Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat on lessons found in ‘Horton Hatches the Egg’ – part of February’s ‘I Love to Read’ Month activities
Dr. Seuss’s own Cat in the Hat (Mountain Lake’s own Pam Logue, former second-grade and Title 1 teacher at Mountain Lake Public Elementary School) swept into Mountain Lake Public Elementary School on Wednesday morning, February 25 sashaying from classroom-to-classroom to read the Seuss book, “Horton Hatches the Egg” and sharing the lessons within the pages of the story – responsibility.
The visit of the Cat in the Hat, along with “Horton Hatches the Egg” – published in 1940 and now in its 75th year – was one event at the school in a long list of February “I Love to Read” Month activities.
“Horton Hatches the Egg” is the first book to feature Horton the Elephant and Mayzie la Bird (and, at the climax of the story, Morton the Elephant Bird). The story focuses on the benefits of diligence and consequences of shirking work.
Mayzie was a lazy bird who did not like siting on eggs. It was boring and she wanted to take off and see the world, so she asked Horton, the elephant, to sit on her egg while she took a vacation to Palm Springs in Florida.
Horton sat on that egg through the fall, the icy cold of winter and on into springtime.
Then hunters capture the elephant and take him to a circus . . . transporting tree, egg, elephant and all. Poor Horton does not like being a captive, but will not leave the egg because, in his own words, “I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent.”
Mayzie finds Horton at the circus just in time to see her egg hatch. She demands the egg back, but is denied it by Horton and onlookers when it hatches into a tiny winged elephant – Huzzah! – it is Morton the Elephant Bird.
The moral of the story is, “Be responsible – even when it’s difficult.” This lesson is taught in several ways. First, Mayzie demonstrates irresponsibility in leaving her egg for someone else to watch. Second, Horton demonstrates responsibility in keeping his promise to Mayzie by staying with the egg, even when it’s hard to do so. Finally, the elephant’s ability to stay true and steadfast despite all manner of disasters that happened to him demonstrates that Horton is faithful not only to his egg-sitting obligations – but to his inner self as well.
Additional “I Love to Read” activities scattered throughout the school days of February included:
* Reading time in the Fish House put up in the Mountain Lake Public Elementary School library.
* Class swap times.
* Guest readers.
* Stop, Drop and Read times.
* Bingo times.
* Special Wednesday dress-up days – Comfy/Pajama Day, White-Out Day, Hat and/or Scarf Day and Class Color Day.
* Wear red on Fridays.
* Teachers dine with their students on Fridays.
The month’s events will overlap into March with a pair of activities during the month’s first week:
* “Green Eggs and Ham” from 7:30 a.m. to 8:05 a.m. in the cafeteria in honor of Dr. Seuss, his birthday and his book of that title on Monday, March 2.
* Minnesota State University-Mankato Children’s Theater presentation for grades kindergarten-through-four on Thursday afternoon, March 5.
