Action: “Let’s all stand up. I want you to pretend there’s a big bathtub just to your right. It’s time for a bath! Let’s get into our bathtubs carefully…first one leg [lift leg and place in “tub”]…then the other. But, oh, my goodness! This water is boiling hot! Hop from one foot to the other so it doesn’t burn your feet! Ouch, ouch, ouch! I think it’s time to jump out of this bathtub. 1…2…3…JUMP! [jump to the side, out of the “tub”]. Whew. Let’s see if the water has cooled off by now. Let’s get back in…first one leg, then the other. Ugh! Now the water is FREEZING! We're all shivering and our teeth are chattering! I think we better jump out again! 1...2...3...JUMP!
How do we make the water the right temperature so we can be comfortable? [take answers, pretend to adjust faucets, get back in tub, and say "Ahhh....much better. Now we can listen to our first story IN THE TUB!" But first, let's fill our tubs with bubble bath...]
Action Rhyme: "Bubbly, Bubbly Bubble Bath"
Bubbly, bubbly bubble bath
[wiggle fingers]
Filled to the top
[raise fingers overhead, still wiggling]
Listen to the bubbly bubbles [cup hand to ear]
Pop! Pop! Pop!
[clap loudly three times]
Book: Something Smells! [if audience skews older] by Blake Lillian Hellman
OR
Book: Ten Pigs: an Epic Bath Adventure by Derek Anderson
Book: Splish! Splash! Animal Baths by April Pulley Sayre (nonfiction)
[Segue: "Do animals really take baths in the bathtub?" Plug nonfiction as vocab-rich to caregivers. "You can choose to read just a few pages--as I will today--or even just talk about the pictures together." Read horse, bear, chimpanzee, shrimp and moray eel pages--ask on shrimp page: "What do you think is about to happen?"]
Song: Dance, Freeze, Melt by The Learning Groove from their album Rockin' Red
Sorting Activity: "Would we use this in the tub?"
Have two boxes, clearly labeled YES and NO. In an opaque bag, have 6-8 items that we would and would not use in the tub (for ex: boot, soap, washcloth, bath sponge, Elmer’s glue, hammer, spatula, rubber duckie).
Group chants "Rub a dub, Rub a dub1" Leader asks "Would we use THIS in the tub?" Chant for each item pulled from the bag.
If the answer is no, ask what the item is and what we would use it for.
Book: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Rosemary Wood
[In addition to chanting refrain together, print out HELP! HELP! in large letters. Let group know that when I point to those words, I need them to help me read them. Sound the word out together and ask if anyone knows what the exclamation point is and means ("Is this a letter in the alphabet? What is it?" On the first page, which shows the page struggling to carry a barrel, ask kids what might be in the barrel, given the title of the book.]
Song with Scarves (if crowd small enough): "Soap Soap" by Bob McGrath sung a cappella [then try, "Soup, soup, don't wanna wash my hair with soup, soup"
Closing Song: Laurie Berkner's "These Are My Glasses" a cappella. "Today, everything we find in our book will begin with "B". Possibles before opening to kids for suggestions: Buffalo! Baby! ("Let’s close it quietly. Baby’s napping"). Butterfly.
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Alternatives to Swap In:
Action Song [w/or w/o scarves]: "We’re Marching in the Tub"
[Standing, to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”]
We’re marching in the tub!
We’re marching in the tub!
Oh, have you seen
how we get clean?
We’re marching in the tub!
We’re jumping in the tub…
We’re wiggling in the tub…
We’re stretching in the tub…
We’re clean as we can be,
We’re clean as we can be,
Let’s wave goodbye
and go get dry--
We’re clean as we can be.Magnet Board Rhyme [if time] : "Elephants in the Bathtub"
One elephant in the bathtub
Going for a swim.
Knock, knock,
[clap twice]
Splash, splash,
[slap knees]
Come on in!
[motion with both hands to come in]
[Add an elephant for two elephants in the bathtub, three, four, then…]
Going for a swim.
Knock, knock,
Splash, splash,
Oh no! It ALL fell in!
[knock all magnet pieces off of board]
