Paularino pupils practice their P’s

Danette Goulet

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.

COSTA MESA -- “P” is for the perfect pack of penguins passionately

pursuing proficiency at Paularino.

A plethora of pupils calling themselves the “penguin class” read about

pink pigs and created purple and yellow patterns prior to playtime Monday

morning.

Each week in Kathleen Romines’ kindergarten class at Paularino

Elementary School, the young students learn all about a new letter of the

alphabet.

Guess what this week’s letter was.

Plenty of little pusses puckered up to make the popping sound of the

letter “P”.

“Paa, paa, paa,” poofed the class.

To provide a more pleasurable program for her young pupils, Romines

brought in a wind-up pig that oinks, snorts and walks.

She then proceeded to produce a pink pig puppet for students to play

with.

Perhaps they hadn’t yet perceived a pattern until she read the

paperback “Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore” by Davis McPhail.

One petite person perked up, however, when she sang about a Purple

People Eater -- he’d played that song at home.

Prior to their next pursuit, Romines produced a purple paper that a

pupil had poked with a pencil. They would put that in the plexiglass

window and let the light pour through.

Next it was time to pull out the plastic tub packed with pink, purple

and yellow plastic pieces and put them together to make a pattern.

One young man quickly proved his prowess at producing patterns --

others were pretty to peruse, but not proper prototypes.

After the pursuit of patterns it was time to play.

Each pupil grabbed their personal packs with peaches, pudding, plums

and Pop Tarts.

With a purposeful flick of her ponytail, one young person plopped her

pink pack over her shoulder like a purse and pranced out to play.