We took more than a week with “P” because we had the flu floating around the house that time. Here’s our book list and activities when “P” was our letter of the week. Feel free to add ideas in the comments!

Our “P” Books

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paola – a wordless picture book showing how pancakes are made, from grinding wheat to churning butter

The Three Little Pigs – the classic children’s story about the wolf who huffed and puffed to blow the pigs’ houses away! Our copy is by Kindermusik and came with a puppet set and CD.

Pete’s a Pizza by William Steig – an old favorite about pretending that a boy is a  pizza; Read my post here about what we did when we read this the first time

Emma’s Pet by David McPhail – a sweet story about Emma who is looking for a pet and ends up hugging the best pet of all… her father

Pete and PJ by Cindy Bousman – a Kindermusik book about Pete and his pet PJ as they take a bath

Prayer for a Child by Elizabeth Orton Jones – a sweet little book about being thankful for what one has; Little T and I read this about two years ago as part of Before Five in a Row.

Poky Little Puppy – one of the original 12 Little Golden Books!

Our “P” Activities

Since one of books was Pancakes for Breakfast, it goes without saying that eating was part of our activities… and that the food disappeared before I got to take pictures of the pancakes!

We also loved storytelling with our Three Little Pigs p-p-puppet set. If you don’t have one, you can easily make three pigs with paper bags!

We also spent several days experimenting with p-p-play dough too by rolling, laying them flat and pressing them on the giant “P” that Little Sir traced and cut. All of those activities – tracing, cutting, rolling, pressing – are great for fine motor skills. You’ll notice that I’m big on fine motor skills because little kids really need to strengthen their fingers to prepare them for writing eventually.

In reading Jane Moncure’s My First Steps To Reading – My “P” Book, we came across a porcupine… and promptly made one with play dough and toothpicks! It has since become one of Little Sir’s favorite new words.

 

Things We Would Have Loved To Do Too

• Sing “P” songs – Pat-a-cake and Peas Porridge Hot come to mind
• P-p-paint
• Make and eat some p-p-pizaa
• Eat some egg p-p-pie

 

AlphaBooks is a series here at The Learning Basket documenting ideas on how to gently introduce the alphabet to your child using books and simple activities. To read the start of the series, click here.