Green Eggs and Ham Literacy Event

On Wednesday March 10th the Phelps Ingersoll Center for Children's child care center at the Northern Middlesex YMCA, hosted an evening with Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss's birthday was this month and the center has been working on curriculum development around literacy and using the books Dr. Seuss created. Literacy is a very important component of the center and the teaching staff wanted to create an event around literacy, that would be beneficial for parents and children.
For the past couple of weeks, teachers have been working with the children reading Dr. Seuss books, such as Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in the Hat, The Foot, and Sneetches and tying them to learning activities in the classrooms. On Wednesday night, Parents, Grandparents and Children were invited to the center for a dinner of "Green Eggs and Ham" which was followed by some of our Middletown community partners LT. Heather Desmond of the Middletown Police Dept. and Asst. Fire Marshall Matthew Scarrozzo to read the story "Green Eggs and Ham" to all 3 preschool classrooms of children and families. After the story, Parents were invited to participate in an activity that their children have been doing in the classroom. In the Jungle room, children and parents created their own plate of green eggs and ham using art materials. In the Ocean room, parents and children got to make a "Cat in the Hat" hat. In the Orchard room, parents and children made individual puzzles from their favorite picture in the Green Eggs and Ham book.
The evening ended with some words from the teaching staff to parents about the importance of reading daily to children and having children becoming life long reader. Parents were sent home with a list of popular and appropriate books for preschool aged children. A good time was had by all!