Lesson Plan

500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins Lesson Plan

Students create their own zany hats that serve as data for a graphing activity.

  • Grades: PreK–K, 1–2

About this book

Grade Level Equivalent: 3.7
Lexile Measure: 520L
Guided Reading Level:
Age: Age 6, Age 7, Age 5
Genre: Comedy and Humor
Subject: Cleverness, Creativity and Imagination

Overview

Dr. Seuss's 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins lends itself well to a graphing activity. Students love creating and wearing these zany hats.

Objective

Students will "collect, sort, organize, and draw conclusions about data using concrete objects, pictures, numbers, and graphs." --Massachusetts Mathematics Curriculum Framework

Materials

  • 500 Hats for Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss
  • newspapers
  • masking tape
  • pipe cleaners
  • feathers
  • colored markers
  • sequins or craft jewels
  • craft pom poms


Gather the following materials for your graph:

  • new shower curtain liner
  • colored masking tape

Set Up and Prepare

Spread out the curtain liner and use the tape to create a large grid. The liner will function as a large piece of graph paper. Be certain the squares are big enough to fit an object like a shoe, stuffed animal, or paper hat.

Directions

Take three sheets of newspaper and open them, fanning them out on top of one another. Place them on top of a student's head, forming the paper to his or her head. Use the masking tape to circle round the newspaper (around forehead level), folding up the edges of the paper to create a brim. Tape brim in place. This should result in a hat that forms to the students head, and looks somewhat like a cowboy hat.

Have students use the markers to color their hats before gluing on assorted craft materials. (They should choose one color marker when decorating.) Try wrapping pipe cleaners around a pencil to create a spiral. After removing them, glue a feather or pom pom to one end, and attach the other end to a hat. This will create a bouncy pipe cleaner effect.

Spread out the shower curtain graph and gather students in a semi-circle. Have students take turns placing their hats on the graph, sorting by:
A) number of pom poms
B) number of feathers
C) number of pipe cleaners
D) shape
E) color

Supporting All Learners

Remind students at the beginning of this activity that they will NOT be sharing hats.

Lesson Extensions

Use a large sheet of graph paper to record and label one of the student-generated graphs.

For older students, have them use graph paper to create graphs based on their "Bartholomew" hats.


Related Resources

www.seussville.com
Hats, Hats, Hats by Ann Morris
Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats
Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina

  • Part of Collection:
    Dr. Seuss Author Study
  • Subjects:
    Cleverness, Charts and Graphs, Arts and Crafts, Colors, Early Math, Creativity and Imagination, Following Directions, Shapes and Sizes, Sorting
  • Skills:
    Charts and Graphs
  • Duration:
    2 Class Periods
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