Little aggies go green eggs and ham
Children used crayons, scissors and their imaginations to add their twist to Dr. Seuss characters.
The activity was part of the Little Aggie Activities the Utah State University Bookstore presents each month. This month they followed the theme of Dr. Seuss.
The prospective Aggies made flip books and doorknob hangers, listened to a Dr. Seuss story, and ate “Cat in the Hat” snacks.
Julie Gast, health education associate professor, said she’s been attending the activities for about a year with her children.
Gast said she keeps updated with plans for the activities using the bookstore’s Web site. She said her children prefer the games and creativity the most when they attend.
Six-year-old Dylan Gast said the activities this month were fun.
“We read and made a book,” he said.
The book he made was a flip book with the Dr. Seuss character, Gerald McBoing Boing.
When the children finished coloring the character and cutting the different images into squares, they would staple them together, when they flipped through the book Gerald would move.
“[Gerald] went to school and they sent him home because all he said was ‘boing, boing,'” Dylan said.
They also made doorknob hangers. Dylan plans to use the hanger to ask his family to politely “stay away,” he said.
The doorknob hangers were two-sided. One side of the hanger invited people to play, with a “Cat in the Hat” image posing. The other side had a picture of the Grinch and its purpose is to inform guests of a room that someone is busy reading.
“We got ‘Cat in the Hat’ snacks, too,” Dylan said.
Eric McLeskey, a graduate student studying environmental engineering, said this was his first time attending Little Aggies with his son.
“I found out through the bookstore’s Web site,” he said. “We go to the North Logan Library’s readings a lot and decided to come here.”
McLeskey said his son enjoyed “the cutting-out part” the most.
KaeDee Jewkes, a volunteer and a freshman majoring in elementary education and special education, participated in the Dr. Seuss read-in.
“My favorite Dr. Seuss book is ‘Go Dog Go,'” she said. “And I got to read that one today.”
When finishing the story, Jewkes set up for the flip book activity. She helped the children color then cut the images of Gerald McBoing Boing. When the children were ready she helped them staple their papers together.
“I’d pretend I wasn’t strong enough to staple the pictures together,” she said. “They would help me, that way they could say they stapled their book together. I would say ‘I’m not strong enough to do this alone.'”
Jewkes said she started volunteering to have service hours for her elementary education class last semester. Since she isn’t enrolled in the class this semester the Dr. Seuss activity might be her last to allow other students the opportunity, she said.
“I told them if they ever need help to call me,” she said. “But I was excited that my last time was Dr. Seuss.”
Rachelle Holmes, an undeclared freshman and in charge of the activities, said she gathered most of her information at www.seussville.com and it made the activities a lot easier.
She said she was lucky to discover they had “Cat in the Hat” treats that she could use.
“It’s always nice when it’s easy,” she said.
Little Aggie Activity’s are usually held the second Saturday of each month. The theme for February is scheduled to be “Science Fair.”
-srkrebs@cc.usu.edu