I Teach Kinder: Kindergarten Teaching Resources: Pete the Cat + a Subtraction FREEBIE

Hi, friends! Ashley here from One Sharp Bunch!

I know some of you are already finished with school and most of you are winding down... but this week, I am going to talk about the book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin. My kiddos L-O-V-E this book! The ending is a hoot! I won't give it away here, but I know your students will enjoy it!

I absolutely love the brightly colored illustrations in this book! Plus, it is perfect for teaching the concept of subtraction. First, I read the story, and my kiddos all giggled when we got to the ending. Then, I pulled out the CD and we listened to the story again. The CD is a must! I ordered mine from Scholastic. The kiddos absolutely loved dancing to the "my buttons" part! It was PRECIOUS! After getting all of our wiggles out, we began modeling the problems as we listened to the story for a third time.

I just happened to have some yellow work-mats from our math kit, which worked out perfectly since Pete was wearing a yellow jacket. Plus, I have a GIANT bag of assorted buttons. Can you say ZERO PREP?!?! I had planned to save the next part of this lesson for the next day, but my kiddos just couldn't get enough of Pete's groovy buttons! This time, we used our dry erase boards to model the problems with a picture and a number sentence. Of course, we listened to the CD just one more time!

On the next day, we completed the "Four Groovy Buttons" emergent reader. We practiced modeling the problem with a picture and number sentence. Then, we read the story with a partner. I like to call this double-dipping (math and ELA integration).