Glendale News Press
March 10 2006
Green eggs and learning
By Vince Lovato, News-Press and Leader
CYNTHIA PERRY News-Press and Leader
Ani Nazmanian and Michelle Garabetian watch in delight as their
teacher turning eggs green in honor of the birthday of Dr. Seuss.
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First-grade students at Chamlian Armenian School wore self-made paper
“Cat In The Hat” hats Friday and ate green eggs and ham in tribute to
Dr. Seuss’ 102nd birthday.
Unlike the fried eggs made famous by the Dr. Seuss book, these eggs
were scrambled but were green just the same.
Students from two classrooms gathered around Glendale City Councilman
Ara Najarian, whose nephew, Vahe Yacoubian, is a second-grader at the
school, as he read “The Cat In The Hat” to start the morning.
After the reading, teacher’s assistant Anna Avanessian whipped up the
eggs and mixed in green vegetable dye, which Nicole Abnous, 6,
declared “a magic potion.”
“I like when they do the fun tricks,” Nicole said about Thing One and
Thing Two in “The Cat In The Hat.”
Arman Manoukian, 7, also liked the chaos in the book.
“Everything’s a mess and the Cat In The Hat cleans it up,” Arman
said. “I like making messes but my mom just made me clean up the one
in my room.”
It was Arman’s first chance to taste green eggs.
“I liked the eggs green but I like the ham most of all,” he said.
Arman said he was an inventor so he can relate to Dr. Seuss.
“He’s very creative and I’m about as creative as he is,” said Arman,
who wants to be a military pilot. “Every day I make something
different with my toys.”
The green eggs and Dr. Seuss books were incentives to teach children
the joy of reading, teacher Souzy Ohanian said.
“It’s very good for the kids because they will be exposed to
different activities,” she said. “We integrate the curriculum
throughout the year.”
She ties the reading into lessons about eating healthy foods and
social studies.
“This will promote them to read more and show them how important
reading is in their daily lives,” Ohanian said.
She often allows students to read books at home then they are
“teacher of the day” and give oral reports for the class about the
books.
Najarian said he read Dr. Seuss to his children.
“Dr. Seuss is truly an American icon and it’s important that his
literature is passed on to all our generations,” Najarian said.
“I hadn’t read that book for seven years but every time you read it
you get something different from it. I’m glad it is part of the
multi-cultural education that Chamlian exposes to these kids.”