What’s it all about? A visit to an art museum entirely dedicated to horses invites readers to think about how artists share their ideas with us, and how the art they make is shaped by their experiences. While focused on visual art, Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum offers a perfect springboard to explore language arts and history at the same time. An energetic and knowledgeable horse tour guide (yes, a horse!) shepherds young visitors through a museum featuring reproductions of real paintings, sculptures, and textiles. Our equine guide asks the kids to not just look at the art, but also to think about the artist and what they thought, felt, and wanted to tell us when creating their piece. He invites the museum visitors and readers to Look, Think, and Talk. Explore point of view, meaning, artistic expression, and interpretation with Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum. Note to teachers: Most of the ideas here are adaptable to different age groups, so read through the activities for all ages. You can adapt activities based on your needs or interests. You’ll find lots of interesting ideas. Text TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 2019. Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Andrew Joyner Seuss Enterprises, L.P. TM & copyright © by Dr. Text A never-before- published book about creating and looking at art! Based on a manuscript and sketches discovered in 2013, this book is like a visit to a museum—with a horse as your guide! Explore how different artists have seen horses, and maybe even find a new way of looking at them yourself. Discover full-color photographic reproductions of pieces by Pablo Picasso, George Stubbs, Rosa Bonheur, Alexander Calder, Jacob Lawrence, Deborah Butterfield, Franz Marc, Jackson Pollock, and many others—all of which feature a horse! Young readers will find themselves delightfully transported by the engaging equines as they learn about the creative process and see art in new ways. Taking inspiration from Dr. Seuss’s original sketches, acclaimed illustrator Andrew Joyner has created a look that is both subtly Seussian and wholly his own. His whimsical illustrations are combined throughout with reproductions of art, as we tour a museum with our horse guide. Cameo appearances by classic Dr. Seuss characters (among them the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch, and Horton the Elephant) make Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum a playful picture book that is totally unique. Ideal for home or classroom use, it encourages critical thinking and makes a great gift for Dr. Seuss fans, artists, and horse lovers of all ages. Text TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 2019. Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Andrew Joyner Seuss Enterprises, L.P. TM & copyright © by Dr. Text ACTIVITIES FOR Kindergarten–2nd Grade These activities introduce your students to the book, art museums, and concepts in visual art, but focus primarily on language arts. Using the art in the book, kids practice telling and retelling stories either in writing or orally. They identify the creators of the artwork, main characters, key details, and the piece’s main message. They also practice using the main idea of a text to create similar texts. Read-aloud Read pages 10–28 aloud, and talk with students about how the featured pieces Read-aloud warm-up: of art explore these concepts: Ask students if they have ever been to an art • Outlines and lines museum. If so, ask what they saw there and • Bulk or solid form what it was like. If not, explain that museums are • Color places where artists’ work is kept and displayed. • Shape If you display their artwork in your classroom, • Strength point that out. Explain that usually at a museum • Speed you look at things but don’t touch them. There may be paintings, drawings, sculptures, Ask questions like: What do you see here? How photographs, collages, and other items at an does the artist use (line/shape/form/color) to art museum. Ask the students if they like to draw, show speed or strength? Do any of the paintings paint, make collages or sculptures, or take or sculptures make you think of other paintings, pictures. Point out art projects they have done drawings, sculptures, or book illustrations you’ve or provide other books that show these types seen? of art. Be sure to mention the artist, the name of the Explain that this is a book about a horse piece, and where it came from (if known) as you museum. All the art in the museum is about are reading. (Extensive back matter provides horses, and even the tour guide is a horse! The extra details.) Talk about how a painting or guide invites us to look at the art, think about it, sculpture can tell a story, and encourage students and talk about it. to look carefully at the featured art for interesting details. Mention that this book was started by Dr. Seuss a long time ago, but never published. Another artist, Andrew Joyner, worked with Dr. Seuss’s ideas to create the book. He honors Dr. Seuss with his pictures. Can the kids figure out how? Text TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 2019. Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Andrew Joyner Seuss Enterprises, L.P. TM & copyright © by Dr. Text ACTIVITIES FOR Kindergarten–2nd Grade Retelling stories Invite the students to act out their Pictures tell a story. When you are finished song or poem and new verses. reading pages 10–28, choose one or two pieces “This Is the Way the Lady Rides” of art featured in the book or another piece This is the way the lady rides . featuring a horse for the students to examine This is the way the gentleman rides . closely. Ask them to look at the details and think This is the way the farmer rides . about what kind of story the artist is telling. This is the way the cowboy/girl rides . Encourage them to write a story about the piece This is the way the hunter rides . using descriptive language or to describe it orally. “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain When She Comes” Look. Think. Talk. (Or write!) She’ll be comin’ round the mountain when she comes . As is age appropriate, ask students to include She’ll be drivin’ six white horses the name of the artist and piece if it is known, when she comes . details from the artwork that are important to We’ll all come out to see her their story, if there is more than one character when she comes . (horse, person, other animal), and something about how they see the work. What might the “Over the River and Through the Wood” rider of the horse be thinking? How do the other by Lydia Maria Child horses or animals feel? Over the river and through the wood To Grandfather’s house we go. Horse nursery rhymes and songs The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh Poems and songs are another kind of art. Share Through the white and drifting snow! a horse-themed song or poem with your class, and invite students to change the words or add “Ride a Cockhorse to Banbury Cross” a verse, following the structure set up in the song Ride a cockhorse to Banbury Cross or poem. They can draw inspiration from their To see a fine lady upon a white horse; own interests or from the artwork in Dr. Seuss’s Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, Horse Museum. Encourage students to She shall have music wherever she goes. try creating a verse from the horse’s point of view! (A quick internet 2019. Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Andrew Joyner Seuss Enterprises, L.P. TM & copyright © by Dr. Text search will give you other verses and tunes of the following songs.) ACTIVITIES FOR 3rd–5th Grades These activities introduce your students to the book and how artists throughout history have depicted horses in different ways. Students will tell stories based on the artwork in the book in play form, using different points of view and reflecting on the role a narrator plays. Students will also have the opportunity to explore inference and use illustrations to gain information. Look. Think. Talk. Shown vs. implied; explicit vs. Explore point of view and voice by looking at the implicit meaning art and thinking about what that artist was trying Art detectives to accomplish and convey or what the subjects of When you get a feeling from a picture and the work might be thinking or feeling. decide (or infer) what is happening or what the Before sharing Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum with artist wants to tell you based on the details, that’s your students, ask them to think about any books, implied or inferred meaning. poems, music, TV shows, or movies they know When the artist shows you what is happening, for that feature horses. How are the horses depicted? example, a horse’s muscles straining as it pulls a Who describes them or shows them to you? How? heavy cart or a rider directing a horse with reins, How does the way the horse is being featured the artist is showing you what is happening. That’s (painting, story, movie, music) affect the overall explicit meaning. impression? When detectives solve a mystery, they have to One of the goals of visual art is to get the viewer look at clues—details and facts about a situation. to look at something that may be familiar in a new They also have to follow their instincts. They have way.