fletters

Maintaining my webpages has now become a part-time career for me, and the cost of site maintenance has steadily risen over time. So, if you benefit from this website and would like to see it continue, please purchase "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers," and/or make occasional financial donations where possible to help defer the costs of keeping my site on the internet.

LETTERS: Oo, Pp, Qq Share your ideas too. E-mail me at stormie@preschoolbystormie.com

From Stormie:

Snack: Oranges

Set up the game of tic-tac-toe on the chalkboard for children to play during free choice time.

Play a tape of calming ocean sounds upon returning from outdoor play.

Creative Art: Children paint with round o-shaped objects.

Science: Explore various types of onions (red, green, vidalia). Then give everyone an olive for a nibbling snack.

Make and eat some oatmeal.

Learn about an animal called "ox."

Listen to orchestra or opera music.

Can you make an Oo with your fingers?

Discuss the job of the community helper called "optometrist."

Take-Home Textured O: Children dip onion halves in thick paint and make prints on an orange paper O cutout, or have them do onion and orange prints (use orange paint for the orange prints).

Creative Art:

1. Children do polka-dot painting on paper plates. Hang polka-dot fabirc squares around the area as "suggestions."

2. Children do potato printing

Pre-Math: Children sort polka-dot fabric squares or colored pom-poms.

Fine Motor: Play with Parquetry Shapes and Pegs & Pegboards. Introduce the names of these games to the class. Also play with puzzles.

Gross Motor:Parachute play

Language: How about practicing the old familiar tongue twister: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" or make up new ones like "Patsy Pauley picked purple petunias." Get the children involved. The words they come up with may not be real words but the important thing for this activity is that the beginning Pp sound is used (or so I was taught).

Have a Peanut Hunt: Hide peanuts as you would Easter eggs and let the children find them.

Make Peanut Butter Playdoh with the children (1 cup each of peanut butter, honey, oatmeal, and powdered milk). Children then mold it on paper plates before eating.

Other P Snack Options:Pineapple, pizza, or mashed potatoes

Read the book "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Numeroff; illustrated by Felicia Bond: This is about a pig who's always wanting something. What a perfect story to go with "Pancakes in Pajamas" day.

Take-Home Textured P: Children glue popped popcorn on a pink or purple paper P cutout, or let them tear pieces of pink paper and glue them on a purple P cutout.

Other Favorite P Books:

*Curious George and the Pizza, by Margaret Rey: In this Curious George story, George gets into trouble at the pizza shop.

*Pete's A Pizza, by William Steig: Pete's parents pretend he's a pizza. (This book has won a "Caldecott Artist" award.)

*Snack idea from Shelli Smith, Riverton, Utah: Serve Poptarts (for less sugary ones, get them without frosting).

Have a deliberate quiet time.

Language: Questions: Cover a tissue box with white paper. During Group time, tell the children that later when they get older, they will learn about what a question is. Introduce ? to them -- explaining that there is a question word and a question mark. Let them find as many ?'s as they can from newspapers or magazines. (In advance, find question marks on magazine pages or newspaper ads. Tear out those pages or sections and place them on the table for the children to then do a more concrete search.) Have the children cut out the marks and glue them onto the box along with the letters Qq. They may even like to practice print the letters and question mark themselves on the box -- just for fun. Later, or the next day, place small pieces of paper in the box with questions on them. At Group time, allow each child to draw a question from the box. Read the question to the child and let him/her answer. Examples of questions might be: How old are you? What is your favorite thing to do on the playground? What is your favorite playdoh toy? And so on.

Art Center Options:

1. Children paint with Q-tips.

2. Show the children a real quilt and discuss how it was made by sewing squares of fabric together. Then have children make a classroom quilt for the letter Qq: Give each child a piece of paper that has been folded into several squares. In advance, cut fabric squares or colorful squares from wallpaper books that are the same size as the creased folded squares on the children's papers. Children choose the pre-cut squares they wish to glue onto the creased squares of their papers. Later, tape all the children's patchwork designs together forming a large quilt.

Science: Introduce pictures of and discuss what a "quail" is.

In the above curriculum, the nursery rhyme "Queen Of Hearts" provides an opportunity to review Qq.

Provide all the girls in the class with a crown so they can be queens for the day. (Allow them to decorate their crowns.) (Do the same thing for the boys when you do the letter Kk so they can be kings.)

Take-Home Q: Children do rubbings of a quarter on a thin paper Q cutout, or have them glue Q-tips on their Q.

Note: Some teachers are uncomfortable using Q-tips for this gluing activity because Q-tips are also known as cotton swabs.

I love this idea sent to me from Janet Dobbins, Grand Island, Nebraska:
Quilts: Go to carpet stores and get carpet samples. Also, cut old fabric scraps into shapes (different sizes of squares, triangles, and circles). Hot glue small pieces of velcro to the back of the fabric shapes. To play the "game," children make their own quilt patterns on top of the carpet samples. This develops fine motor control, and the children love the final outcome......a beautiful quilt THEY made! If the activity seems too stressful for one child, have him work with a partner, in threes, etc. Or save the game as an activity children can do with their grandparents on Grandparent's Day, or with parents on Parent's Night.

What a fantastic idea this is from Malinda, Abilene, Texas:
Quivers: Especially during February, for letter Qq, children can make cupid's quivers (the boys in my class really liked this in particular) : They decorate paper towel tubes, add a bottom, and attach yarn or other lacing material for a strap. Make arrows out of pipe cleaners, with paper, or, from fun foam tips and ends. They can decorate the quivers by gluing on a picture of cupid that they have colored, or they can just add paper hearts.
Note from Stormie: For those who may not know, "quivers" are cases that hold arrows.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reminders from Stormie:
*I offer "Wacky Animals ABC Cards" in the "Teaching Aids" section of "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers.
*If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here to check them out.

CONTINUE ON

OR

REVIEW FEB CURRICULUM CURRICULUMS INDEX WEBSITE INDEX HOME

My website address: http://www.preschoolbystormie.com