Seuss-Inspired Hide and Seek: Wocket in My Pocket

I love Dr. Seuss for making the ridiculous educational and the educational ridiculous. The Bit has a good collection of board books from Seuss and around Christmas got her first “real” books with paper (Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish).

So I knew I wanted to do something to mark Seuss’ birthday this year. We went to our local library’s “birthday party,” but it was chaos, so I wanted to do something else, too.

I’ve seen lots of cute ideas for games and activites surrounding different Seuss books, and when I found the wocket printables at The Princess and the Tot, I knew I had to do something with them. (There’s a Wocket in My Pocket is one of our bedtime books, which the bit calls “Wocket Pocket.”)

“Wocket Pocket” Hide and Seek

The project on the Princess and the Tot, which is an alphabet matching game, is really cute, but I figured it was a bit above my 2.5 year old. So instead I decided to hide wockets around her playroom that she could then find and put in her “pocket.”

If you have an old pair of jeans and a color printer, this will take you no time at all to put together, and it would be great fun any time of year.

What You’ll Need

• an old pair of jeans with a decent-looking pocket
• a large, heavy piece of craft foam (or a piece of cardboard, foam board or anything else somewhat firm to mount the pocket on)
• wocket printouts (I did two pages for a total of 16)
• construction paper or cardstock
• white glue and glue stick or tape
• fabric and paper scissors

What You’ll Do

1. Use fabric scissors to cut out the pocket, leaving a little of the denim of the jeans as an edging. Trim your foam board to a good size to contain the pocket and glue down with white glue.

   

2. Cut two sheets of construction paper into eighths. Trim your wockets so they’ll fit on the paper and tape down. If your house is the sort to have cardstock lying around, you could use that instead of construction paper, and/or glue stick instead of tape. In this house we’re all about using what’s handy.

   

3. Leave one wocket in the pocket and hide the rest.

   

I started by putting the pocket under the Bit’s white board, because I figured that’s a place she would notice. Then I put another wocket on the board along with a quote from Oh the Thinks You Can Think:

Think left and think right. Think low and think high. Oh the THINKS you can THINK up if only you try.

The rest of the wockets I scattered around, with some out in the open (on her coloring table, on the couch, in her cradle) some partially hidden (in the St. Patrick’s Day box and the regular sensory stuff) and some completely out of view (in her blocks and a toy suitcase — she still hasn’t found those!).

Once she noticed the board (she was admittedly a little distracted by her new dollhouse that we also presented that day) she had a lot of fun discovering the wockets that were hanging out. She knew right away that they needed to go in the pocket, and she kept going back to it when she’d find another one.

I hope that she’ll want me to hide these again for her. I’ll probably do it again on my own and see if she finds it fun. I thought it was really cute.

If your kid isn’t into wockets in pockets, you could still do some kind of hide and seek with printed items of whatever your child is into. And the pocket is a great place to put them, but you could also just use a pail, bucket or basket you have lying around. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Thanks for visiting, sharing and commenting!

This post is linked to the Sundae Scoop at I Heart Nap Time, the Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming, Whatcha Got Weekend at Lolly Jane Boutique, Once Upon a Weekend at Family Ever After and Skip to My Lou’s Made by You Mondays. Check them out for more great crafty ideas!