With more than a dozen books in this series, the familiar blue feline, as its main character, Pete the Cat by James Dean, is a wonderful book series to use in teaching children different preschool concepts.
Explore the lovable Pete and other characters with these different activities that children will fall for.
Presented in an easy-to-read narration and an interactive manner, Pete the Cat books are engaging and fun for children to read or listen to. Reading books to children will help improve their listening, attention, comprehension, and critical thinking skills.
The books introduce children to different colors, numbers and number concepts, holidays, music, and other ideas. One of the books in this series is Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.
In this story, Pete loses the buttons on his favorite shirt one by one. This story allows children to explore the concept of subtraction as it explicitly provides examples of how the number decreases with the question, “How many buttons are left?”
Children will learn to respond by counting the remaining buttons.
The unique feature of this story is the integration of social-emotional learning concepts that helps children deal with the issues they face. It teaches children to look at the bright side of things.
For this activity, you will need:
- Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons book
- Other Pete the Cat books
For more information on this activity, go to PeteTheCatBooks.com.
Looking at things with rose-colored glasses makes everything better. However, in this case, the sunglasses are blue. Turn simple materials into a craft that will go perfectly with the book Pete the Cat and His Magical Sunglasses.
Working on this craft will help enhance children’s fine motor skills. Using this craft to retell the story will help increase comprehension, attention to detail, and sequence of events.
Outline the sunglasses by folding a blue cardstock and drawing its frame. Doing this will help create a symmetrical pair. Place the outline in a plastic bag and glue the edges. The plastic will become the lens.
Once the glue dries, trim off the excess plastic on the frame’s edges and use the blue marker to add color to the lens. Next, cut a blue pipe cleaner in half and attach each on both ends for the temples. Bend the ends to make it wearable.
For this activity, you will need:
- Cardstock
- Scissor
- Glue
- Pipe cleaners
- Plastic bag
- Marker
For more information on this activity, go to SightAndSoundReading.com.
Jumping on sidewalk buttons and acting out the cat movements will help children improve their gross motor skills, focus, and coordination. Making the paper buttons will help strengthen their fine motor skills.
Make paper buttons by cutting out circles from different colors of construction paper. Use the marker to draw holes in the buttons. Flip the button and write an action word that cats can do.
The site suggests the words hop, jump, run, crawl, wiggle the tail, and meow. Add more words if necessary. Next, have the children draw buttons on the sidewalk using chalk. Make these in different sizes and colors. Explain the rules of the game.
Have children find the correct button on the sidewalk based on the description. For example, say, “Find the small pink button.”
Once they find the correct button, hand over one of the paper buttons with a written action word and let them do the action.
For this activity, you will need:
- Chalk
- Construction paper
- Scissors
- Markers
For more information on this activity, go to TheEducatorsSpinOnIt.com.
The Pete the Cat alphabet puzzle helps children with essential literacy skills, such as letter recognition in uppercase and lowercase forms and letter sequences.
Children will also develop patience, focus, and attention to detail as they complete the puzzle.
The puzzle is a wonderful activity after reading the book Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes. Point out the pictures and colors in the puzzles to help build children’s vocabulary.
Download and print the free letter puzzle from the site. The puzzle comes in two types of letters-one in uppercase and the other in lowercase form. Cut the pieces on the line and laminate them for durability.
Next, have the children arrange the letters of the alphabet in sequence by completing the puzzle. Use letter charts or cards as visual prompts. If the children are unsure of the following letter, allow them to sing the alphabet song to help them figure it out.
For this activity, you will need:
- Printed puzzle
- Scissors
For more information on this activity, go to TotSchooling.net.
Beginning sound button cover game will teach children to enhance their auditory discrimination, letter recognition, and phonics skills. It is based on the book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.
It requires buttons and game sheets. This activity is an excellent practice for children learning the relationship between a word’s beginning letter and its sound.
Download and print out the game sheets from the site. The printable comes in four different game sheets to choose from. Provide buttons to use as counters. The site suggests using foam sheets cut into circles if regular buttons are unavailable.
The game leader will say a word to play the game, and the children will look for the letter that matches its beginning sound. They need to cover the correct letter sound with a button.
A player can win if all the colored boxes are covered or just a column of the same color.
For this activity, you will need:
- Printed game board
- Buttons
For more information on this activity, go to GrowingBookByBook.com.
This is a wonderful activity to help children develop their eye-hand coordination and practical skills by learning how to tie shoelaces. It is also a great idea to teach color mixing and dyeing.
This fun activity is based on the book Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. Children can personalize their cardboard shoes by painting them and dyeing the shoelaces.
Outline a shoe shape on cardboard. Next, punch two sets of lined-up three holes that resemble the sneakers. Line up the table with paper towels to prevent spills.
