Analyzing 'The Cat in the Hat' for Early Childhood Education Purposes

This essay examines the role of picture books in early childhood education, with a specific focus on Dr. Seuss's 'The Cat in the Hat'. The introduction highlights the importance of early literacy and the need for educators to carefully select resources. The essay analyzes the physical and aesthetic characteristics of the book, such as its humor, illustrations, and strong characters, and how these features make it suitable for early learners. The essay then delves into the educational potential of 'The Cat in the Hat' for developing vocabulary, reading skills, and social skills. It suggests how the resource could be used with individual children, small groups, and larger groups, emphasizing the importance of interaction and engagement. The essay concludes by reinforcing the significance of choosing appropriate resources for children's language and literacy development, emphasizing the value of picture books in this process. The essay provides references to support the arguments made, and discusses the use of the book in the classroom.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 1
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Student
Institution

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 2
Introduction
Early literacy equips kids with skills of getting ready to learn. While early literacy is
important, not all resources or methods fit here. Early childhood educators have to be choosy and
critical of the quality of resources they use for children’s language and literacy development
(Currues, 2014). In their early ages, these kids increasingly become aware of the language and
literacy skills their educators and parents use and begin to use it. Talking, reading, singing,
dancing, storytelling, and playing games with them are the surest resources that educators can
embrace to build these children’s understanding of language (Kenned, 2017). In Dr. Seuss’ “The
cat in the hat”, an eccentric stranger (a cat) enters a house of two kids (Sally and Sam) and finds
them playing in a dull day. The mother of Sam and Sally is not in the house, and immediately the
Cat enters the house, he reassures the kids their mother will accept his tricks. The outer cover of
the book has a cat in form a cartoon, smiling. In early childhood education, “The cat in the hat”
picture book will be suitable to teaching kids how to learn, read and write, play together/
socialize, and have fun with each other. In particular, the essay will focus on Dr. Seuss’ “The cat
in the hat” picture book which as 61 pages.
How physical and aesthetic characteristics of your resource make it a suitable educational
artefact
I have always liked to interact with kids aged between three to five years. In this
interaction, these children love fun, jokes, and imitating what mature people do. As a student, I
have always been reading story books, novels, and other newsletters that relate to my profession.
My niece in particular, aged 4 years liked to copy what I was doing and would at all times have a
pencil and a book trying to do exactly what I am doing. To me, the interest of this child is to
learn new things and be informed a passion that provokes him even at this early age (Currues,
2014). Not only my niece, I have observed children in baby class who crave to understand the
names of different things by a view of their pictures. The other thing I have observed with baby
class kids is their passion to learn how to handle and make use of books in order to gain
knowledge. These are the main reasons why I chose “The cat in the hat” picture-book as the
educational resource that early childhood educators should select as far as imparting children
with language and literacy skills development is concerned.

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The physical and aesthetic characteristics of “The cat in the hat” picture book make it a
suitable educational artefact for early literacy phase learners (Yokota & Teale, 2014). The
picture book, “The cat in the hat” forms the best example for analysis in this case and was
written by Dr. Seuss.
Kids can be compared to animals in a ranch; they simply follow what they are instructed
to do. According to (Debbie, 2012), nothing attracts children like pictures and attractive physical
appearance for an item. Relating what they use on a daily basis is very easy for kids, and this
makes picture-books the right resource selection to these early learners (for three to five years of
age).
The most useful physical and aesthetic characteristics of “The cat in the hat” picture book
that make this selection suitable in educating early learners include high sense of humor,
illustrations that are engaging with different colors, strong/big characters visible to kids, a
pictorial illustration that teaches the concept, and elements of pattern. According to (Jansma,
2013), a picture book has 3 elements namely words, pictures, and what is conveyed by
combining both the verbal and visual art; all these are in Dr. Seuss “The cat in the hat”. Also, the
author argues that to children, seeing believing and this is largely related to their understanding
of value and concepts. In this context, the early years of a child are full of anxiety and cravings
to know new things such as counting, reading nous, and translating items such as cups, plates,
tins, umbrella, cartoons, pens, and books in their mother tongue just to mention a few (Kenned,
2017). Here, the physical attributes of “The cat in the hat” determine its suitability in imparting
relevance to these kids between three to five years.
According to (Evans, Shaw, & Michelle, 2015), reading is the mother of understanding.
For example, “The cat in the hat” is written using big/ strong words and this greatly helps kids to
read and understand. By just seeing the big picture, a kid is able to relate it to the exact item he

