A Delightful New Book and More Wonderful Cats

There are so many wonderful children's books around, yet it's always a delight to discover a new one! I'm lucky to have come across several really special new books lately, and I hope to share more of them with you another time, but today I'm thinking of one in particular: They All Saw A Cat, by Brendan Wenzel.

In the story a cat walks through the world, and is seen by a child and a variety of animals.  Each one sees it differently, depending upon their perspective and their way of seeing.  What a fun way to introduce the idea of perspective!  You can see and hear the whole book in this short video!

I also found an adorable song version of  this book on YouTube.com, and I can't wait to use it with preschoolers!  This book is destined to be one we'll read to children for years to come.

 Which got me to thinking about other cat books that I love.  No list of cat books would be complete without a mention of Pete the Cat, everyone's favorite blue cat!  If you haven't met Pete yet, stop by your library and check him out.  There's several books about him, and you can't go wrong with any of them!

I've also pulled out some of my personal favorites for this blog post.  Did you ever learn the song Senor Don Gato?  I learned it in Primary School in the 1970s, and had forgotten all about it - until I spotted a book version of it by John Manders several years ago.  Spoiler alert, Don Gato falls from a rooftop and dies, but he is revived by the smell of fish.  I love it, all my students have loved it, and you can find the tune for it easily, but you'll want to consider your audience before sharing this one.

I love the book Grandma's Cat, by Helen Ketteman to introduce children who don't have pets to what it is like to have a cat.  The little girl in the story wants very much to play with Grandma's Cat - so much so that she doesn't pay attention to the cat's body language, and ends up getting scratched.  Grandma helps the child learn how to be gentle and patient, and there's a satisfyingly happy ending. 

For the even younger crowd, I love the interactive Cat, by Matthew Van Fleet.  I first "met" his books when my first born was about a year old, and they are irresistable!  Each page includes textured pieces, but my favorite thing about this moving parts book is that it is designed to be played with by toddlers.  It is STURDY, so small people can push and pull the tabs without destroying the book.

I included the Eric Carle classic, Have you Seen My Cat? because of the lovely illustrations and repetitive text.  Even the youngest children will be able to "read" this book to you, making it a valuable addition to your child's bookshelf.

The last book on my list is done completely in black and white: Kitten's First Full Moon.  Poor little kitten is thirsty, and the moon looks just like a bowl of milk... but how to get to it?  You'll be rooting for this sweet kitten from page one!

Happy reading!
Paula

Are You Rocking?

This morning I woke up at 4:30, thinking about making finger puppets.  Sure, I know, most people don't wake up early on Sunday morning for anything so silly, but... I did.  I guess I must be an early childhood teacher!

 

It's super easy to make!  All you need is one blue pipe cleaner, a few scraps of paper, a marker, scissors and tape - and a little imagination of course! 

I started by shaping the pipe cleaner, from the tail.  A small spiral and then a straight part makes the tail, then the rest of the pipe cleaner was twisted around my finger and then up. I cut out paper scraps to make a face and shoes, and used the marker to add details for the eyes.

Finally, flip everything over, and use tape to attach the head and shoes to the back of your pipe cleaner.  If any tape shows from the front, you can trim it off.

Ta-da! Guess who's going to be rocking along when we read our Pete the Cat books next time? Uh-huh, every body, because it's all good!

Dogs and Cats themed Stories - Fun!

This week Ms. Debbie and I thought we'd have a dogs and cats themed story time.  There are so many awesome children's books that star our furry friends, the hard part was choosing which books to read!  To make this day even more special, we had visitors from our local shelter join us - 2 cats and a dog, and all available for adoption!

Real furry friends is a wonderful start, but if you've been reading this blog, you know we like to offer a LOT of fun learning experiences.  This week we also counted the letters in some popular dog names, and put the corresponding number of doggy bones into doggy dishes.

We also counted buttons - groovy buttons - to put on Pete The Cat's shirt.  (I drew the Pete shape, made copies, and wrote numbers 3-9 on them.)  Fine motor and counting skills anyone?

The library has some beautiful doggy counters, so we put those out with a suggestion to find ways to sort them.

Of course, some friends enjoyed pretend play with them (I think they are kissing!),

some friends lined them up (another common way for young children to explore materials),

and some sorted them.  I feel so sorry for this little blue dog - it looks like the yellow dogs aren't playing very nicely!

Our final activity was another super messy one, but SO incredibly worth it.  I know I've said before that something was my favorite, but.... this was really my favorite! 

 We reenacted the story of Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes, by James Dean and Eric Litwin.  If you haven't heard it performed by Eric Litwin, you are missing something special!  In the story, Pete steps in strawberries, blueberries, mud and water, and his shoes change colors each time.  We chose to use paint instead of fruit and mud, but the results were similar!

Between the trays of paint and bucket of water, I rolled out some paper for the kiddos to walk on and make their own little foot prints.  They loved it so much, and repeated it so often, we saturated and tore up not only the first set of paper, but a second as well!  There was much washing of feet, and a few families even came prepared with a change of clothes - and there were so many smiles!  Even better, perhaps, was hearing our families talking about doing this again, at home!  (To see how I did this activity in my home-based preschool, check out this blog post.)

After the kiddos left, Ms. Debbie and I snuck out for a quick play in the paint too.  I truly thought that would be the end of this particular story.

Post Script: When I got in the shower later that day, I discovered blue tempera paint under my toe nails.  If that's not proof that I'm an early childhood teacher, I don't know what is!  But like Pete says, "It's all good!"

