Creating Ads for Thneeds from The Lorax

Before you ask students to start creating ads, you will need to introduce your lesson plan:

• Read The Lorax and ask students to pay attention to all the things a Thneed can do.
• Show students examples of other ads that advertise a product that you find particularly appealing.
• Draw your students' attention to advertising techniques, such as using a celebrity or testimonial, claiming a product is the best or that everyone has one, listing sale prices, and so on.
• Make a list of reasons with your class on why everyone should want to buy a thneed (according to the text of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.) Make this fun! Remember, thneeds have many uses and purposes: thneeds are a shirt, a sock, a glove, and a hat. They can be used for carpets, pillows, sheets, curtains, and bicycle seats.

1. Allow students to work individually or in pairs when they are creating ads for The Lorax. Depending on their learning styles, some students work better by themselves, and some work better in groups. If you do this activity once you are into the school year, you will know your students' work habits well.
2. Provide several different materials for students to create ads. They could use computers or draw the ad by hand. Provide markers, poster board, scissors, and glue.
3. Make sure there are other ads for students to refer to.
4. Point out the list you made at the beginning of the lesson for students to focus their ads and to use a selling technique. Students can make up prices (although the story says a thneed is $3.98), stores where the thneeds are sold, special deals if consumers "call right now," and so on.
5. Encourage students to draw in Dr. Seuss's style if possible to have more fun with this Lorax activity.

Once students are finished creating ads for The Lorax, you can have an ad party. Ask parents to donate food and drink items for the party to save on cost. For fun, you can decorate the room with Dr. Seuss items or even paper Truffula trees. You can display students' ads around the room with comment sheets under each one for positive comments only. As students are eating and drinking, they can walk around the room, view each other's ads, and write comments to their classmates. You can also have students give a presentation of their ad and tell classmates what advertising techniques they used when creating ads.

For more Lorax activities:

"The Industrial Revolution and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss" (a social studies lesson)

"Using Context Clues to Find Meaning in The Lorax" (a reading lesson)