Kids Reading: 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (Classic Seuss) by Dr. Seuss was one of my favorite books as a kid so I was excited to pull out this classic for my son.  Beware that it is a big book so if your child doesn't want to sit through a longer book and doesn't like to take breaks, this might not be the best book for you yet...but it will be!  My son isn't great about letting you start a book and put a book mark in to read the rest later and wants you to start all over the next time again...even if you can't make it through.  I read the beginning of the book and started doing the folding after a few pages.  Then, I read while he colored and decorated.  It is helpful because even though the story is interesting....it is long!!

In this book, Bartholomew Cubbins has a problem.  When Bartholomew visits town to sell cranberries at the market for his parents, the King's procession screeches to a halt in front of him; King Derwin then leans out of his coach, demanding to know why Bartholomew hasn't respectfully removed his hat. "But, Sire, my hat is off." He shows the king the hat in his hands that he's just doffed, but sure enough, another identical one sits atop his head. He takes that hat off only to reveal another... and another, and another, and another. Poor Bartholomew goes through 45 hats, then 136, then 233, as the angry king calls in every expert in the kingdom, from Sir Snipps the haberdasher to the Father of the Father of Nadd. In the end, Bartholomew barely gets away with his head (forget about the hats!)

The best craft to do after reading this is to make a newspaper hat.  It is super easy to use newspaper or any bigger paper to fold into a hat.  Don't remember how to make one.... I didn't either.  I followed these instructions.  It is easy to fold and make out of one page of the newspaper.  I made one and so did my son at the same time.

The kids can decorate it after it is all folded with markers and stickers to make it as unique as they want.  If you have a feather like Bartholomew does, make sure you stick it in there because I am sure that they will be totally into reading this book again with their hat on their head.  I hope that you try this fun book and craft.

Not ready to fold and make paper, you can get these fun visors at the craft stores pretty cheap and the kids can decorate with stickers or gems to also have a fun time.

Hope you have lots of fun with this activity and book and good luck making it through this long and entertaining story!!