Yertle the Turtle

With Dr. Seuss' birthday right around the corner, we've been reading Seuss books lately.  At the library, we picked a story the kids had never read: Yertle the Turtle.  The story is about a greedy turtle king who sits on a throne made of other turtles, and poor little Mack, the turtle on the bottom of the stack.

After reading the book, we made a little "pond" out of a blue napkin, some aquarium plants, plastic turtles and some glass beads.  We practiced stacking up the glass beads (aka turtles), and then retold the story using props.  The kids loved it (especially the parts where Yertle yells things they aren't usually allowed to say to each other...like "hush"!)