Pete the Cat Subtraction lesson

You know how every once in a while you'll have a lesson that just goes perfectly! The kids are all engaged and well behaved, and everything just clicks. Well, I finally had that happen today. I didn't think it would happen this year with the class I have especially this close to Halloween but it did!!! It also helped that I had 4 absent so that brought my total down to 27. Anyhow, I absolutely LOVE Pete the Cat and now my class does too. I taught subtraction using the Pete the Cat book- "My Four Groovy Buttons".

I know I've blogged about Subtraction and Pete the Cat before and posted a freebie I made for math stations. You can read that post HERE. But today's lesson was a great way to teach or review subtraction. I read the book and then gave all the kiddos a shirt mat and some buttons.

I had them put 5 buttons on their shirt. Then we sang the song from the book, "My buttons, my buttons, my 5 groovy buttons..." Then I said, "POP! 2 buttons just rolled away. How many buttons are left?" We took 2 buttons off our shirt. Then we wrote the number sentence on the recording sheet.

We continued doing more with other numbers up to 10. I had a few finding patterns and discovering cool things about subtraction. My firsties were loving it! They didn't want to stop. Man, I wish my principal would have been doing my evaluation. It went great! I hope it's not a once in a school year happening.
If you'd like a copy of my shirt and recording sheet just click on the picture below.

I hope everyone has a super week and a hauntingly great Halloween. Oh and love & prayers go out to those of you on the North Eastern coast!