Colors, Names and Pete the Cat Fun!

Hi, I am Carie from Kindergarten Hugs! Thanks for stopping by Pre-K and K Sharing and reading my post today! If you don't already follow our blog here, you should. We have so many great bloggers with so much to share! You will LOVE it!

Now on to my post for the day...How to make teaching colors and students' names fun! 

For the last two years, I have started the school year with Pete the Cat.  As many of you know, Pete is a BIG hit with the kiddos! If you haven't heard of Pete the Cat...You NEED to check it out. It is a book titled "Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes", written by Eric Litwin. Below you will find a picture of it. We even made a "Pete the Cat" Back to school checklist for the kiddo's to fill in during back to school night!

Pete's shoes start off white, then he steps in strawberries and his shoes turn red. Then he steps in blueberries and his shoes turn blue...and it continues. The kiddo's get hooked as soon as Pete starts singing about how he loves his shoes. So a friend and I purchased a "Meet Pete the Cat" unit on TpT from Fran Kramer. Inside the unit there is a strip book titled, "I Love My Shoes". Students write the color word, to complete the sentence. I do one color a day. then this is what we do:

• First I play the Pete the Cat CD (which the students NEVER get tired of), 
• students practice coloring
•  write the color word in their strip book and read that page
•  listen to that color word song 
•  practice writing it on the whiteboards
• Talk things that are that color
•  At the end of each day, I put up the new color word on our word wall. 

When I have taught all of the colors and color words we then make Pete the Cat! And the students get to put their favorite color shoes on Pete! I got the idea from TpT on how to make him. Some of the other Kinder teachers in my building found a different way to make Pete. So below you will see how Pete turned out!

 I didn't get a chance to take pictures of some of the other things we do but here is a list:

• Graph our favorite color
• Made head bands that said "I love my _______ shoes" The students filled in the blank and then colored a tennis shoe to put on their headband.
• Did two poems (one was exact words from the strip book and the other was a calm-down song)
• Several coloring and sorting activites

 Then at the end of our Pete The Cat unit, I have my students do a name collage where they use torn paper to cover the letters in their name. It is a color matching activity and GREAT for FINE MOTOR!

 Below, you will see an alternate way to do the name collages...a colleague of mine did her's this way.

Then, after I had finished with Pete the Cat, I found in my files a book about shapes. The book is called "I See Shapes" that I had got from Shannon Martin from kinder-pond.blogspot.com. I used it not only to continue practicing color words, but also to brush up on shapes and to teach a new sight word "see". We read the book each day but only color and highlight one page a day.

During this time, I am also teaching students' names. We like to call it "Name Game" in our classroom. I always get out my mystery envelope and mysteriously say "Whoooooose Naaaaaaame could it be?". I then pull the mystery name out one letter at a time (this way students are practicing the letters). Once the student's name is pulled all the way out, they come to the front of the room and as a class we practice saying the students name and clapping out the syllables. Then the student does the name cheer and then we do letter exercises.  After that, I cut the letters apart as the students count how many letters are in their friends name. After I cut the name apart, I then mix up the letters and have the student put their name back together in the pocket chart. Once that is done, students ask my "Student of the Day" questions. (i.e. What is your favorite color? What is your favorite food? How old are you? What is your favorite toy?...etc) I write out 3 answers on sentence strips and put them in the pocket chart (always making sure that I write out their favorite color so they have more practice reading color words). Students then read the "I like" sentences.
 Then we sing our "Wheel's on the Bus" song with that student's name.

All of that is done while at the carpet. It is time to head back to their seats where the new name will be placed on our Name Wall and then they will practice writing their new friends name on their whiteboards.

Thanks for stopping by and here is a NAME GAME cheat sheet FREEBIE for making it all the way through my blog post today!! Have a great week! and don't forget to stop by and check out my own blog  Kindergarten Hugs!