‘The Cat In The Hat’ by Dr. Seuss is an imaginative narrative about a mad cat who comes to the aid of some very bored children. However as soon as he appears he seems to cause as much trouble as he does fun, chided by the fish throughout, The Cat In The Hat tries to first impress the children by juggling with as many household items as possible, failing this he conjures up Thing one and Thing Two who equally do a bad job of making the house untidy and breaking things. But there is resolve, The Cat In The Hat returns with a special tidying and cleaning machine, managing to restore a state of calm just before the children’s mother arrives home.
What is appealing about The Cat In the Hat to children is the idea that this fantastical character with so many imaginative ideas of fun and play comes to save the children when they are bored (something that many children find intolerable). He gets it wrong of course and for a minute seems to cause more grief than joy, but he saves them again when he tidies up and stops the children from getting into trouble, which is a child-like quality of trying to do something fun or interesting, not understanding the rules and trying to get yourself out of trouble when the penny drops.
The most prominent feature of the writing is the repetition of similarly spelled and sounding words such as: ‘cat’, ‘hat’, ‘sat’, ‘funny’ and ‘sunny’ which will aid children with their pronunciation when reading and help with the spelling of these words too.
When teaching I would use ‘The Cat In The Hat’ to aid spelling and to look at rhyming words when considering poetry writing. In my opinion ‘The Cat In The Hat’ would be best suited to Key Stage One readers.
What is appealing about The Cat In the Hat to children is the idea that this fantastical character with so many imaginative ideas of fun and play comes to save the children when they are bored (something that many children find intolerable). He gets it wrong of course and for a minute seems to cause more grief than joy, but he saves them again when he tidies up and stops the children from getting into trouble, which is a child-like quality of trying to do something fun or interesting, not understanding the rules and trying to get yourself out of trouble when the penny drops.
The most prominent feature of the writing is the repetition of similarly spelled and sounding words such as: ‘cat’, ‘hat’, ‘sat’, ‘funny’ and ‘sunny’ which will aid children with their pronunciation when reading and help with the spelling of these words too.
When teaching I would use ‘The Cat In The Hat’ to aid spelling and to look at rhyming words when considering poetry writing. In my opinion ‘The Cat In The Hat’ would be best suited to Key Stage One readers.