Rocking In Our School Shoes

You've met Pete, the grooviest cat around,  right?
If you have, teach, or know anyone in the preschool crowd, you've probably heard of Pete the Cat.  I've written about some of our "Pete" activities before, and today I'm going to share another.
This particular Pete book is fantastic for back to school time, as Pete visits various areas in a school, much as students can expect to do: the library, lunch room, classroom, and more.  Pete also finds out that they are "all good." You have to love his cattitude!

That week is also a time when students are getting to know one and other, and are learning each others' names.  I decided to use Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes to help my students learn their classmates' names and practice reading.

After we read the book, everyone had a chance to come up to the front and rock out in their school shoes while we sang the chorus from the book.  You don't know the tune?  No problem!  You can hear Eric Litwin, the author, perform it on Youtube.com at this link!  It has a great rhythm to it, and your kiddos will be singing along in no time!

After we all rocked out (and I took pictures), each child wrote their name and a description of their own shoes on a page I'd made:

 ________ was rocking in his/her _________ shoes.

There wasn't much writing to do, just their name and one adjective about their shoes, so it wasn't intimidating for a beginning of the year project.  We used the photos to illustrate the pages, and of course, you know when you make a book out of student writing and illustrate with their photos, they want to read it!

Our book was an instant hit in the classroom library, and each time we read it, we were reviewing the names of our friends.

Thank you Pete!

P.S. If you like this activity, be sure to check Are You Rocking? for an adorable Pete finger puppet!