Instead of hiding the book in your hands and letting the preschoolers passively listen to the story, put the text and pictures out there during an interactive read-aloud. Pointing to the print pages during story-time sessions can help young children to develop language and reading skills, according to the study "Print-Focused Read-Alouds in Preschool Classrooms: Intervention Effectiveness and Moderators of Child Outcomes" published in 2010 in the journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. As you turn each page of "Fox in Socks" show the students what you are reading. Point to the words. Go back and ask the children to repeat the words -- such as "fox" or "box"-- as you point to them. Continue on, asking the preschoolers questions that are specific to what you have read and pointed out. For example, ask the preschoolers, "What rhyming word was on the page with Knox?" The answer is "box."
The tongue twisters in Dr. Seuss's "Fox in Socks" play to the young child's developing ability to understand and use rhyme. Young children shouldn't feel like learning about language is a heavy task. Playing with rhymes is one way to punch up literacy lessons, according to the national early childhood organization Zero to Three. Try a rhyming activity in which the preschoolers have to make up new rhymes using some of the words from the book. For example, instead of "fox in socks" they might say, "fox in blocks" or "fox in a box" or instead of "Tweetle Beetle" the preschoolers can rhyme, "tweetle needle."
Preschoolers are in the midst of learning to sequence events and tell stories by looking at pictures. Try a visual activity in which the children look at the book's pictures and tell you what is going on. Their words don't have to match the words from the text exactly. For example, point to the picture of the fox and then to the socks. Ask the children what they think is going on in the page. You can also use a fill-in-the-blank question along with the viewing activity such as, "Knox is standing in what?" Add on to this activity by having the preschoolers draw their own "Fox in Socks" books. Invite them to create pictures that match the story -- such as a fox, their interpretation of Knox or other characters -- on construction paper, using crayons or markers. Put each child's pictures together into a book by stapling one side.
Get creative and help your students to use their imaginations. During the preschool years children are beginning to draw more realistic representations of people and animals and are exploring through dramatic play. Have each student bring in one white or light-colored tube sock. Glue on googly eyes and use non-toxic fabric markers to create fox sock puppets. Use the puppets to act out the book or create new pretend play scenes. Create other story character puppets such as Slow Joe Crow, Goo-Goose, Bim or Ben to add to the pretend play.