Sunday 19 August 2012

Books to Support Learning....

Alright-so this blog post isn't exactly on time but my excuses are plentiful and valid. Enjoying summer-check! Spending time with my kids before they go back to school and daycare-check! Reorganizing my house so I have a space for the laptop so I can do this comfortably-check!

But here I am now-with a blog post called "books to support learning". It wont be my only blog post on this topic as books are my favourite way of introducing a concept to kids. If the story is invigorating and the illustrations are interesting enough to focus on-a book is my best friend.


Enter--->my best friend.






Pete the Cat-I Love My White Shoes

This book is awesome. 2 kinds of awesome. Awesome number 1: It teaches expectations. I LOVE LOVE LOVE books that teach expectations. Why? Because expectations need to be taught. Children NEED expectations. They will thrive if they have them-and anyone reading this blog-is all about thriving children. This book teaches one of my favourite expectations. "No whining" . Simple right? read them the book-group discussion about the book-kids start to understand the expectation. BUT it gets better with this book. My copy came with a CD of the entire book being sung. That is Awesome number 2. The CD alone makes this book the best addition to your classroom. There are portions where the song is being read-and then portions when it is being sung. I always encouraged the children (at the daycare and at the schools I supplied in) to stand up and dance. It got them so involved in the story and by the end of it-they could answer the open ended questions I asked them to support their learning. Example: "What would you do if you were wearing new white shoes and stepped in mud?"  After learning-I've seen kids say to other kids who are complaining or whining "Would Pete the cat cry?" The kids will continue on learning and teaching their peers long after the book is over.


I can't wait to introduce this book to the kinders. It is always a big hit-and a super learning experience. The best part about learning through books is that it often doesn't feel like learning.

I have several learning extensions planned for using with this book. So this isn't the last you will see of Pete the Cat.


For now-check out author Eric Litwin here with a live telling of the book!







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