Early Literacy Tip: Write a favorite word on a piece of paper for your child to have. You can even make a game out of drawing a picture to go with it, and asking your child to guess what the word is. This is a great way to build print awareness, and build excitement and curiosity about words in general.

Today, we celebrated the letter P, which is a particularly fun letter. After we drew an upper and lower case P together in the air, we talked about words that started with P. The kids had LOTS of favorites: Pokemon! Peppa Pig! Paw Patrol! Pete the Cat! (Apparently, the key to a successful kids franchise is to use the letter P). I also pulled some items out of my paper bag: a pony, a poodle puppy, and a bottle of paint.

Big OOPS of the Day! Ironically (since it would have been the perfect day for it), I forgot to bring my parachute to the park! I didn’t realize it until I announced, “Time for the parachute!” Oh, the horror! I thought the kids were going to riot. Fortunately, I had the large tarp I always set up for people to sit on, so we used that instead, and it worked just fine. Phew!

NEW: I just added a new element to my storytimes: SECRET WORDS! I wrote words that start with the letter P (mostly fun, concrete things like pirate, playground, popcorn, pizza, panda, etc.) on strips of paper, folded them, and put them in a bag. At the end of storytime, I let each child pick a secret word. One little girl was thrilled to get the word penguin, because it’s her favorite animal to visit at the zoo.

Books:

Plumber Pearl! by Andrea Zimmerman; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

From the author/illustrator team behind Trashy Town, this rhyming story about a busy plumber features lots of fun sound effects. There are also squeaky mice on every page. A new storytime participant happened to bring a toy hedgehog that squeaked to Family Storytime, so I had her squeak it whenever I read the squeak sound in the book.

Pete’s a Pizza by William Steig

One of my all-time favorite read-alouds. I love to mention that William Steig was also the author of Shrek. This book features a family game where a father and mother cheer up their son Pete by pretending he’s a pizza. I love how the caregivers often act out the motions with their kids (kneading the dough, stretching the dough, tickling the pizza, etc.). It got lots of giggles today at the park!

The Polar Bear in the Garden by Richard Jones

A sweet fantasy story about a little boy who finds a polar bear that fits in his hand. Day by day, the bear grows bigger, and the boy realizes it needs to go home. So, they set out on a boat to find the polar bear’s family.

Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme by Betsy Bird; illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi

I love this book so much that I wrote a whole post about it the other day. It features a series of popular nursery rhymes that each get interrupted by “Pop! Goes the Weasel.” For Family Storytime, I gave out play scarves, and had the kids throw them in the air each time I read the word “Pop!” For Outdoor Musical Storytime, I gave out the egg shakers so the kids could play along with the rhymes and songs, and shake the eggs in the air extra hard on the word “Pop!” It was a big hit with both the kids and the caregivers.

Songs:

The Silly Pizza Song

A wonderful song from Signing Time. I usually skip the intro, and only do the sign for pizza (there are a lot of different variations in ASL, but I use the one she demonstrates in the video below with the double Z) and the sign for cheese. I ask the kids to suggest different toppings for each verse. Today we had pepperoni, doughnuts, olives, and apples.

I like pepperoni on my pizza.
I like pepperoni pizza, please.
Put the pepperoni on my pizza,
Don’t forget the extra cheese!

I like apples on my pizza,
I like apple pizza, please.
Put the apples on the pepperoni,
Put the pepperoni on my pizza.
Don’t forget the extra cheese!

When I Was One

A favorite action song that I learned from a coworker. I usually ask the kids to suggest words that rhyme with each number, and we come up with our own verses for two, three, and four.

When I was one, I had some fun,
When I travelled out to sea. (move hand in a wavy motion)
I jumped aboard a pirate ship (jump)
And the captain said to me. (salute)

He said, Go this way! (lean right) 
That way! (lean left) 
Forward! (lean forward) 
Backward! (lean backward) 
When you travel out to sea!”

.When I was two, my hair turned blue…

When I was three, I saw a bee…

Popcorn Kernels

I do this song every week with the play scarves at Family Storytime. For Outdoor Musical Storytime, I meant to do it with the parachute and some cotton balls, but somehow forgot to bring both! Luckily, we were able to use our big tarp that I bring for seating, and some wild sweet pea flowers, which actually looked a bit like popcorn (and also start with the letter P!). Here’s a great video of the song from Jbrary:

To the tune of Are You Sleeping? (Frere Jacques)

Popcorn kernels, Popcorn kernels, (Wave scarves)
In the pot, In the pot. (bundle the scarf into your hand)
Shake ’em, shake ’em, shake ’em. (shake your hands)
Shake ’em, shake ’em, shake ’em.
‘Till they pop! ‘Till they pop! (throw the scarf in the air)

Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley

Classic song from 1958, which we did as our instrument play-along. I played it in the key of C (see the chords below), and skipped the key changes.

[C] Well, I saw the thing comin’ out of the sky,
It had [G] one long horn, [C] one big eye.
I commenced to shakin’ and I [F] said “ooh-eee!”,
It [G] looks like a purple people eater to [C] me.

CHORUS:
[C] It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater.
[G] One-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater.
A [C] one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater.
[G] Sure looks strange to [C] me.

[C] Well, he came down to earth, and he lit in a tree.
I said, [G] “Mr. Purple People Eater, [C] don’t eat me.”
I heard him say in a [F] voice so gruff:
“I [G] wouldn’t eat you cause you’re so [C] tough!”

CHORUS

I said, “Mr. Purple People Eater, what’s your line?”
He said, “It’s eatin’ purple people and it sure is fine.
But that’s not the reason that I came to land..
I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band.”

Well, bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin’ purple people eater.
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin’ purple people eater.
(We wear short shorts) Flyin’ purple people eater..
Sure looks strange to me.

And then he swung from the tree and he lit on the ground,
He started to rock, really rockin’ around.
It was a crazy ditty with a swingin’ tune..
Sing A bop bop-A-boppa-loppa-lim-bam-boom.

Well, bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin’ purple people eater.
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin’ purple people eater.
I like short shorts!..Flyin’ little people eater.
Sure looks strange to me.

And then he went on his way, and then what do ya know?
I saw him last night on a TV show.
He was blowing it out, a’really knockin’ ’em dead..
Playin’ rock and roll music through the horn in his head.

Stay & Play: Paint Sticks

Oh, my goodness, paint sticks were a big hit! We actually bought a set for our libraries several months ago for some activities for school-aged kids, but they work so well for toddlers and preschoolers that a lot of the caregivers at storytime were talking about buying some to use at home.

If you aren’t familiar with them, they are shaped like glue sticks, with a removable cap and a twistable bottom to move them up and down. The paint is tempera, and it glides on so smoothly that it feels like painting with lipstick. The colors are super bright, and the kids LOVED them! I just put out white paper and the paint sticks and they went to town!

Do you have any favorite books or songs featuring the letter P? Please share them in the comments below.