Letter “P” -Letter of the Week Program

Welcome to letter ‘P’ week everyone.  We decided to make a penguin for our letter craft because several little people here like “Peso” the penguin from the Octonauts show.  I’m generally not a fan of promoting commercialized characters but I AM a true believer of teaching a child through their interests.  The fact that Peso’s name starts with the letter P is something that they will remember!

We read our AlphaTales letter books and talked about the sound letter P makes. Letter P is an easier letter for the children to remember because the sound of the letter is made while you say the letter’s name.  There are also many everyday words that the children know that start with the letter P.

It was a treat for the children to use pens to trace their letter P’s.  I’ve never given the younger children pens at craft time (they aren’t washable) so they were excited.  Of course we used pens because they start with the letter P.

After the kids had traced the letter P with their pens they had a chance to use Bingo Daubers to make polka dots on their letter P’s.

One day at lunch time while we were chatting about the letter P and some words that started with letter P, one child made the connection that the word ‘pee’ must start with the letter P!  This brought lots of giggles and laughs at the table but it was great to see the child’s eyes light up when their brain made the connection.

The children and I went on a letter P hunt around the house.  We walked around finding objects that started with the letter P.  We found plants….

…..pants…..

….pillows….and many more items. You could do this activity in your home, outside, while you are waiting at a bus stop or while looking at a picture book.

Painting starts with the letter P so we got out the finger paints and the finger painting slippery paper one day this week.  The children used their ‘pointer’ fingers to make polka dot letter P’s and their own creative designs with the paint.

I wrote letter P’s in pencil on some of the younger children’s pages so they had a guide to follow.  Other children were ready to form their own letter P’s by referring to the example letter P I had taped up near the table.  Another child was ready to try painting a letter P from memory.  This is one example of how children can all do the same activity but still be supported at their own level of development.

I should also mention to you what the oldest and youngest kids did during the painting activity. The baby finger painted his own unique design as the other children worked on their letter P’s.  He watched how the children used their pointer fingers to dip in the paint and he did the same!

My oldest child mixed paint colours and tried different layering techniques with her fingers while she practiced her letter P spelling words in finger paints. Some words had to contain letter P at the beginning of the word (plan), others had letter P the middle (apple), and others at the end (pop).

We ate a lot of foods that began with the letter P this week. The children enjoyed porridge, pancakes, pears, pasta, pita bread, pumpkin muffins, pizza, pineapple, peanut butter, peaches and popcorn.  Remember to be careful with popcorn and very young children because it can be a choking hazard.

The children loved making a letter P on the floor with our twister game circles (polka dots) and then jumping from one dot to the next.  You could cut circles out of paper and tape them to your floor.  It’s helps some children to move their whole body when they are learning to form a letter.  Jumping or running in the shape of a letter enables those kinesthetic learners to remember that the letter P curves out to the right of the stick and not the left.

We finished our letter P activities by playing on the piano.

I hope your letter P week is positively perfect!