I don't know about you, but my first graders LOVE Pete the Cat! So in order to make subtraction a little more groovy, we added Pete the Cat into our math time and the kids were crazy about it! From whole group learning to a hands-on partner game, we had a blast practicing our subtraction facts with Pete the Cat! Be sure to download the Free Pete the Cat Printable here!
To build excitement and anticipation, I told my students that we would have a special visitor in math today and that we would make a hat together to figure out what character would be helping us! As we put together our Cat Headbands it became clear pretty quickly that our special guest would be Pete the Cat!
The nice thing about the Cat Headband Craft Kit is that you don't need any extra supplies to make these hats. All of the pieces are adhesive and just need to be stuck together. They were so much fun to make and the kids wore their hats throughout the entire lesson. They also couldn't wait to take them home!
While there are many great Pete the Cat books, the book "Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons" is the perfect way to kick off a subtraction lesson because, as Pete's buttons pop off, it shows the subtraction sentence. The repetitive nature of Eric Litwin's books is great for choral reading and makes it so fun to read!
As we read the story, we reenacted the subtraction sentences in the story as a class by using a large Pete the Cat™. I just cut the words off the top and bottom around Pete from the Pete the Cat™ Welcome Banner and hung him up on the board. Then we used Pete the Cat™ Groovy Button Cutouts to show how many buttons he started with, how many buttons popped off, and how many buttons were left. We would repeat the subtraction sentence each time together as a class. For example, when Pete had 3 buttons on his shirt and 1 popped off, he had 2 left so we would say "3-1=2."
Games are one of my favorite ways to practice math skills. The're engaging and hands-on, and allow students to learn important skills in a fun way. Students need to have time to play with manipulatives to understand math. So, to practice subtraction we played "Subtraction Pop!" Each student got a Pete the Cat™ Classroom helper cutout from the Pete the Cat™ Classroom Jobs Bulletin Board Set. Students worked with partners and shared a container of Bright Rainbow Craft Buttons, a stack of Colorful Counting Cards, and a "Subtraction Pop" mat. Download the Free Pete the Cat Printable here!
Each student picked a card from the deck. The student with the bigger number placed his card on the whole part of the mat, and the student with the smaller number placed her number on the first part of the mat or the "part I know". Both partners built the whole part on their Pete the Cat™ cutout, then said "POP!" as they pulled off the part they knew in order to find the missing part.
To record the answers, I used the reproducible Pete the Cat images that came inside the instructions pamphlet in the Pete the Cat™ Classroom Jobs Bulletin Board Set. I copied 4 onto a page and then students recorded the subtraction sentences they created during the game onto the paper.
What a fun and groovy way to practice our subtraction facts!
