Positively Perfect P Week

I know, I know, I say this all the time - this was my favorite week!  We managed to have so much fun packed into 5 short day!  Let's just jump right into our week -

On Monday we decided to introduced the letter "P" by making our Pink and Purple Penguin with Polka-dots.  (OH MY, that is a mouthful for sure.)  These were such a fun way to work on our imagination and fine motor skills.  

These two were macaroni penguins and I hope you can see that the penguin on the left has a fish in her mouth.  I love that!  What an imagination!  Of course we spent the entire day waddling like penguins and giggling because we could not fly.

Tuesday was spend making our very own personalized pumpkins.  Everyone had their choice of colors.  They were very interesting to say the least.  I cut out a variety of different size pumpkins.  Some were tall and thin, some were short and fat, and others were tall and fat.  Everyone got a choice (NOTE: I always cut out way too many of each type.  That way everyone never has to settle for what is left-over.).  Next, deciding on a color.  For some it was very difficult "thinking outside the box".  "Pumpkins are orange" I was told several different times.  Finally, my message was received - it is YOUR pumpkin, what color do YOU want it to be.  AHHHHHH success!

I also had different size stems.  Everyone choose their stems and painted them their own special color.  The pumpkin leaves were our hand prints in (of course) any color they wanted.  Now, here comes the sad part . . .  I forgot to take a picture of our final product.  But trust me - you really need to do this.  It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time taking their imagination to a new level.

No really fun "P" week would be complete without a Pajama Party!  And what a Pajama Party we had!!!  Everyone came to school dressed in their P.J.'s and brought their pillows.  We ate popcorn and watch a movie (Mary Poppins, of course!).

What fun!

Now, FINALLY the most PERFECT day arrived!!! POLICEMAN DAY!  My sweet, sweet son, Officer Jay arrived to talk to us about being and police officer.  In his honor we made a police car out of shapes.

Forgive me please while I act like a proud mom and share some of the pictures from our Police Day 2012.

Yes, I'm really that proud!

Officer Jay!

Looking at Officer Jay's handcuffs.

Explaining his uniform.

Yes, he has a real gun!

GLOVES!

His bullet proof vest.

Two really great guys!

Yes, "P" week was PERFECT!

"P" Week and Community Helpers

Oh my, oh my, what a week!  I feel like one of my students when I say, "it was the bestest week ever!".  Let's get started by talking about the letter "P"!  Since Halloween is just around the corner we started our week by working on our fine motor skills and painting a pumpkin!

Can you see what we are painting with?  It is a cotton swab!  We use them quite a bit when apply glue or painting.  It is a fun way to work on our fine motor skills!  The pumpkins were painted orange of course then sit to side to let dry.  The next day we added our "special" eyes, nose and happy mouths to make our very special Halloween pumpkins.  Aren't they amazing?!?!?!?

The little poem at the bottom reads:  

Just a little teacher note - As a pre-school teacher, I have to do a lot of cutting for the children.  THE CHILDREN DO USE SCISSORS, but when I do the cutting, I don't try and cut nice straight lines, there just isn't time.  So you will notice a lot our artwork has poems, titles, etc. cut with wavy lines.  It really saves time!

Another great "P" word is puzzle!  We found a HUGE puzzle and just could resist letting everyone work as a team to put it together!

It took a while but the results were very positive!

I knew ahead of time that our Friday was going to full, so we headed to the kitchen for a little cooking and science fun!  We started with by making pink and purple cookies!  Most of the girls wanted pink of course.  

 The boys turned up their noses at the color pink so we let them add a little red and blue food coloring together to make . . . .

PURPLE!

A little science, a little cooking and a lot of yummy!

We stayed in the kitchen for another one of my favorite "P" words - playdough!  And of course it was purple!  We gave everyone a big handful of playdough and scattered some toothpicks on the table.  Let the fun begin!

I honestly think everyone could have stayed and worked on their creations for hours!  I was blown away by the creativity!

WOW!  I was proud!  We let them dry over night and everyone got to take their amazing sculptures home.

Tuesday was a really busy day for us because we started talking about our friends, the police!  This was especially special to me because one of our community helper visitors was going to be my son!  We talked all day about the police and how they were our friends.  I love to listen to my class when they start talking in our circle time.  Some of their comments are amazing.  One little guy was quick to tell me that he knew all about the  police because his Mom had a wreck.  I remembered all too well when this happened because his big sister was in my class at the time.  Anyway, he told me, in great detail, about the wreck and how the policeman made sure he and his sister were okay.  I had a "Mom Moment" as I listened because he suddenly asked me if that was my son.  SWEET! We read the wonderful book Office Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann.  After I read it everyone decided that it was wonderful and I had to read it again!  That is the sign of a really good children's book!  Our art project for Tuesday had to be special and it was.  We made a police patrol car made from shapes!

Can you find all the shapes?  We had so much fun making this!  The policeman was made with our fingerprints and so were the lights on top of the car.  We put a little poem on the final project that read

I LOVE THIS!

Our Wacky Wednesday came all too soon and I wanted something really different.  We were having our school pictures made so we really couldn't do anything too messy.  I think we nailed it.  Take a peek at our "Pink and Purple Penguins with Polka-dots"!  NOW THAT IS WACKY!

We spent the entire day talking about penguins and learning new and interesting penguin facts.  We even waddled like penguins everywhere we went!  It was a PERFECT day!

Thursday was our annual "Pajama Party Day"!  We've been doing this for years and every year the children get more and more excited.  This year was NO exception.  Of course we all wore our pajamas to school, some even came in a robe and slippers!  Everyone knows that a party has to have party hats so we made our own!

Right after lunch we put on our party hats and headed to the big Spanish classroom where we ate popcorn and watched the movie Kung Fu Panda.  OH WHAT FUN!

FINALLY IT WAS FRIDAY!  Not because it was the end of the week!  No!  It was the day I had waited for MY ENTIRE LIFE!  First, my sweet, sweet friend, Laura Douglas came by for a visit.  

Laura is an x-ray technologist and she showed us our bones.  Did you know that we have 206 bones in our body?  Well, we know it!  Oh, the wonderful things she showed and told us.  THANK YOU Ms Laura!

Yes, that's me on the right with my sweet friend, Ms Laura!

We headed back to our classroom to calm down (just a little).  We were right in the middle of our circle time when . . . .

my son, Police Officer Harrington arrived!

I'm not going to pretend like I wasn't excited!  HEY, it had been an entire MONTH since I had seen him!  It was time for a BIG HUG!  We spent the next 30 minutes or so talking about the police and all that they do for us.  TRUST ME, I was one proud Mom!  Here are just a few of the pictures from Friday.  (A big thank you to my friend and photographer, Tiffany Crittenden! I love everyone of the pictures!)

It was purely perfect!  

Our class ended the week with a giant Pizza Party complete with punch and pudding!  What a perfect week!  

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will come back again.  In the mean time, I'm going to be looking at all the pictures (again) from Friday!