Emergent Literacy
Pop Popcorn 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 (popcorn popping) 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 "Piper picked a pail of peppers"; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with POT, MOP, PEEK, POND, PORK, and PICK; 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.
2. Let's pretend we’re popping popcorn, /p/ /p/ /p/. [Use popping hand motion] Notice where your top lip and bottom lip is? (Point to upper and lower lip). When we say /p/, touch your top and bottom lip together and then press air out of them.
3. Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word drop. I'm going to stretch drop out in super slow motion and listen for my toothbrush. Dd-rr-o-ppp. Slower: Ddd-rrr-oo-ppp. There it was! I felt my lips touch together and then blow out air. Popping P is in DROP.
4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Piper's Aunt Petunia wanted a yummy pie. Piper’s favorite pie is pink pepper pie. Aunt Petunia gave Piper a pail to pick her peppers. Once piper put her peppers in her pail, she made Aunt Petunia a pink pepper pie. Here’s our tongue tickler:”Piper picked a pail of peppers” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. "Ppppiper pppicked a pppail of pppeppers." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/p/ iper /p/ ciked a /p/ ail of /p/ eppers.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter P to spell /p/. Let's write the lowercase letter p. Start just below the rooftop and draw the line below the sidewalk. Make a little teacup handle that connects to your line. That is lowercase p! I want to see everybody's p. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it. Now let's learn uppercase P. Start at the rooftop and draw a line all the way to the sidewalk. Now, go back up to the rooftop and create a teacup handle from the rooftop to the middle of your line. Now you have an uppercase P! Let me see everyone's uppercase P. Once I put a smile on it, I want you to draw nine more.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /p/ in work or paint? pot or toe? on or pop? Lift or drop? lip or sore? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Pop your hands if you hear /p/: The purple penguin was picking up popcorn.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a policeman in a pail” Read the P page, drawing out /p/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /p/. Ask them to make up a character like the pppoliceman who will get into the pppail. Then have each student spell out the name and draw out a picture of their character.
8. Show PART and model how to decide if it is part or mart: The P tells me to pop my popcorn, /p/, so this word is pppit, pit. You try some: DIP: dip or dim? PAINT: paint or faint? POOR: poor or door? PORK: fork or pork? PALE: pale or male?
Assessment
Pass out the worksheet. Students will practice drawing the letter P and then will color in the words that start with /p/.
Dr. Suess's ABC Alphabet Book