Emergent literacy Design:
Pop it with P!
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /p/, the phoneme represented by P. Students will learn to recognize /p/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (popping popcorn) and the letter symbol P, practice finding /p/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /p/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Pete pops popcorn for pink and purple prizes"; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Suess's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with PAT, PIG, PICK, POT, PLAY, and PORK; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /p/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /p/. We spell /p/ with letter P. P looks like a scoop that we use to scoop out popped popcorn, and /p/ sounds like popping popcorn.
2. Say: Let’s pretend to scoop popcorn, /p/, /p/, /p/. [Pantomime scooping popcorn] When we say P, our lips are closed on top of each other, and when we open them, we blow out a puff of air.
3. Say: Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word nap. I'm going to stretch nap out in super slow motion and listen for the popping popcorn. Nnn-aa-ppp. Slower: nnn-a-a-pppp. There it was! I felt my lips close together and then blow out a puff of air. Popping /p/ is in dump.
4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Say: Pete pops popcorn for pink and purple prizes. Pete loves popcorn and wanted to win some prizes too! Here’s our tickler: “Pete pops popcorn for pink and purple prizes." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. “Pppete ppppops ppppopcorn for ppppink and ppppurple pppprizes." Try it again, and this time break the P sound off the word: “/p/ ete /p/ ops /p/ opcorn for /p/ ink and /p/ urple /p/ rizes.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. Say: We use letter P to spell /p/. Capital P looks like a popcorn scooper. Let's write the lowercase letter p. Start just below the fence and drop a ball all the way into the ditch. Then the ball will bounce up to the fence and make a circle and land on the sidewalk . I want to see everybody's p. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /p/ in cap or can? Puppy or kitty? Up or off? Drop or Down? Play or gray? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Scoop the popcorn if you hear /p/: The pug played in purple paint.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a police man with a pail and Pepper’s puppy! What do you think they are going to do?!” Read page 37-39, drawing out /p/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /p/. Ask them to make up a silly word like a new name for Pepper’s puppy, or a name for the policeman. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their new name for the puppy or policeman. Display their work.
8. Show PAN and model how to decide if it is pan or fan: The P tells me to pop my popcorn, /p/, so this word is ppp-an, pan. You try some: PIG: pig or dig? PICK: pick or lick? POT: pot or not? PLAY: play or clay? PORK: pork or fork?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. First, there is a section for students to practice writing P. Then, students color the pictures that begin with P. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
REFERENCES:
Grace Loggins, Popping with the Letter P!
Dr. Bruce Murray, Emergent Literacy Design