Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons

Pete the Cat was a huge hit with the kids last time round. The books are fantastic for group reading and involving the kids with their repetitive chants. This one was no different.

Pete loses his buttons but he never loses his cool.

Topic: numbers and colours.

Age: 3- 7 all enjoyed it.

Vocabulary: numbers 4,3,2,1 and 0, I like to do numbers 5-10 as well. Colours yellow, green, red, dark blue and light blue all easy to include too. Also skateboard, icecream, surfing and belly button. Phrases 'My buttons, my buttons, my _ groovy buttons!' and 'goodness no!'

Procedure:

• sing your hello song. I enjoyed reviewing the emotions for this book. Sad, happy, scared, sleepy.. so we sang it in different ways.
• Practice counting. I have a points chart so I used that. We counted up and then counted down. Then we counted on our fingers and sang this song: 1 little 2 little 3 little fingers, 4 little 5 little 6 little fingers, 7 little, 8 little 9 little fingers, 10 little fingers on my hands.
• Now get cracking on the book. Open it up and admire the inside of the front cover. Elict the colours and count the buttons. With the older kids you can even get them to do a little maths 'How many yellow and red buttons are there?'
• The book is so perfect you don't need me to tell you how to tell it. It is instinctive. THIS VIDEO will help you too. I get the students to clap along with the rap to get them involved. I also like to stop the rap abruptly in a different place each time by saying POP! OH NO! and slapping my forehead. They love that.
• Table time now: elicit the colours that Pete was wearing and ask them to colour him from memory.

  

  Here

  • Now bring them back to the circle. Pratice counting again. Hop 3 times. Spin 2...
  • Watch the SCOPE video linked previously and get them to join in, or watch this video with Pete the Cat where he does the wheels on the bus (a song I already did with my students).
  
  
  
  Extensions:
  
  Any kind of counting video.
  
  
  
  
  We love Super Simple Songs.
  
  
   The kids all want to know if this is my boyfriend. SIGH.

  

  Colour by numbers HERE

   Plus you can make many button maths worksheets like these.
  
  

  

  HERE