King Bidgood's in the Bathtub and He Won't Get Out!

         One of my favorite books is King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood.  The book tells the story of a stubborn king who refuses to leave his bathtub and attend to his duties. One by one, the knight, the queen, the duke, and all the members of the court attempt to persuade the King to leave his bath.  In each instance the King insists that he is joined in the bathtub for the activity.  Don Wood's illustrations of a battle, a feast, fishing and a ball - all in the bathtub are wonderfully detailed. 

This is a book where there are lots of opportunities for discussion. My class always loves noticing the characters' facial expressions and making predictions about what will happen next.  They also love that it is the Page (who I explain is a child who is their age who helps the King) who finally comes up with a solution to the problem.

           After we read the book we generate a list of how we would entice the King to leave the tub.  I remind them that they should think of things that would be really funny if they happened in a tub.  I usually write what each child says with quotation marks (it seems we are often starting with them when I fit this book in). For example, I would write:

Abbey said, "It's time to play soccer!"

Ben said, "It's time to go to school!"

I like to do bubble painting after we read this story.  I put blue  paint in a shallow container with some water and dishwasher soap.  I stir it up and then let the kids blow bubbles with a straw.  When they have a nice collection of bubbles, they carefully put a piece of white paper on  top to make a bubble imprint.  Sometimes, they have to blow more bubbles and do it again (they do love bubble painting;). I usually work with 4-5 kids at a time.

While the bubble paintings dry, the children use a tracer and cut out a bathtub.  They also make a king's head on a small piece of white paper.  When the bubble painting is dry, they use caps as tracers and cut out 5-6 bubbles for their picture. They then put the their pictures together and they (or I) write how they would get the king out of the tub. 

The results are always adorable:

            The blog Mommy and Me Book Club is hosting a virtual book club.  This month the focus is any book by Audrey or Don Wood.  Check out the wonderful ideas to go along with the Woods' books.