Dr. Seuss Goes to Church: Yertle the Turtle
Dr.Seuss’ many stories with their rhyming words and funny pictures can be used for much more than simply teaching children how to read. Many of his works are based on themes which explain in a simple way the things that are truly important in life. His words give us pause to think about ourselves in different ways and are a wonderful way to illustrate biblical principals.
How do I see Dr. Seuss being used in the church? This unit could be the curriculum for a summer Sunday school class for a multi-age group of children. In many cases, churches do not follow the same curriculum used throughout the year in the summer and children’s classes are combined. With some additions of more detailed art activities, music, recreation, and snacks, the unit could be an alternative to the many annual curriculums sold each year for summer Vacation Bible School Programs. If used in this manner, activities for youth and adults could also be developed for each lesson so that all age groups could learn from Dr. Seuss.
This unit is a “work in progress” nd there are four lesson plans associated with this unit based on the following books: Yertle the Turtle, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, Horton Hears a Who and Daisy Head Mayzie. Each lesson will be posted separately so come back later to look at the others.
Dr. Seuss Goes to Church: Yertle The Turtle. On what foundation do we build our lives? Yertle can help us think about that.
Prepared by Marcia A. Rauch, MA in Christian Education (MACE), Entering cohort: 2006
Dr. Seuss Goes to Church: Yertle the Turtle by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Try also How the Grinch Stole Christmas as a beautiful story of forgiveness, mirroring the prodigal son parable.
Do you have any more information on the grinch as a lesson? i would really appreciate it!
We didn’t have a lesson based on the Grinch. Marcia Rauch had developed four lessons based on Dr. Seuss books (Yertle the Turtle, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, Horton Hears a Who and Daizy-Head Mayzie) that can be found in various places on the site. I’m sorry we don’t have the one you’re looking for.
Thanks for the suggestion! We love it when readers share their ideas for good connection stories!
In OCt. 09 Marcia posted one of four dr. suess lessons and said the others would come. Did she ever post the others. I couldnt find them here.
The four lessons that Marcia did based on Dr. Seuss can be found here:
Yertle the Turtle: http://storypath.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/dr-seuss-goes-to-church/
Daisy-Head Mayzie: http://storypath.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/dr-seuss-goes-to-church-daisy-head-mayzie/
Horton Hears a Who: http://storypath.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/dr-seuss-goes-to-church-horton-hears-a-who/
Bartholomew and the Oobleck: http://storypath.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/dr-seuss-goes-to-church-part-2/