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Popcorn

Pop Popcorn with P!

Emergent Literacy Design

Abbigail Woodruff

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 kernels) 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 "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers"; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with PIG, PAW, MEET, PANT, WORK, and PEACH; 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 plate with a bowl of popcorn on it and /p/ sounds like popping!

2. Let's pretend we are popping the popcorn, /p/, /p/, /p/. [Using hands to make a popping gesture, from fist to an open palm.] Notice where your lips are? (Touching both lips as they are closed and touching). When we say /p/, first we press our lips together to stop the air in your mouth, we then part our lips and release the air with a strong puff. If we make this sound correctly, we should hear a burst of air!

3. Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word zipper. I'm going to stretch zipper out in super slow motion and listen for my pop! Zzz-i-i-p-p-p-per. Slower: Zzz-i-i-i-ppp-er. There it was! I felt my lips purse, they came together, closed, blocked out the air, and finally released the air! Making a /p/ sound! Popping kernel /p/ is in zipper.

4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart linked]. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? Here’s our tickler: " Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. "Pppeter Pppiper pppicked a ppeck of pppickled pppeppers.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/p/ eter /p/ iper /p/ icked a /p/ eck of /p/ ickled /p/ eppers.

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter P to spell /p/. Capital P looks like a capital D with a stick on the bottom. Let's write the lowercase letter p. Start just at the fence and draw a straight line all the way down into the ditch. Then make a half circle connecting to the line you just drew between fence and 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 work or play? Purse or bag? up or down? Lift or drop? Stiff or perky? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Pop the kernels with your hands if you hear /p/: The, puppy, play, pug, pooped, pony, to, the, pink, pillow.

7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss shows us a funny creature painting pink pajamas! Next he shows a policeman in a pail, and Peter Pans puppy!” Read page 33 and 34, drawing out /p/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /p/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Petie-Pippy-Peter, or Papa-Piper-Panda. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

8. Show FOG and model how to decide if it is pan or man: The P tells me to pop, /p/, so this word is ppp-an, pan. You try some: POP: pop or mop? PLAY: play or clay? PAD: pad or mad? PORK: pork or fork? PAST: past or last?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with P. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.


References:

Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/p-begins2.htm


Adapted from:

“Brush Your Teeth with F” By Dr. Bruce Murray

https://murraba.wixsite.com/reading-lessons/elLinks to an external site.


Seuss, D. (1963). Hop on Pop. New York: Random House.


Tongue twisters: Peter Piper

Wu, Steph. (2021). Tongue twisters: Peter Piper.

https://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/things-to-do/tongue-twisters-peter-piper/news-story/a4f8906055f027d2032e1051ff921314

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