Dr. Seuss Bookmarks

Reading bookmarks are one of the simplest ways to build a reading habit, and this Dr. Seuss bookmarks worksheet turns that habit into something a child makes with their own hands. Kindergarten readers color three tall bookmarks, cut them out on the line, and write their name at the bottom, so every bookmark belongs to the child who made it. Along the way they practice the fine-motor skills early literacy depends on, from controlled coloring to cutting on a curved line to forming the letters of their own name, while the words on each strip give them three short reading phrases to say out loud.

This page of printable reading bookmarks to color is a single print-ready sheet, so there is no prep beyond hitting print. Give each child a copy, a box of crayons, and a pair of safety scissors. They color the picture and the lettering, cut along the rounded outline of each strip, and write their name on the line at the foot. Card stock makes the finished bookmarks last longer, and a strip of clear tape or a quick pass through a laminator will keep them going all year. The three strips are the same size, so they also work as a set to share, with one to keep and two to give to reading buddies.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• 3 color-and-cut reading bookmarks
• Original black-line art on every bookmark: a stack of books, an owl, and a child reading
• A name line on each bookmark

There are three reasons this Dr. Seuss bookmarks worksheet helps young readers. First, it makes reading visible, because a child who carries a bookmark they made is a child who expects to come back to their book. Second, it builds hand strength and control, since coloring inside a shape and cutting along a line use the same muscles a five-year-old is using to learn to write. Third, the short phrases on the strips are built from words that turn up again and again in kindergarten texts, so every glance at the bookmark is another look at words the child is learning to recognize on sight.

Teachers and parents can stretch the activity in a few directions. Punch a hole at the top of each finished bookmark and tie a length of yarn through it so it hangs out of the book. Let children swap bookmarks with a partner and read the phrase on their partner’s strip out loud. Keep a small basket of spare bookmarks beside the classroom library so a child who finishes a book can pick a fresh one. At home, tape a bookmark to the fridge as a reminder of the nightly reading routine, and let your child choose which of the three goes into the book you are reading together tonight.

Related Resources

• Informational Books Reading Log Activity
• Alphabet Stories Letter I Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• Alphabet Stories Letter V Reading Comprehension Worksheet
• Sight Word Songs Volume 1 (Have Fun Teaching)