Free Adapted Pete the Cat book!

Last week I made an adapted book for Pete The Cat: I Love My White Shoes. I have discussed my love for Pete in another post and I highly recommend that you introduce him to your kids if you have not done so already! 

I used this book during circle with my kids and it went better than I could have expected! I carefully chose how I would adapt it, keeping in mind the need for consistency and simplicity. One of my students was independently reading the book within a day based on the images associated with the main phrases in the book. Prior to using this adapted version, he needed verbal prompting and modeling to chime in with "Did Pete cry?", "Goodness no!", "Oh no!", and even the song part. Now, he is doing all of the parts completely independently which is very exciting! I am sending home his own copy so that he can impress his parents with those awesome skills! 

This book hits on a lot of learning points. With the same Pete image on each page, it helps the students become familiar with the character and help them recognize him. The book also teaches color identification, facial expressions, and labels/vocabulary for the items he steps in. 

Depending on the students you are using it with, you can adapt it even further by printing and laminating certain parts of the book, such as the color parts or the things he steps in and then have the students match the pictures to the book. You could also print the pictures onto cards and have the students help tell the story or even predict what happens next by selecting the corresponding card. There are many great ways to use this book and I hope that your students enjoy it as much as mine have! 

(The last page includes pictures of water to velcro onto the shoes for when he has wet shoes.)

Here is the link to the Pete the Cat book!

Here is a sample page from the book!

My Buttons, My Buttons, My Fooouuurrrr Groovy Buttons!

I had to make a post about this because:

a) I want to brag about the awesome staff that work in my classroom

b) You need to be exposed to Pete The Cat (if you haven't been already!)

c) Language Boards: they are so awesome!!!

We have been reading a lot of Pete The Cat ever since my sister sent me all three books for my birthday (because classroom materials are about the best gift you can get me :). I am officially in love with Pete (and if I ever get a pet cat I vow him to be a namesake) and I just can't imagine my classroom without his books now. I don't think anything has ever been a bigger hit with the students!

The original is I Love My White Shoes which is hands-down the best one of the three. Then they came out with Pete The Cat And His Four Groovy Buttons and Rocking In My School Shoes. All three books have these extremely catchy songs that you can download fo' FREE on the Harper Collins website.

My kids go crazy for them! The illustrations are great, the songs are even better, there is counting and color identification in the books... and they all have GREAT moral lessons. Win. Win. WIN.

So the kids have really been digging the Groovy Buttons book this week... so much so that yesterday when I tried to take a class picture they kept showing me their belly buttons (it's in the book!). It was so adorable! So I threw out the idea to my two assistants to possibly make a language board to go along with the book. During the summer we get extra planning time with the students going home earlier than normal... so within HOURS my two staff had drawn, cut out, laminated, and velcro-ed this sucker up. I was floored... how lucky am I to have such talented people to work with! This language board would have taken me the rest of summer to make on my own so I am quite impressed!

Since we can't get Harper Collins to sign a deal to market this (or can we?), I figured I would pass on the awesome language board idea for my readers to replicate in their own classrooms. Language boards make storytelling interactive and fun and are great to use in group instruction. I have a variety that go along with various books I read during circle time.

 I have him with several other language boards hanging on my teacher's easel that I use during circle time. You can find the easel at Lakeshore

Everything on Pete is velcro-ed on so each student can participate and have a turn to engage in Pete's story.

And of course we cannot forget to show Pete's belly button when his shirt is removed!