Pete the Cat Button Activities | Inspiration Laboratories

This month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids is featuring three Pete the Cat books by Eric Litwin. We did some math and science activities to go along with Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. Practice sorting, counting, and subtraction using buttons. Affiliate links are included in this post. Thanks for supporting Inspiration Laboratories.

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin

In Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, Pete loses buttons off of his favorite shirt. But does Pete cry? Goodness no. He just keeps on singing. This book has a fun sing-song rhyme typical of the other Pete the Cat stories by Eric Litwin. You can download the song from the Harper Collins website and have fun singing along.

Button Sorting and Classification

Sorting and classification is an important science and math skill. {Read more about classification for toddlers and preschoolers.}

I asked Aiden what differences he saw in the buttons we had. He first mentioned the shape of the button – flowers vs. circles.

He sorted the buttons into two piles. Then, we looked at the differences within the piles. He separated the circles into dots and stripes and then by color. He separated the flower buttons by color.

The activity is a great way to introduce classification at any age {even high school kids can benefit from the example}. Scientists classify organisms by separating them into groups based on certain characteristics – just like we did with the buttons. The ultimate goal of scientific classification is to separate organisms into different species. Each of our end groups of buttons could represent a species.

Button Counting and Subtraction

I printed out a yellow shirt with a square below it. I placed the paper in a plastic sheet protector {you could also laminate it}. There are several ways to practice counting with this sheet.

Write a number in the square and have your child count out that many buttons.
Have your child roll a pair of dice. Write the number in the square and then count out that number of buttons.
Write numbers on squares of paper. Have your child choose a number and then count out that many buttons.

I also printed out a yellow shirt with an empty subtraction problem below it. You can fill in the first two squares like I suggest above. Then, use buttons to help complete the subtraction problem.