Madison, West Madison promote literacy with Dr. Seuss events

Dr. Seuss is making the rounds this week in Madison.

His rounds will promote literacy awareness, especially at Madison and West Madison elementary schools with Dr. Seuss activities on Feb. 27 through March 2.

Students at Madison Elementary School will have “Dress-Up Days” this week. The school’s Literacy Leadership Team adopted clothing themes corresponding to Seuss books.

On Feb. 27, Madison elementary students wore pajamas for the book, “I’m Not Going to Get Up Today.” They chose silly socks for “Fox in Socks,” and red shirt and blue jeans for “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.”

For “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” the students’ attire represented a desired destination. Uniforms for a ballgame, Caribbean duds for an island adventure and a safari outfit for a jungle trip were some choices.

To wrap up the week, Madison elementary wore green for “Green Eggs and Ham” and a favorite hat for “The Cat in the Hat.”

At West Madison Elementary School, the “Read Across America” initiative is an annual tradition that celebrates the birthday of Dr. Seuss and motivates children to read, library media specialist Emily B. Wolfe said.

For “Wear-A-Word Wednesday,” the West Madison students will dress as an interesting word. Teachers hope some will choose vocabulary words studied in class during the year.

On Feb. 29, Wolfe and other judges will choose a student from each grade with the most original get-up. “All students sent to the library for judging will receive prizes,” Wolfe said.

West Madison students and staff will participate in the “The Foot Book” school-wide service project to donate new or gently worn shoes. “Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Foot Book’ is a story about different kinds of feet. Sadly, children and adults around the world need shoes to protect their feet,” Wolfe said.

West Madison staff will deliver donated shoes to Fleet Feet in Huntsville for shipping to Soles4Souls, a global charity (soles4souls.org). “This wonderful organization has delivered over 16 million pairs of shoes to people in over 127 countries,” Wolfe said.