Today's theme that I uploaded to Miss Amy's Schoolhouse Store is based upon one of my favorite series of books: Pete the Cat! I love Pete because he tackles fears and worries. He doesn't let the small stuff get to him because he knows in the end, it will all be good. It is a great series! Check out the author's website! Watch this video below:
Because of how awesome Pete is, I just had to create some math and language arts activities based on this book! Every year, I always have a few kids that love Pete. Last year, I had a little boy love Pete so much that was all he would listen to in the listening center. In fact, his friends stop going with him there because they couldn't listen to Pete one more time. :-) Here are a sample of the activities:
I created a math activity that orders Pete's guitars from biggest smallest, a mystery picture about the number 4, and in the bottom picture, you can see the parts to make a book report puppet. I saw the idea for the book report puppet many year ago when I did an author study on Kevin Henkes with my 2nd graders. I never thought the idea would work well with kindergarten until I started reading more about the Common Core skills. Here are the directions for assembling the puppet:
Directions:
1. Have the children complete the “My Favorite Place Pete Rocked His School Shoes Was…” They can draw the picture of the story and then have an adult write the caption.
2. (It helps if you can precut all the pieces before giving them to the children.) Hold the bag like a puppet. Have them glue the head to the flap created by the bottom of the sack.
3. Glue the arms and legs to the bag, followed by gluing on the hands and shoes.
4. Glue the tail on the back.
5. Now glue “My Favorite Place Pete Rocked His School Shoes…” paper to Pete’s Belly.
6. Have the children each stand up in the circle with their puppet on their hand and then tell the class what about their favorite part of the story
What makes this great for kindergarten is the element of allowing them to DRAW about the book. When reading the beginning expectations for writing according to Common Core, a light bulb went off. Of course they can do the book report puppet! Have them draw and then dictate to the teacher about the picture. Then they can use the puppet to build those speaking and listening skills by telling the class about their favorite part of the book. Perfect! Sometimes the simplest solutions are often complicated by over thinking!
Anyway, I hope that you will check out my theme! I would love your feedback! AND I hope that you take time to read to your class Pete the Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes this year as school starts!
