Pete the Cat for Kindergarten

Today, I had a super successful lesson. I recently picked up the newest Pete the Cat book and it is so adorable! It's called Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes.

As you can see, this one is really music friendly. I showed them the video of the song. They really got into it, singing and dancing along. I liked showing them the video first so they could sing along when we got to the song in the story. Here's the song:

Once we heard the song, I read the book and each time we came to the song in the story, we sang it together.

Next, I showed them a Pete the Cat video of The Wheels on the Bus

We did all the typical motions for this tune, then we sang a verse without the music.  I handed out rhythm sticks and we changed the words to "The sticks on the bus go tap, tap, tap (scrape, drum, pound, hammer and roll).

This is an easy way to incorporate instruments in Kindergarten. My students are trained to sit with the sticks in their laps, together, with both hands holding them, one at each end. I tell them to keep them quiet or I'll take them back. It only took once for them to realize I wasn't joking.

To end class, they worked on a Pete the Cat coloring page. I paired a reader with a non-reader and had them work together. The worksheet had the students color Pete's shoes different colors. The shoes were labeled with the color. By pairing the students, I wasn't answering a million questions, and it gave the students an opportunity to peer teach, even in Kindergarten. They took it so seriously and it worked like a dream.

Here is the coloring sheet and the link that I borrowed from Heidisongs.com
http://www.heidisongs.com/Free_Downloads/assets/Pete_the_Cat-Color_Words.pdf