Pete the Cat Inspired Beginning Reader

Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin, is a fantastic book. It's a must buy (with CD). My kids couldn't get enough of it last year. I can pretty much guarantee you all my kids could retell it word for word. So this year, I'm going to use Pete the Cat as my main book for my colors unit. In previous years, I've used Brown Bear, Brown Bear. 

I created a beginning reader to use for our shared reading to go along with Pete the Cat. It's very simple and follows the, I love my (insert color here) shoes, rhythm. My hope is that this book will;

1. teach & reinforce color recognition to my younger kids.

2. introduce color words (the written print) to my older kids.

3. build their confidence as readers.

Here are some pictures of the beginning reader, I Love My Colorful Shoes. You can download it at my tpt store. Clip-art is by KPM Doodles, and font is by Kimberly Geswein. 

Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Drawing the Music

We just completed a two week unit on music. The second week of our unit focused on the orchestra. We exposed the children to vocabulary such as; tempo, conductor, and composer. During our morning meetings, we read the book Meet the Orchestra written by Ann Hayes. This book was a great resource. I read the first half of the book one day and the second half the next. After we had finished the book, we reviewed the different types of instruments; strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Then I had the children close their eyes and we listened to a song by the Philharmonic Orchestra.

After our morning meeting, I pulled four children at a time into our studio. We talked about tempo and sound. Then I played Beethoven music and had the children draw what they heard. Here are some of the pictures the children drew with their comments about the pictures.

Top Far Left: "The purple melt into the brown. I heard the sound."

Top Left: "The music made me go fast and slow and medium and tempo. I drew tempo went slow or higher. I went fast when the music made me do it.

Bottom Far Left: "Drew different sounds. I changed it to this color then this color."

Bottom Left: "I wanted to go fast and I drew slowly then I drawed a little faster. I heard the music."