Our Class Book - Pete the Cat Style!

Hey friends!  I wanted to share with you the cutest thing EVER that we did last week!  We were supposed to write a class book for a competition for our building Book Fair.  I really didn't want to do it, to be honest.  I mean, I can hardly fit things in as it is.  But my firsties?  Writing a class book?  And agreeing on it?  And doing what they were supposed to?  The thought of it kind of made me squirm.  But my wonderful Ohio State student gave me the motivation I needed!  I looked at her and said, "Do you want to do this?  Because I really don't."  The more we kind of brainstormed together, the more excited I got.  Then I enlisted the help of my firsties.  After all, it WAS their book.

Rewind to some background info.  I know, I know, I'm the last on the bandwagon.  I had NEVER read a Pete the Cat book.  Ever.  I had seen so much about it and knew that they were all the rage.  The teachers were able to pick out a free book on the first day of the Book Fair, so I ran down in a hurry to snag one.  So many books!  Which would should I pick?  Ah-ha...there's a Pete the Cat book right in front of me.  Sure, why not?  It's free and maybe we'll actually enjoy it.  So I found 5 free minutes the next day (which turned into 10 because we HAD to listen to the audio version that's on the internet) and read let them listen to the book.  By page 3 or 4 they were singing along and having a BLAST!

Fast forward again to the dreaded day of writing the blasted book.  I turned the mic to my students and asked them for suggestions.  Fiction?  Nonfiction?  Funny?  Serious?  We had a few ideas up on the board and I said, "Ok, Miss Crooks and I will take it from here and narrow it down."  Then this sweet gal in my class quietly came up and said, "Mrs. Kirby...what about our own version of Pete the Cat?"  I looked at Morgan, Morgan looked at me, and we KNEW that's what we would do.  I did a quick check with the rest of the class and they ERUPTED into cheers!  Ok.  Set.  Done.

Then we had the biggest brainstorm session ever.  After narrowing it down, they wanted to do a Pete the Cat book with changing of hats.  We came up with different hats (football helmet and hockey mask didn't quite make the cut).

Then we wrote our story on the board.  Typing it out allowed for some easy editing.  After all, we only had two days to finish this project!

Having it typed out also allowed for an easy way for all the students to write the book.  I cut and paste into a document and printed the lines out.  I cut them up and gave each student a sentence or two to write their own page to contribute to the book.

Then we put some clipart on the board of Pete the Cat and all the different hats he was wearing in the book.  This helped guide them with their illustrations.

Silly me forgot to take a snapshot of the final product.  I was in such a hurry to get the thing done and turned in!  The judging takes place this week.  If our class wins, they get to silly string our principal!  They are REALLY hoping they win.  And so am I. :)

Ya know what I think will REALLY set the judges over the edge?  Yeah, that's right.  The fact that we made a CD and recorded our book!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THESE AMAZING KIDDOS AND THE BOOK THEY WROTE!
You should be able to click the link and click the "Play" button at the bottom where it says, "Click play to hear the preview of the song."  It should play the whole thing.  :)

And one more thing...around a week ago I picked up these from the Target dollar bins!  Dry-erase spinner games for addition and subtraction!  Yeah!

Enjoy!  I'm getting ready to hunker down for this snow storm that's coming tomorrow.  Putting ice cubes in the toilet, sleeping with a spoon under my pillow, sleeping with my jammies inside-out, and doing my snow dance...hey, if it's gonna snow in March, it might was well count for something!  ;)