Tot School, Letter P

Our week of the letter P lasted more than a week, because of holiday parties, shopping, appointments, etc. We read lots of books about pigs, penguins, parties, pancakes, and more. She played the piano and painted. She used pink and purple crayons, markers, and paint, and even got to draw with pens and pencils. We attended many Christmas parties...6, I think. So P dragged out, Christmas flew by, and we are ready to start the letter C. 

Before we do, here is a review of some of our letter P activities. I would like to point out that I emphasize the sound that the letter P makes over and over throughout each activity and give her examples that she can hear and repeat ("The letter P says /p/. What sound does the letter P make? Right, /p/, like /p/ penguin. Now you try."). 

My one year old, MC and I read Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. Then, I drew a penguin on a piece of paper and gave her a variety of art supplies (including glue, scrap paper, tissue paper, paint, and glitter) to decorate him with. She made her own one-of-a-kind penguin!

We read Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere! by Bob Barner. Then, MC and I made a penguin puppet together. We used a black paper bag, orange construction paper, black felt (wings), glue, wiggle eyes, orange markers, and some white stickers. 

We read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. I drew a pig on a pink piece of construction paper, and cut out five circles (pancakes) from brown construction paper. First, she painted some maple syrup onto each pancake with a brush and brown paint. After the paint dried, I helped her glue the pancakes onto the pig. While she did this, we counted the pancakes. She insisted on putting one on the pig's eye...sure, why not?

The next morning, we re-read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. Then, I made us both pancakes for breakfast. I surprised her with a pancake shaped like a pig. He had a banana nose and chocolate chip eyes. She loved it!

One of the letter P activities I made for her was a P dot to dot made from a Bingo dot marker. I gave her purple and pink markers to trace it with. Some of the tracing was done hand-over-hand and some she did by herself. 

I would also like to mention that we read...a lot! At the beginning of each week, I collect all the books she has on the letter we will be working on, and put them into their own bin (for example, this week I collected all of her books about penguins, pancakes, ponies, the piano, pink, purple, pigs, etc. and put them into their own bin). I keep this bin in the living room, so throughout the day when she wants to read a book, I can easily pull one out and continue to emphasize the sound the letter makes. We also keep another book bin handy filled with books that I rotate depending on the season and holidays that are near (for example, it is now filled with books about snow, Christmas, hibernation, polar bears, snowmen,  and soon, Valentine's Day, etc.). We read out of both book bins throughout the day.