Cooking popcorn is a must!!! plus the song: "Popcorn popping, p, p, p..." Here are some other ideas: * Purse pictures - do coin rubbings * Make picture puzzles. * Discuss parties - play pass the parcel. * Painting party pictures. 2) Try a different pickle tasting-point out shape, texture and flavor. Use pumpkin pie spice added to glue for a scented gluing project, pickling spices, paprika, construction paper peas glued onto a large cut out letter P. 3) We make a large P and the put prints on "p" or pictures on "p" pink pansy's on "p" planes on "p" 4) Activity P. Make popcorn. Call your child into an area where they can hear the corn pop. Each time he hears a pop your child should hop like corn popping and say "pop". I like to do this when there are several children around. It is really fun to watch several children popping all around the room. You may want to write the word pop on a piece of cardstock and have the children hold their pop sign high in the air each time they say the word "pop". •Piggy Bank When I was a small tot, a neighbor lady made me a gift. I don't know the instructions, but probably was easy, and maybe you've seen one. Using a bleach bottle she made me a piggy bank. All she used was glue, clorox bottle, and 4 corks. I loved that little gift, and it's still in my fond memories..corks were for feet, top of the bottle was nose, eyes drawn on, and then curly tail out of extra plastic, money slot cut in "back" of pig. •Pudding Painting Mix up several batches of instant pudding to finger paint with •Polk-a-dot Ps Prepare a P for each child to cut out and decorate with polk-a-dots. Use buttons, paints, stickers, etc. •Pass the Potato Have the children sit in a circle, let them pass a potato around by tossing it as you play music. When the music stops, whoever is holding the potato is "out." •Peanut Butter Have the children help shell enough peanuts to make 2 cups. Put aprox 2 Tbls. of salad oil into a blender and gradually add the peanuts, blending until smooth. • A ditto with the letter Pp, the children color it in (trying to stay in the lines) then we will glue on dried split peas •A paper plate collage using things that begin with the letter p (pink and purple tissue paper, popcorn, peanuts, etc) •Read a story of Polka the Pig and after reading it to them we will make a puppet of her •paint with pink and purple •A successful P activity is to make popsicle stick puzzles. The children line up popsicle sticks(line them up side by side, forming a rectangle) and use masking tape to tape them together. They write their name on each stick and turn the sticks over. They color a picture on the popsicle sticks. When finished, they take the tape off, mix up the sticks, and do their puizzle. They love exchanging puzzles with friends. If a piece drops, it's easily returned since the children's names are on each popsicle stick! •Perky Penguin. I made patterns from cardboard. I made a shape like an upside down U in black and another a little smaller in white. I used orange and cut out a diamond to fold in half as a beak and used googly eyes. I also cut out the letter P and they glue it on his "tux".I cut out the shapes from the construction paper and they glued the pieces together.My class knows that where there is an X they need to put glue and then I tell them what piece goes on next. •PIZZA DAY: How about a Pizza Day for P? I'm actually having a Pizza day this Friday. I put out english muffin halves, pizza sauce, shredded cheese, pepperoni, and hot dog slices. The children build their pizza the way they like to eat it and we cook it in a 350 oven for 5 minutes or so (until cheese is melted) and we eat them for snack •Pizza Game: My co-teacher made a very cute pizza game. She cut a round circle out of yellow poster board and then cut the circle into four quarters (pizza slices). On each slice she drew 7 or 8 circles. Then she cut out lots of red circles (pepperoni) that would fit on the 7 or 8 circles she drew on the pizza slices. She bought a plain wooden dice and put white sticky circles on all sides. On some of the circles she wrote a 1, on some she wrote a 2, and on 1 circle she drew a set of "teeth." THE GAME: Everyone begins with a pizza slice....all pepperoni circles are in the center of the table. If you roll a 1...you put 1 pepperoni on your pizza. If you roll a 2.... 