DAPHNE, Ala.—This year Dr. Seuss’ birthday fell in the middle of another celebration at Daphne Elementary School and teachers incorporated the two events together.

“We lucked up this year because every year we have two weeks where we study (Discipline Based Arts Education) week, basically where we take fine arts and incorporate it with our core curriculum. We chose Dr. Seuss and it just happened to work out where his birthday was in the middle of the week,” Elizabeth Woodson, media specialist, said.

The D.B.A.E. program aims to bring arts into the classroom, Jan Palmer, Daphne Elementary principal said.

Last week on Seuss’ birthday, students and teachers dressed up for “Wacky Wednesday”; students also had story time with Leslie Johnson, who read Dr. Seuss stories.

Each grade level created learning centers that included books to read and art activities. The activity was called “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” in honor of Seuss’ famous book.

Woodson said the school celebrated Seuss’ birthday because of his broad appeal.

“He is a classic.” Woodson said. “He has got such wonderful themes in each of his stories with words that are easy enough for our younger readers to enjoy. Kids of all ages love Dr. Seuss. The students enjoy the colorful images and get excited over recreating artwork because Seuss really encourages imagination.”

Palmer said celebrating Seuss gets children interested in reading all kinds of books.

“The main reason to celebrate his birthday is to celebrate reading and to get the children so excited about reading Dr. Seuss that it will carry over to other books and they will be excited about reading, period.” Palmer said.