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!

Pete's Paint Puddles - leading up to International Mud Day

On Tuesday, our mud themed book was Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes, by Eric Litwin and James Dean.  In the book, Pete steps in a lot of different things - including mud!

After reading the book, each child made a page for our class book.  The teachers helped them to paint their feet, and print them on the page.  Painting our feet was tickly!

 I've made this class book activity, with a cover, available at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Petes-Paint-Puddles-1292023 (for 50 cents).

Having teachers paint kids feet is fun, and makes a cool class book, but we needed to make this even more relevant to the children - so we went outside and really stepped in colorful puddles of paint!

I knew we needed some large, heavy-duty paper to paint our foot prints on, so I picked these up at Costco last week - they're used to divide the layers of cereal boxes on the pallets.   Perfect!

 I wish I could claim responsibility for this wonderful idea, or at least credit the blog where I saw it, but apparently it isn't pinned to my Pete the Cat board, and of course I don't remember.  The abundance of ideas available on the web amazes me - and fuels my own creativity and teaching!

Pete the Cat's Underwear

This week we've been looking for things that start with the letter U, and there are so few that are relevant to preschoolers.  One that they love is underwear - what could engage the children's attention better than underwear?  Pete the Cat!  The idea of Pete the Cat's Underwear was born.

If you don't know Pete the Cat yet, check it out!  James Dean and Eric Litwin have created a super popular character, and Harper Collins has published many Pete videos, activities, and lesson ideas, in addition to the books.

 This is the story my class and I created, inspired by Pete:

 The kiddos worked hard to trace a stencil of Pete, and to color it, after filling in all the blanks.  They've been reading the resulting class book over and over again!

We LOVE Pete!

Penguins and piggies and pizza, oh my!

There are SOOOO many things that start with the letter P and are relevant to preschool kiddos, that we had a very busy week!  We started out by reading about penguins, both fiction and non-fiction, then made a cute penguin craft. These are parent penguins, keeping their chicks warm on their feet.  We displayed them all together, in a (reused styrofoam) rookery, just like real penguins.  We learned lots of great vocabulary including chicks, rookery and brood pouch.

One of our penguins books was Five Little Penguins Sliding On The Ice, by Steve Metzger.  We had fun acting it out!

For more penguin counting fun, check out this adorable Penguin poem on my blog, and available at my TeachersPayTeachers store.

It was also fun to practice being a penguin parent, carrying our "eggs" on our feet to keep them off the cold ice.  We decided daddy penguins definitely had an advantage, having a brood pouch to help keep their eggs on their feet!  Some of the kiddos pushed their "egg" up their pants leg, to make their own brood pouch!  I found the idea here.

One sunny morning we all took turns planting peas in the veggie garden.  It's quite barren out there now, but as spring approaches, peas will be one of the first plants to germinate.  As we planted we talked about what the seeds will need to help them grow: water, soil, and sunshine.  We pushed each seed into a small hole, and covered them with a little soil - they germinate in the dark, then grow up into the light.

On Wednesday, we made "pigs in a blanket" for lunch - yum!

Later in the day I had my kindergarteners plan out, write and illustrate an experience story about our cooking.  They were very proud to read it to their parents and their friends, and I saw some of their nicest handwriting!

We had a lot of choices for our hand print art this week!  I found Pete the Cat here,

the pirate here,

 this penguin here,

the peacock here,

the polar bear here,

and Pigeon here.  I love them all!

Of course, if we're talking about the letter P, we have to make pizza!  This year I let each child make their own pizza on an English muffin.  They spread the sauce, chose their toppings, and put their pizza together just the way they wanted it.  Look at all these tasty ingredients!

 Ready for the oven...

 Ready to eat!  Yum!  The kiddos not only gobbled up their pizza, but also ate salad and corn.

While some children were making their real pizzas with me, others made their P for pizza craft with Ms. Julie.  They added pepperoni, pineapple and peppers, all to fit with our letter P theme.  We made the lower case p for penguins earlier in the week, and each child chose 1, 2, 3, or 4 penguins to go on their pink or purple p.  In the next picture, you can see the graph they made, showing how many penguins each child chose.  When we graph we talk about number, more than, less than, equal, greatest or most, and fewest or least, all good math vocabulary to develop.

 Just for fun, we played Papa's Pizza Topple, a toy left over from when my own kiddos were little.  To be successful in this balancing game the children have to place their pieces gently, and pay attention to which part of the pizza is heaviest; leaning down, and lightest; sticking up.

We also did a lot of puzzles this week.  I've written an entire blog on that - please scroll down if you'd like to read it.  This giant Winnie the Pooh puzzle was difficult, but we had to do Pooh bear activities, as January 17th is A.A. Milne's birthday, and Winnie the Pooh Day.

We read Pooh bear books, and snuggled with stuffed animals and puppets...

 ...and played Pooh bear toys, including bingo and a matching game.  For lunch we had peanut butter and honey sandwiches (yum!), and lots of fresh veggies from Rabbit's garden: corn, cauliflower, carrots, tomato, spinach and peas.

Our last fun P activity this week was painting on HUGE paper.  This paper was padding in a package I received earlier in the week, and saved for painting on.  Who says art supplies have to be new?  The kiddos had a blast doing extra large paintings, and reused the paper in the process. 

We had a great week, with lots of fun learning activities.  Next week, letter Q.  Perhaps we'll even have a visit from HRH The Queen!