2 pepperonis go on your pizza. If you roll the set of teeth....OOPPSS! You got HUNGRY and ate one pepperoni....you take one off your card and place it back in the center of the table. When you have covered all your circles with pepperonis...your slice is done. Continue playing ...when the second slice is done...combine it with the first slice....now you have half a pizza. Contintue until all the slices are covered with pepperonis and your pizza is complete!! •PIZZA ART: Depending on your age group you can precut or have the children cut them themselves. You will need: 1 white circle. Mix glue and red tempera paint. Spread this "pizza sauce" on the crust of your pizza (the white circle). Sprinkle on cheese. (we cut yellow and orange tissue in thin strips and the children crumpled them and sprinkled them on. Put on pepperoni (red circles), green pepper strips/ white mushrooms (white mushroom half shapes)... •ALTERNATIVE PIZZA IDEA: You could use red circles for your pizza and Vegetable Print....Mushrooms/Peppers/Onions etc. on top. • BOOK: CURIOUS GEORGE AND THE PIZZA •Make a pizza prop box I use every year. Here's how. Ask your nearest pizza restaurant for a few different sized pizza boxes (small, med, and large) and the cardboard circles they put pizzas "to go" on. Cut red felt circles to match the cardboard circles. Cut some circles into slices. Cut up some white yarn for mozarella cheese, yellow felt pineapple chunks, biege felt mushrooms, reddish brown felt blobs for sausage, red felt circles dotted with black marker for pepperoni, green felt in the shape of sliced green peppers, black felt circles for olives. Make some menus with these items drawn on in felt pen and the words for them and small med. and large and prices. I keep each pizza topping in its own zip-lock bag when I store this for the next year. Bring out the cash register, phone, pens and pads, aprons, cooks hats, etc. and open your pizza restaurant. •We always go to a pizza hut or similar on a field trip. Most will let you make your own pizza and show the kids around, etc. •We also make our own pizza restaurant using playdough and pattern blocks. You can make menus with particular patterns to copy with the pattern blocks. A good way to get math to those who don't usually go to the math center. •We make art pizza too, but I don't bother cutting out stuff anymore. Just give them circles and red glue-paint, white yarn pieces for cheese and collage shapes, little foam or paper ones - whatever you have around. •Sing the Charlotte Diamond song: "I am a pizza" It's a wonderful echo song, in case you've never heard it. •After we went to the real pizza place and made our own pizzas we made a "thank-you" pizza for the restaurant to hang. I used a large foam core circle and we made the crust from Model Magic (children kneed a little bit of orange liquid water color into the model magic and formed it around the edge of the large circle. Then I filled the middle with wall compound and the children stuck yarn pieces, and died woodle-bits into the wall compound. Next time I would get someone to cut a wooden circle because the foam core did tend to warp a little and I ended up having to glue some of the wood pieces back on after it dried. •Pigs and Monkeys. You can use any animals however. Split your class into two groups and let them pick which animal they want to be. This goes great with many themes because you can give the kids choices of animals that go along with your theme. After they choose their animals they close their eyes (eyes stay closed for the rest of the game) and you move them to different areas in the room away from other members of their group. When they are all over the room you say "GO" and they make the noise of the animal their group chose. They need to find each other by sound only. Their eyes should stay closed. This game works better with older kids. Oh, and don't forget to move the tables out of the way!!! The game gets loud and sometimes a little rowdy but the kids I've played it with love it!!! •We make pizzas every year for P week too. (painted, I mean). A fun thing to do for the chees is to sprinkle cornmeal over the painted circle before it dries. The drying paint will hold it on. This makes an interesting texture and the children love shaking the cornmeal. I use an old large salt shaker. •It's also fun to make popcorn. If you can take your popcorn popper outside or clear a large space on the floor. Put the popper on a clean sheet and pop the corn without the top on. This is so much fun as the children see the popcorn fly through the air. Most of it will land on the sheet and after all the popcorn has popped, the children can pick it up and eat it. Make sure you have the children stand back from the popper as the popcorn is pretty hot right after it pops. This is a real treat for the children! •One book that is a definite must for P week is The Piggie In The Puddle by Charlotte Pomerantz. It's published by Aladdin Books. This is one of my favorite books! Written in rhyming form, it's the story of a little piggie playing in a mud puddle who won't get out when her family asks her to. Oh, what's a family to do? Read and find out! •Another big hit with the kids is "The Big Pumpkin" by Erica Silverman... with the sing-along story tape .. they never get tired of it... •SAM THE PIZZA MAN Hold both hands out, palms up Sam the Pizza man put a pizza in a pan dot the air and rub tummy And he put a lotta sausage on the top. (that's good) Now I know if he would only put index finger on chin Add the pepperoni, shake head yes