Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

It makes me sad to think there are people out there who might not know who Pete the Cat is.  So allow me to introduce you to the grooviest cat around.

Pete the Cat is the brain child of James Dean....No, not the dead movie star, an illustrator who once drew a little sketch of a black stray kitten named Pete.  James Dean hooked up with professional storyteller and performer Eric Litwin and the rest was history.

There's a whole series of Pete the Cat books, and if you search Pinterest you will find a slew of activities for the regular classroom.  This Pete the cat project is based on the book, "Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons."  There's even a free song, you can download it Here!

The book has great links to math, plus character as it teaches the reader to not be upset even if they loose something or if something goes wrong.  

If you don't have the book, don't despair!  Plenty of people have made youtube videos of it using the official author's narration that you can find on the mp3 download above.

This project was done with kindergarten, although, if I had to do it again - I would try an older grade perhaps first or second.  

Day One: We read the book, (the kindergarteners sang and danced along to it) and drew our shapes to make Pete on blue paper.  Two triangles, an oval, a rectangle and two little circles for his paws.  The tail was the hardest.  We drew a letter J and then "made it puffy" (created a bubble letter out of it).  

Day Two: We cut out our shapes, recycled the scraps, and used glue sticks to put our Petes together.  Once Pete was together everyone got a 9 x 12 yellow paper. We traced Pete's belly to get the right size for his shirt.  Extra yellow once he had his shirt glued on was used for his big yellow eyes.  Crayons topped off the pupils, nose, mouth, and whiskers (most of them forgot the whiskers).  

Day 3: It's Button time!  The next time I teach this I will not let students pick their own buttons out.  That was a huge mistake.  There was a long line and kids were being really slow digging through the button bucket.  I call it, "Looking for the Magic Button."  Somehow they think there is a button that is better than any other button and they want to be the ones to find it.  Next time I am just going to hand them their buttons with "You get what you get, and you don't get upset." This was the first time kindergarten ever used liquid glue as apposed to the glue sticks so I took time to do an introduction demo with them on how to use it.  I am proud to report there were no "glue puddles" in my art room that day.  Three of the buttons got glued down.  The fourth they brought to me and I threaded a pipe cleaner through the button and twisted to attach it.  Then I curled the pipe cleaner and stapled it to their cats' shirts.  Finally, I twisted the pipe cleaner end around the staple to make sure it would not come back off.  

Close-up of the Pipe cleaner wrapped around the staple.

This part will not take a full class so make sure you have extention activities (remember - Pinterest has TONS of Pete the cat printable writing sheets and coloring sheets) or that you're ready to start whatever project you planned to do after this!  

Didn't they come out adorable?

I just love this one.  There's something Manga-ish about it.

First Grade and Kindergarten Scarecrows

This project is one I link to the book, "The Lonely Scarecrow" by Tim Preston and illustrated by Maggie Kneen.  The illustrations are gorgeous and full of textures - which the kids love to point out during the reading.  It's also a cute book to use to start a discussion about judging someone on their appearance without getting to know them first.  

For our drawing steps I usually post my blank paper on the board and ask everyone to hold their paper on the table in the same direction as mine.  Then everyone has to find a black crayon and hold it up so I know they are ready.  When I see a room full of black crayons in the air I start drawing.  This is a Directed Drawing "monkey see, monkey do" type project - or Drawing tag as I like to call it.  I draw something, they draw the same thing on their papers, then I draw something, and they copy it.  I know a lot of teachers seem to dislike this process because they feel it takes the creativity out of the hands of the students but I disagree.  Drawing tag helps those students who need the directions broken down step by step and keeps them all focused and on task.  No one is doing something they're not supposed to be doing during drawing tag.  It's draw, then eyes back up on the teacher to see what's next.  You could hear a pin drop during these sessions.  And despite fears that this takes the creativity out, you can clearly see tons of variation in the student's work.  I only show them the "bones" of the project - the scarecrow's shapes, the horizon line, and lots of different options for details.  

Students decide for themselves how tall or short, how wide or thin their scarecrow is.  They come up with the clothing decorations on their own (although I do point them in the direction of the word wall for line types), they also choose what kind of field their scarecrow is in and what other details to add to the farm.  To differentiate between Kindergarten and First, First has far more complex details we can add.  With Kinders I keep it a lot simpler.

Once the drawings are done, I will do a quick demo about coloring.  For many of them, this is the first time coloring sky all the way down to the horizon line.  Our district runs kindergarten on a lottery system - first come, first serve.  So students that come back to their neighborhood schools in first grade may have been in a completely different building with a completely different art teacher for kindergarten.  I also show them how to do the dirt (or grass - their choice) all the way from the horizon line down to the bottom of the paper.  After a brief warning about the evils of scribbling I turn them loose!

Typically, this project takes two forty minute classes. One day for the book and directed drawing.  Day two is for the coloring.  

Positive/Negative Rainbow Order

This is a lesson I first found on Pinterest.  I tracked the original source down to:  http://thecleverfeather.blogspot.com  But I have also seen it here: http://mrstsfirstgradeclass-jill.blogspot.com/

I used it with my first grade both as a review of rainbow order which they learned last year as kindergarteners but also for line and positive/negative space.  

For me, it was a great assessment tool.  You can really tell who is ready for first grade with their cutting and gluing skills and who is going to need extra support and help.  

Here are some examples:

Painting the rainbow from Day One of the project.

This student was the only one who worked horizontally rather than vertically.