500 Hats

Decide how you are going to use the story The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss. You can read the book aloud or teach the lesson using the description that follows and the vignette in the Student Guide. In the story, a boy named Bartholomew had trouble removing his hat to honor the king. Whenever he took one hat off, another hat immediately appeared on his head. Bartholomew was taken to the king's castle, where repeated attempts to remove Bartholomew's hats were thwarted by new hats appearing. The 500th hat that appeared on Bartholomew's head was decorated with huge feathers and jewels. The king offered to buy this hat. After removing this beautiful hat, no other hat appeared on Bartholomew's head. Throughout the adventure, a scribe keeps track of the number of hats that have appeared on Bartholomew's head, providing numerous opportunities to investigate operations with two- and three-digit numbers.