Have the children add different colors by painting the cardboard shoes. Set aside for the paint to dry.
Dip the shoelaces into the watercolor or brush these with paint to make these colorful. Squeeze off the extra liquid from the shoelaces and let these dry.
Show children the step-by-step process of lacing their cardboard shoes. Do these slowly to enable the children to copy the movements.
For this activity, you will need:
- Liquid water color
- Paintbrush
- Small container
- Shoelaces
- Cardboard
- Hole puncher
- Paper towels
For more information on this activity, go to TeachPreschool.org.
Teach children alliteration with Pete the Cat. The site suggests using a paper bag puppet for this activity. Head to the site for the complete instruction on making the Pete the Cat paper bag puppet.
This activity will help children improve their phonemic awareness, auditory discrimination, and concentration. This is perfect for circle time and after reading the book.
Explain the idea of alliteration to the children. Let the children understand that they will need to think of two or more words with the same beginning sounds for this activity. Use several examples and provide ample exercises for this step.
Next, give children alliterative names that promote positivity, such as “Lucky Lucas” or “Happy Hannah.” Children may listen to the puppet as it says their new names.
Another option is for each of the children to find an object and provide an alliterative name for it. For example, they may say “pointy pencil” or “colorful crayon.”
For this activity, you will need:
- Any Pete the Cat books
- Pete the Cat paper bag puppet
For more information on this activity, go to Pre-KPages.com.
This is a great activity that will reenact the events that occurred in the book Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes to help children improve their comprehension and learn the sequencing of events.
Perfect for outdoor fun, this foot painting activity will provide a wonderful sensory experience for children and help with color recognition.
Lay on the ground a long sheet of butcher paper. Use weights to hold the paper down. Next, prepare the four large containers. Fill the first one with red paint to mimic the strawberries.
Fill the second container with blue paint for the blueberries and the third with brown to resemble the mud. Fill the last container with water. Place these on the butcher paper apart from each other to create four stations.
Let the children step into each container and walk on the butcher paper to create colored footprints. Assist the children in their walk to prevent them from slipping.
For this activity, you will need:
- Butcher paper
- Tempera paints
- Large container
- Water
- Bricks or weights
For more information on this activity, go to HomeGrownFriends.com.
Teach the concept of subtraction with this taking-away Math game inspired by the book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. This activity is an excellent practice for children to improve their counting and number recognition skills.
Waiting for one’s turn during the game will teach patience to young children.
The free shirt template can be downloaded from the site. Print and cut this out. Attach this on the felt with pins and cut out the pattern. Colored cardstock can also be used if felt material is unavailable.
Use the marker to write the numbers on the wooden cube to make the die.
Explain the rules of the game. Each child will be given a felt shirt and ten buttons. Each one will take turns rolling the die. The child must take away the number of buttons shown on the die. The first one to lose all buttons wins.
For this activity, you will need:
- Printed shirt template
- Assorted buttons
- Wooden cube
- Head pins
- Felt
- Scissors
- Marker
For more information on this activity, go to BuggyAndBuddy.com.
These adorable buttons are edible and are a perfect snack after reading the book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. Working on the cookie dough will help improve their fine motor skills, coordination, and control.
It will also teach color recognition skills, counting numbers from one to four, and the circle shape.
For this activity, any sugar cookie dough can be used-homemade or boxed. Once the dough is ready, divide these equally into four bowls. Add a small amount of food color in each bowl and mix thoroughly.
Use the colors red, green, blue, and light blue to resemble the buttons on the book. Next, shape the cookies into circles and bake for three minutes until the dough is relatively stable.
Lightly press a small bowl or cup in the middle of the cookie to make a depression. Use the skewer and press it on the cookie to make four holes. Return to the oven to finish baking.
For this activity, you will need:
- Sugar cookie dough
- Food colors
- Bowls
- Spoons
- Skewer
- Small bowl
For more information on this activity, go to Paper-And-Glue.com.
Conclusion
The iconic blue cat, Pete the Cat, is a beautiful series to use in teaching different preschool concepts to young children. Consider these activities that perfectly go with the stories and are wonderful after reading the books.
Thank you for reading. Come back and check out our other activity articles soon.
People Also Ask
Children love listening to stories. When these stories present familiar scenarios, ones they have probably experienced, they can easily relate to the characters and their challenges.
Pete the Cat is a book series that children find relatable. With the addition of chants and songs, the books are a hit with young learners.
This series teaches different concepts such as colors, numbers, animal names, hygiene, etc. One of the most impressive ideas in this series is how the story presents children’s everyday problems and the modeling of an appropriate response.
Lines like “Did Pete cry? Goodness, no!” suggests that there are alternative methods to show our emotions when challenges happen.
