Book Bag Activities for
Fox in Socks
By: Andrew Legler

• Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss

Rationale:

• I chose the books Fox in Socks because to this day it is still one of my all time favorite books. Yes, many people would say that this is childish, but this Dr. Seuss book in particular is special to me. Not only are there rhymes and riddles that will make you tongue-tied and your belly ache from laughing, but also it is the first book that I ever learned to read from. When I was young my father would read this book to me every night before I went to sleep. It is in this why I chose this book. I believe that from this book you can derive many different activities that spread across many different subjects and areas. Not only can you teach much from this book, but it is fun and enjoyable to read as well.

Information about the author:

• Dr. Seuss was born Theodore Geisel in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father was the curator of Forest Park Zoo. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Geisel launched a career in advertising, creating ads for Flit, an insecticide produced by Standard Oil. These ads consisted of a cartoon drawing of people enjoying a relaxing time reading or resting only to have a grotesque bug-like creature approach. The caption always read, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" Looking at those cartoons today, you can see the seeds of the creatures that would later appear in his children's books.
• The contract with Standard Oil precluded doing other commercial art for other companies but it didn't forbid doing children's books, and so he wrote To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street using the pen name Dr. Seuss, intending to keep his real name, Theodore Geisel, for more serious work. Seuss was his middle name and he put Dr. in front of it because his father had always wanted him to be a doctor. Twenty-nine publishers rejected the book before it was accepted.
• He started his Cat in the Hat series when he read an article by the novelist John Hersey who observed that the early readers used in schools were pallid and idiotic. Told that they had to be because they used only words on the Dolch reading list, Seuss took 223 of those words and created a funny, zany book worth reading. Together with his wife Helen Palmer, he launched a whole line of Beginner Books some of which he wrote and illustrated. Sometimes he wrote under the name of Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards) and let others illustrate. Still other authors and illustrators did others but they all used the same, scholastically approved word lists, and revolutionized children's beginning reading books.
• His illustrations are fascinating in that he really only draws one human face: all his people look alike with minor adjustments. His creatures look simplistic until you try to imitate them. His landscapes are notable for their creation of distance. His rhyme schemes are simple but he has created for us a slew of outlandish names and places. His books are timeless and more mature audiences best appreciate much of the humor. Dr. Seuss died in California in 1991, a time of mourning for many of his readers.

Questions to use with the story:

• Knowledge: Make a list of the different characters from Fox in Socks. Identify what situation each character is in and what they do.
• Comprehension: After having finished reading the text, summarize what events have happened to Mr. Knox.
• Application: Apply the lessons learned by Mr. Knox to your real life by demonstration of your own actions.
• Analysis: Compare and contrast the different situations of the Fox and Mr. Knox to the beginning and end of the book.
• Synthesis: Create and design your own children's book with Dr. Seuss-like characters. How are the characters similar? Different?
• Evaluation: Justify why you would or would not recommend this book. Recommend new endings, characters?

Activities to use with the story:

• One student says a word and another says a word that rhymes with it, and a third adds another, etc. See how far the class can go.
• Students will wear a crazy pair of socks to school, (even if they are just really smelly!) and write in their journals the story of how their socks came to be.
• Have students take various Dr. Seuss books and turn them into plays or reader's theater.
• Discuss and write a paper about the value of all people and animals regardless of their differences.
• Make up new words and tell what they mean. As a classroom project, this could turn into a dictionary of new words.
• Discuss what it means to never give up on something you want. Tell the class how more than 25 publishers turned down Dr. Seuss' first book. Have the class write a journal entry of something they would like to do, and something they did because they never gave up trying!
• Identify various works of literature written by Dr. Seuss and then make a class graph of your favorite Dr. Seuss books.
• Students will invent new creatures by mixing and matching animal parts. Give them wacky names and write about what they can do, what they eat, and etc. ex. What would you get if you crossed a duck with a beetle? Make your own combinations and draw them.
• Make up rhymes for a few selected living creatures and then draw a picture to match your riddle. You might write about a fox in socks, a chick on a clock, a beetle battling in a bottle, etc.
• Develop a newspaper or brochure based on the book Fox in Socks. It should have headlines that highlight the main ideas of the book, updates on local events, announcements, weather, and other items that are mentioned in the book. Students should give the newspaper a name and publish it for others in the school to read.

Bibliography of other related books:

• The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss- Plan a Seuss Festival and have guest readers come in and read some of the many books written by this master of rhyme. You might purchase a hat like the one the cat wears and have the readers wear it when they read.
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss- Find out what kinds of food the students might not like. Graph the foods. You might want to arrange a "tasting tea" of the foods that the students had not tried. Then have the students decide on whether they really like or dislike the food.
• My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss- Write out the words on a chart and then have students make designs to illustrate the poetry.
• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss- Discuss the importance of trees for people and animals.

Assessment Plan:

• An assessment of the student's work would be based upon activity #8 as described above. Having students create and design their own animals with detailed descriptions and drawings would be done to evaluate and assess the student's understanding of Dr. Seuss' artwork and writings.