Dr. Seuss Door

It's almost that time of year again...wait for it...Read Across America! I do love Dr. Seuss, but I often find it hard to incorporate his books into middle school lessons. Yes, yes, they are cute and fun, and many have a deeper meaning, but one can only read The Lorax or The Sneetches so many times. In fact, last year I pulled out the first book I mentioned and my students groaned...audibly. "Can't we just watch the movie instead?" Yep, exactly what I wanted to hear. So, immediately after said incident occurred, I vowed to not use another tired Dr. Seuss book as part of a yearly project EVER AGAIN.

After finally making it home that day, I pulled out my personal favorite, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! and read through it again like a five-year-old. It was fun for a minute, but then it was time to get serious. How could I use my trusty favorite as inspiration for a door decorating contest so I could get a FULL DAY OFF WORK??? That's right folks, one full day, paid leave. It was glorious, so glorious that I set my sights on a little Cat in the Hat bow-tie ensemble for my students to wear, because I was going to take all their pictures...reading a book...with their eyes shut! How awesome was my idea?!? Well, not awesome enough, because my original idea of a plain background and random pictures looked hideous.

So, I pulled out the ol' ELMO and traced that silly cat and his friend, AND then I colored them. My fingers cramped, but I couldn't give up. Next, I bought some blue copy paper (who decided that Dr. Seuss colors would officially be turquoise, red, black, and white, btw?) and hand drew a picture frame for each student's picture. Y'all. I can't even believe I did that. Really? I must have found some free time, because I think that took almost a week. Also, my fingers were stained black from the Sharpie I used to trace the edges of the frames so they would pop (curse you Pinterest!). I added some white stripes to my red door (and also traced the edges of those), then I put everything together with some cutesy Dr. Seuss font I found and.............................
Voila!

There she is! What a beauty! I just knew I would win the whole thing, but sadly, as you can see by that little yellow ribbon, I came in 3rd place. Which is okay, really. I'm over it (a year later). Also, I ended up with free break for a week, which really just meant lots of mini water bottles and ice cream, but all's well that ends well, I suppose.

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? Does your school have a door decorating contest?