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 4
or she is used to see in their home place. As an educational artefact, “The cat in the hat” picture
book is very effective for small kids because it makes use of different and attractive colors to
grab their attention. Diagrammatic representation, another physical attribute in “The cat in the
hat” picture-book creates a sense of humor on kids; bring fun and laughter to them as they
continue to learn new values and concepts (Williams, 2018). A good example of aesthetic
attribute in this picture book is a girl drawn together with a boy holding each other’s hand while
going to school with a bag on their back. This aesthetic makes kids admire to practice the same,
an approach that brings a sense of being sociable and learning to study together and not alone.
Its educational potential that would make it a valuable language and literacy artefact
Beyond any reasonable doubt, “The cat in the hat” picture book hold impeccable
educational potential to kids as far as language and literacy development is concerned. The “The
cat in the hat” Picture-book helps in building vocabulary, relating English and other languages to
mother tongue, beginning to write through pictures, understanding letter-sound connections,
spark children’s imagination, stimulate kids’ curiosity to learn, grow children’s brain and social
skills, and help in the development of children communication skills (Rosen & Hardy, 2015).
According to (Whitehurst & Francine, 2018), picture-books represent a reality; and this is
clear in Dr. Seuss “The cat in the hat”. What kids like is humor. In this case, the early childhood
educators are dealing with children aged between three to five years. The most basic goal for
educating these children is to teach them reading skills, writing skills, social skills,
communication skills, and to spark their curiosity to become top readers. In this perspective,
picture books give the greatest potential to unleash valuable language and literacy development
to this age group’s learners (Yokota & Teale, 2014). For example, a picture book needs to have
the vowel letters, numbers 1 to 10, and alphabetical words A to Z all written in big words.
Teachers will find it very easy to teach kids how to pronounce them, read them chronologically,
and even in connecting them to write their names.
Suggest how you might use this resource with:
An individual child

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 5
As an Early Childhood Educator, I would use “The cat in the hat” picture book perfectly
even with an individual child. Educating one child is easier than handling a group of children
since it is simple to have an interaction (Yokota & Teale, 2014). First, I would use “The cat in
the hat” picture book as a strategy to encourage the child to read. It will be easy to read and have
the child imitate as I read and thus equipping the kid with skills of reading in his or her own.
Also, I would instruct the child to draw on a book the letters, numbers, or images that are
displayed in the book, “The cat in the hat”. This approach would equip the child with skills of
holding a pen, drawing, and even writing. In addition, I will require the kid to go through the
pictures in order to develop his or her own story with a big guess at the picture book, and to even
imagine a dialogue (Whitehurst & Francine, 2018). Moreover, I would engage the child to use
marking colors in by coloring a picture drawn in the book as a strategy to improving his or her
keenness skills.
A small group
In early childhood education, a small group ranges between three to five children.
Engaging a small group of early literacy learners is the surest strategy for a teacher to make full
interaction with the kids, have them socialize, have them learn best communication skills, have
them exchange ideas, and have them to play and have fun. As far as “The cat in the hat” picture
book is concerned, teaching a small group of kids is simple (Debbie, 2012). I would apply
concepts in “The cat in the hat” picture book to help a group understand the importance of
teamwork by seeing and analyzing a diagram. In this perspective, I would use picture books to
have a small group of children play together holding their hands and dancing together as shown
in “The cat in the hat” front cover.
A larger group (more than 7 children) - it is suitable
In addition, I would also use “The cat in the hat” picture book for a larger group that
exceeds seven children. However, this depends on the number of picture books available.
Normally, “The cat in the hat” picture books have only 61 pages and cost less. Therefore, I
would require every kid to have his own book, and parents will have the responsibility to buy the
books for their own kids. In dealing with the larger group of kids, I would divide them into
groups of three to five children whereby each group is supervised differently (Kenned, 2017).

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Although the content taught will be the same, these groups will be competing in games to
practice what I have taught them. Using the grouping approach would greatly help me in
ensuring that all pictures in the book are clearly understood and the content fully practiced by the
kids.
Conclusion
In conclusion, early childhood educators have to be wise in choosing the type of resource
to use for children’s language and literacy development. The early literacy phase plays a major
role in the success of children to their future learning. There are numerous resources that early
educators can use to build children’s language and literacy skills, good examples include picture
books, posters, songs, objects, poems, puppet, dance, and felt board just to mention a few. In
particular, picture books are a perfect resource that early childhood educators use to impart
knowledge and skills of learning to children. The physical and aesthetic attributes of picture
books such as humor, strong characters, elements of pattern, and colorful illustrations help to
ensure that kids learn and understand well.

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References
Currues, J. (2014). Early childhood education programs. Journal of Economic perspectives,
15(2), 213-238.
Debbie, O. R. (2012). Why picture books are important. Reading, Writing and Illustrating
Children's Books, 12(4), 12-26.
Evans, M. A., Shaw, D., & Michelle, B. (2015). Home literacy activities and their influence on
early literacy skills. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54(2), 65.
Jansma, K. (2013). Literary Artifacts: Why Children’s Books Matter. Electric Literature(3), 4-
20.
Kenned, B. (2017). Seeing is Believing - The Benefits of Picture Books for Building Reading
Skills. EBSCO Post, 2(2), 4-6.
Rosen, M., & Hardy, P. (2015). Picture books: Services to schools. Journal of Reading
Engagement, 1(1), 8-18.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Francine, L. F. (2018). Accelerating language development through picture
book reading. Developmental psychology, 24(4), 552.
Williams, A. (2018). Picture books: A great way to encourage children to read. Mail &
Guardian, 5(3), 1-6.
Yokota, J., & Teale, W. H. (2014). Picture books and the digital world: Educators making
informed choices. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 577-585.