Tot Preschool: Letter P

Last week we talked about Letter P! It was quite the exciting week for my little Sweet P, whose name, if you haven't gathered, does indeed start with a P. (I know we seemed to have skipped Letter O, but I'll post those activities later.)

So many great things start with P, but Sweet P has been fascinated with peacocks lately so we did several peacock activities.

Handprint Peacock: She painted her hands green and then placed them on a white sheet of paper. We let the paint dry, cut them out and then she decorated the feathers. She added a head, body, beak and googly eyes.

Popsicle Peacock: Sweet P painted the popsicle sticks after she did her handprints so they all dried at the same time and we came back to the peacocks after naptime. She decorated the popsicle sticks with sticky rhinestone (which she also loves to wear as earrings). I gave her a white piece of paper and we talked about patterning with green and blue. She created his feathers and then gave him a body, beak and googly eyes. 

Fanning Peacock: I have to say I love this peacock! I really wanted her to have a peacock that could fan it's feathers, but didn't love the idea of a fan peacock so I came up with this. After I cut out all the pieces, Sweet P assembled them. She also gave him eyes and a beak. Since it was cardstock it was tough to get through the brad so I poked holes and she was able to get them on a bit easier. Fold down the edges of the brad and there you have it! A fanning peacock! His body and the dots on his feathers are glittery scrapbook paper, but could very easily be made using glitter and regular paper.

We made Teach Preschool's super cute peas in a pod.

Sweet P also played with this fun Paint Brush File Folder from Confessions of a Homeschooler and we talked about how pink and purple also start with P. 

P collage with items that start with P cut from magazines: We talked about each item's name and then she glued them on while I made lunch.

Since Memorial Day was that week, we also did some Patriotic activities (yep, I'm that corny).

I don't have a picture, but we did a Letter P maze and covered all the Pp's with Pirate stickers. She likes doing this much more than dotting the letters on the maze. After all the stickers were in place, I showed her how to trace the maze with her finger.

Sweet P also had a Letter P muffin tin, full of some of her favorite "once in awhile" snacks! It also included a pickle juice popsicle...love that face!

Summer Bucket List 2012

Sidewalk Chalk Road & Town

One day while Baby Blue took a massive nap, Sweet P and I took the monitor outside and had some girl time. Our friend let us borrow a ride on-scoot with your feet tractor so she was riding around the driveway when inspiration hit. I brought her inside while I scavenged for our sidewalk chalk (why is it never with the outside supples?!).

We went back outside and I explained to her what I was doing and went to work. I used 3 large pieces of chalk to create my masterpiece and can I just say it was AWESOME! She loved it and it got HOURS of play before the rain washed it away. 2 others have been created in its place (and washed away as well) and I'm pretty sure we're going to have a sidewalk road and town all summer long.

It took about 3-5 minutes to draw the road and then a few more to draw little places from around town. I put several items that are on our car mat and then asked her for more suggestions. She wanted 2 parks, Costco, a coffee shop (which she named "Have a Nellie Sue"), Trader Joe's, the mall, our house, the farm and the farmer's market. I also drew Hy-Vee, Target, a swimming pool and some fountains we go to during the summer.

She filled in a few dashes in the middle of the road and drew people going down the slide at the park. After the 3rd round of roads the Farmer drew parking places for her dump truck and tractors. We have a terrible driveway, but she doesn't seem to mind and maneuvers over the cracks like a pro.

I played, too by running along the road and pushing the dump truck. She'd start at one end while I started at the other and we'd race to each other. When I reached her I'd swoop her up and spin her around. We had SO much fun!

See the growth in the bottom left picture? She used it as a carwash for her tractor until sadly on Saturday the neighbor cut it down. She asked the Farmer "Why did you cut down the carwash?!"

I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner! It's cheap, simple and she LOVES it!