Monday, March 2, 2015

March 2 - Dr. Seuss B-Day!!

For me, Fox in Socks is the Dr. Seuss book that comes to mind every March 2nd. It was requested over and over and over again by my daughters when they were little. At least, The Tweetle Beetle Battle always had to be read before lights out each night.


"Let’s have a little talk about tweetle beetles…

What do you know about tweetle beetles? Well…

When tweetle beetles fight, it’s called a tweetle beetle battle.

And when they battle in a puddle, it’s a tweetle beetle puddle battle.

AND when tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, 
they call it a tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle.

AND
When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle…
…they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.

AND…
When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles…
…they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle.

AND… 
Now wait a minute, Mr. Socks Fox!
When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle, THIS is what they call…
 …a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks, sir! 

Fox in socks, our game is done, sir.
Thank you for a lot of fun, sir."

"Again," they would chant as I finished that funny tongue twister and close the book. Most nights, I would agree. Other times, I was too tired. Sometimes I would purposefully let pages stick together so we'd get to the end of the book very quick.

But I could never skip any part of the Tweedle, Beetle Battle because they knew it by heart and it had to be heard in its entirety. How much fun it is to read nonsense words and hear rhyming words and have your tongue tied up!

Today, my oldest is in grad school in Chicago and my youngest is in France working as a teaching assistant. And I am a 5th grade teacher. I couldn't find my very worn copy of Fox in Sock last night so I downloaded it to my kindle to share with my 5th graders today.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.
You published Fox in Socks in 1965 (when I was just 2 years old).
Today you would be 111 years old.
And your words live on!!

What's your Dr. Seuss memory?


7 comments:

  1. Isn't it interesting what books we remember reading to our children? For one daughter it was The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen and for the other daughter it was Milly-Molly-Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley. Over and over. Anyway, I very much enjoyed your piece.

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  2. Isn't it interesting what books we remember reading to our children? For one daughter it was The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen and for the other daughter it was Milly-Molly-Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley. Over and over. Anyway, I very much enjoyed your piece.

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  3. Those now-far away memories take on such a lovely glow now, don't they? One of or favorites was Danny, Champion of the World - and we still have the book, without it's cover, which was lost on a beach somewhere.

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  4. My favorite Dr. Seuss read-aloud is Daisy Head Maysie. I've shared it with a lot of classes through the years, but sadly I didn't read it today.

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  5. My boys loved Green Eggs and Ham, but my favorite is And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. I miss our bedtime reading. So many happy memories. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. What a beautiful memory you have with your daughters! I loved that they knew that passage by heart - and wouldn't let you skip a page at all!

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  7. What a beautiful memory you have with your daughters! I loved that they knew that passage by heart - and wouldn't let you skip a page at all!

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