The 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
Dr. Seuss's The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins lends itself well to a graphing activity. Students love creating and wearing these zany hats.
Students will "collect, sort, organize, and draw conclusions about data using concrete objects, pictures, numbers, and graphs." --Massachusetts Mathematics Curriculum Framework
- The 500 Hats for Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss
- masking tape
- pipe cleaners
- 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.
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
Supporting All Learners
Remind students at the beginning of this activity that they will NOT be sharing hats.
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.
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