He would have a nice-a pizza! Serve it hot I would!!!!! •Purple Cow 1 1/2 C milk 1/2 C grape juice 1 sliced banana Place all ingredients in blender. Mix until smooth and frothy. Makes 3 servings. Serving size = 1 cup = 1 milk credit •PUNCHINELLO Have the children stand in a circle & pick a child to stand it the center.The child in the center will do something & the rest of the children must follow while singing this song.After the song is sung a new child is picked by the child in the center. What can you do, Punchinello funny fellow? What can you do, Punchinello funny you? We can do it too, Punchinello funny fellow. We can do it too, Punchinello funny you. •Letter p- Cut a p out of strong paper and let the children glue on popcorn. •Pineapples-Buy a pineapple for the children to investigate. Talk about shape, size and texture. Cut it up and let the children try it. Compare it with an apple. •Pina Coladas-Put 16 oz of pineapple juice, 4 oz Coco Lopez and tray full of ice in blender. Mix till frosty •Paper Bag Puppets-Cut out circles for heads, arms and feet. Let children decorate with hair and color. Put on a puppet show •Porcupine - a small potato/two small craft sticks/uncooked spaghetti/wiggle eyes; break craft sticks in half and place on bottom of potato for legs; glue on wiggle eyes; break uncooked spaghetti into pieces and stick into potato •Pizza - paper plates/red markers/construction paper scraps/glue sticks •let them color plates red for sauce and use scraps for toppings •Our kids had some real bargains - "Free delivery and a $1,000.00 refund if you buy one with extra cheese for fifty cents!* •Soft Pretzels *** 2 - 16 oz. loaves frozen bread dough 1 egg white, slightly beaten 1 teaspoon water Coarse salt Separate thawed bread into 24 - 1 1/2" balls. Roll each ball into a rope 14 1/2" long. Have children plan and design pretzel shapes (letters or numerals). Put pretzels one inch apart on greased cookie sheet. Let stand for 20 minutes and brush with combined egg white and water. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Place a shallow pan containing 1" of boiling water on bottom rack of oven; bake pretzels at 350 degrees on rack above water for 20 minutes or until golden brown. •Peppermint Ice Cream *** 3 lb. coffee can with plastic cover 1 lb. coffee can with plastic cover Rock salt Crushed ice 2 cups whipping cream 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract Red food coloring Crushed peppermint stick (about 3 T.) Place 1 lb. can in center of 3 lb can. Fill 1 lb. can with ice cream ingredients. Layer crushed ice and rock salt around the small 1 lb. can. Cover both with their plastic lids. Sit in a circle on floor and roll the can back and forth for about 15 minutes. • "Pat a cake, pat a cake ,Pizza Man. Make me a pizza as fast as you can! Roll it and toss it and sprinkle it with cheese. And don't forget 5 pepperonis ,please !!" Hope you can use this sometime !! The kids enjoy "spreading " red finger paint over a brown circle, then sprinkling paper "cheese" strips and finally putting the little red paper circles on for the pepperoni............ •Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins 2 cups all purpose flour 3 tbsp. granulated sugar 1 tbsp. baking powder 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1 large egg 1 cup milk 1/3 cup your favorite jelly Heat oven to 350 deg. Mix all the ingredients together wcept for the jelly. Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter into a paper cup or greased muffin tin. Top with a heaping tablespoon of jelly. bake for 20 to 25 minutes. >From Providers Food Program newsletter Oct. 1997. •Pumpkin Haravest Bars 1 1/4 cup of flour 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp. grated orange peel 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup applesauce 1/2 cup of solid packed pumpkin 1 whole egg 2 tbsp. vegetable oil 1/2 cup raisins Preheat oven to 350 deg. Spray 9 x 13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda, orange peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. I a large bowl combine sugar, applesauce, pumpkin, egg, egg white and oil. Add the flour mixture and stir until well blended. Stir in raisins. Pour the batter into the greased pan and spread evenly. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Pudding Painting Mix up several batches of instant pudding for the children to finger paint with Polk-a-dot Ps Prepare a P for each child to cut out and decorate with polk-a-dots. Use buttons, paints, stickers, etc. Movement and Games Pass the Potato Have the children sit in a circle, let them pass a potato around by tossing it as you play music. When the music stops, whoever is holding the potato is "out." Alphabet Appetizer Peanut Butter Have the children help shell enough peanuts to make 2 cups. Put aprox 2 Tbls. of salad oil into a blender and gradually add the peanuts, blending until smooth. Server on crackers, bread, celery or apples.