacher their own copy of  “The Lorax,” to read to their students.