Looking for letter P activities? My three-year-old loved these!
I’ve been taking my 3-year-old through an alphabet journey with a variety of playful, hands-on activities each week. Check out the fun we had with letter P!
Letter P Activities
We started the week with a fine motor sensory activity: Mr. Potato head parts in play dough. Rolling the play dough into balls is very difficult for my Three (to the point that he won’t try), so I started them and had him finish them.
We had so much fun creating these goofy guys (his on the left, mine on the right), plus a few more!
Since we had the play dough out, we made P’s. My Three could not do this on his own, but by the end he was getting the idea. For him, rolling play dough into snakes = a recipe for frustration, so I started the snakes and gave him lots of encouragement when he made them skinnier. I showed him how to pinch a smaller snake to make the top of the P. Soon he was adding that part himself.
Stamping alphabet stamps into play dough is so satisfying! He loved seeing what a clear letter he got after lifting each stamp.
I cut apart a potato, and he did some potato printing for a process art activity.
Can you tell what this is? Abstract penguin art, of course! This is such a brilliant idea from Teach Preschool. I love how I provided him with materials and a general idea, but he came up with this all on his own. Check it out and try it at home or in your classroom – you’ll love the effect!
I poured popcorn kernels into a tray, and I showed my Three how to write the letter with his finger. (So sorry for the blurry images! When the big kids are at Vacation Bible School, I have to take advantage and fit in as many activities as we can, whether or not it’s a cloudy day…)
Here’s a more traditional craft, a paper plate pig. We let the paint dry for a day, and I cut out the ears and nose. He added all the details himself. I love it!
Here’s a fine motor activity. I printed my letter P dot page, and he filled in all the circles with a Do-a-Dot marker.
For math, I introduced my son to patterns. I really had no idea how he’d do with this, but he did great! After I did a little demonstrating and worked together with him, he was able to figure out the ABAB patterns on his own. He quickly got the hang of ABB and AAB, although ABCABC through him for a loop.
As it turned out, we didn’t use the bear counters; he just stated which color came at the end. So go ahead and print my free bear pattern strips even if you don’t have the counters. You can always use the paper bears at the end of the download.
We did this Cut and Paste Letter Sounds activity from Learning the Alphabet (our favorite printable pack series for the alphabet!).
We did one more Learning the Alphabet activity: Roll and Race. For the first time, I taught him the words “capital” and “lowercase” instead of “big” and “little.” By the end he was catching on! However, it’s tricky to tell the difference between an uppercase and lowercase P.
This was our whole alphabet activity. I cut apart tiny post-it notes, and my Eight wrote lowercase letters on them. We put them in a muffin tin, and my Three tossed a coin into the tin. He had to name the letter it landed on. He actually had a lot of fun with this, and we played for quite a while.
Here’s my very favorite book for letter P, One Potato, Two Potato, by Cynthia DeFelice. I’m just in love with it! It’s definitely one to own… and read again and again. Learn more about it and other books for letter P in our letter P book list.
More links for you
- letter P book list.(songs and rhymes)
- My Letter P Book (with photos)
- P is for Pig dot page
- Bear counter pattern strips
- Learning the Alphabet: get the whole series or get letter P for free
- More letter P arts and crafts
- More ways to make the letter P
- 15 simple ways to teach patterns
See the whole series …
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