Pajama

Party!

Updated 7-28-05

On our Pajama Party day, the children wear pajamas and slippers to school (or they can change when they get to school. They bring a pillow and a “buddy”-- a stuffed animal they like to cuddle.

Have a controlled pillow fight. Two kids at a time can "fight" (hit each other below the neck for 10 seconds) as we count to 10.

Literature

 The Practically Perfect Pajamas by Erik Brooks

Pajama PartyPancake, Pancake

If You Give a Pig a Pancake

Ira Sleeps Over

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Roll Over

The Napping House

Goodnight Moon

Franklin in the Dark

There’s a Nightmare in my Closet by Mercer Mayer

Mooncake by Frank Asch

Literacy and Other Activities

Shh! We're pretending to sleep. We'll only wake up if our teacher says two rhyming words.

We're awake! She must have said "man" and "can".

*Introduce their “buddy”, telling its name, where they got it, and if it sleeps with them.

*Use flashlights for reading and darken the room.

*Make nightcaps and decorate them with pictures of dreams they’ve had.

*Read "There's a Nightmare in My Closet". Draw or paint nightmares and put them behind a door (with a knob that opens.

*After reading "Ira Sleeps Over", discuss what Ira would pack--children could even draw pictures on a suitcase shape paper.

*Following the reading of "Goodnight Moon", reinforce rhyming words by making a collaborative class book and having each child complete and illustrate a page saying, “Goodnight to the __________ and goodnight to the ____________.”

*Read "The Napping House" and have the students put the characters in order on a bed cutout.

*Read and talk about nocturnal animals. Sort animal pictures by diurnal/nocturnal.

Math

Use 10 teddy grahams on a bed math mat to act out the story "Roll Over". Children will work on subtraction readiness as they remove  one bear at a time as each one "rolls over" and falls out of bed. This same procedure could also be used with "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed."

Gather data by sending home a note asking parents to write their child’s usual bedtime. Make a class graph of the results.

Use paper pancakes as a non-standard measuring device to find items in the room that are one pancake long, two pancakes long, etc.

Then get together with a friend and have them lay down on their side and measure how many pancakes long the friend is (or a string of pancakes could be already taped together with numbers on them and attached to a wall and the kids could stand beside it to see how many pancakes tall they are.)

Sort the "buddies" in different ways--size, color, animals/not animals, bears/not bears.

Have students color a cutout pajama top and then graph the short sleeved or long-sleeved pajamas.

Give kids cottonballs to serve as pretend sheep and a block to serve as a fence. Hold up a number card. That number of sheep should “jump” over the fence.

Snacks

Pancake Breakfast

Serve pancakes with choice of powdered sugar or maple syrup and pink milk. Then use paper pancakes to complete measuring activities. This is a great activity to go with letter P.

Mooncake

Start with a foil cupcake liner (because they're sturdier). Place a "Nilla" wafer in the bottom; this is the moon. Add a scoop of instant chocolate pudding; this is the sky. Top with a spoonful of whipped cream (cloud) and star sprinkles. Remind them that they are eating the night sky.

Bears in a Bed Snack

Use one whole graham cracker for the bed. Add three mini marshmallow pillows and tuck in three teddy grahams. Decorate a 1/2 cracker with icing for the quilt to cover the bears.

"P" Snacks to munch during videos

Pepsi or purple punch, pretzels, Pringles, peanuts and popcorn

Videos and Websites

Videos:

Ira Sleeps Over

Peter Pan

Franklin’s First Sleepover

Blue's Clues Big Pajama Party

Websites:
http://hometown.aol.com/iteach345

http://www.theteacherscorner.net/thematicunits/popcorn.htm

http://family.go.com/parties/birthday/feature/famf0702_sleepoverbday

http://www.thefamily.com/famnite/popcornolympics.htm