Pop Pop Pop the Popcorn with the Letter P
Rationale
This lesson will help children identify /p/, the phoneme represented by P. Students will learn to recognize /p/ in spoken words by the meaningful representation of popcorn popping in the microwave 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
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No Sleep for the Sheep (Beaumont, Karen. Harcourt Children’s books 2011)
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Word cards for: POT, PIG, TOP, FLIP, SIP, PLOP, CAP, SOB, NAP, HOP, TAN
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Primary paper and pencils for each student
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Write tongue tickler on board: Patty Painted Pretty Pots for her Pal Polly
Procedures
1. Say: The language we speak is like a secret code. We use letters to make the code and the code helps us talk to each other. To learn the code we need to identify what mouth movements make which sounds and what those sounds mean. Today we are going to look at the letter /p/ and what we do to make that sound with our mouths. Everyone say “/p/,” do you hear what sound that makes? When we say /p/ it sounds like popcorn popping in the microwave! You want to say the sound quickly just like how popcorn pops really fast, pop! Say /p/ really fast with me, /p/ /p/ /p/. Notice what you’re doing with your mouth, you’re curling your lips around your teeth and then popping them out to make the /p/ sound. Great job everyone!
2. Say: Let’s find the sound /p/ in a word. Listen to the word zipper. I’m going to say it slowly now zzzzz-iiiiii-ppppppppp-er. Do you hear /p/ in zipper? Say it with me now zzzzzzz-iiiiiii-ppppppppp-er Can you hear the popcorn popping in zipper? Show me what your mouth looks like when you make the /p/ sound in zipper. (Look around the room and assess students’ mouth shapes) I hear it when I push my lips together and let the air pop out.
3. Say: Let’s say a tongue tickler together to practice our /p/ sound. (Write the tongue tickler out on the board). I will say the tongue tickler first, “Patty Painted Pretty Pots for her Pal Polly” now let’s say it together, “Patty Painted Pretty Pots for her Pal Polly.” Very good! This time I want you to make your hand into a fist and then pop your fingers out when you hear the /p/ sound in the tongue tickler. We’re going to say it very slowly for the first time. “Patty Painted Pretty Pots for her Pal Polly” (modeling how to pop your hands out when you hear the /p/ sound).
4. Have students take out primary paper and a pencil
Say: Now we’re going to practice writing the letter P. On your paper I want you to start at the roof, go down, pick your pencil up at the sidewalk then go back up to the roof and take it around down to the fence. That’s a capital P! I want you to write 5 P’s and then come show me your paper. If I put a stamp on your paper I want you to write 5 more P’s for me.
5. Say: Now we’re going to write the lowercase letter P. To do that you’re going to start at the fence, go straight down into the ditch, come up and put his chin on the sidewalk. That’s a lowercase p! I want you to write 5 lower case p’s and then come show me your paper. If I put a stamp on your paper I want you to write 5 more p’s for me.
6. Ask questions so the students can start practicing identifying the phoneme in spoken words.
Do you hear /p/ in drip or wet?
Do you hear /p/ in up or down?
Do you hear /p/ in pull or heavy?
Do you hear /p/ in lift or drop?
Do you hear /p/ in penguin or cow?
7. Say: Now we are going to read a book that will help us identify more popping /p/ sounds. I want you to hold up your fists and as I read pop your fingers out every time you hear the /p/ sound. Just like we did with the tongue tickler. Booktalk (taken from Clark, “Dripping with P”): The book we are going to read is called, No Sleep for Sheep. This book is about a sheep who is very tired. He wants to go to sleep, but all his animal friends keep making noises! Let’s see if the Sheep can get some sleep and what he will do to make his friends be quiet.
Observe whether students are making the popping action when they hear the /p/ sound
8. Say: Now I am going to show you some cards, together we are going to figure out which word the card says.
POT: Does this say pot or dot? We know it says pot because it has the letter “P” and P says /p/ so we say p-p-p-pot
PIG: Does this say big or pig? The first letter is “P” and P says what? P says /p/ so this says p-p-p-pig
TOP: Does this say top or tot? We see the letter “P” and P says /p/ so we say t-o-p, top!
9. Distribute worksheet for assessment, have the students color the pictures that start with the letter P and have them write the letter P in the word. While students are working on their worksheets call them up on by one to do some more word cards to observe students’ understanding and assess which students will need further instruction.
Other word cards to use: FLIP, SIP, PLOP, CAP, SOB, NAP, HOP, TAN
References
Adapted from Jessica Clark’s “Dripping with P”:
https://sites.google.com/site/mrsclarkslessondesigns/home/emergent-literacy-design-plopping-with-p
Rachel Fisher’s “Pop! Pop! Pop POPCORN!”
https://sites.google.com/site/researchbasedreadinglesson/home/pop-pop-pop-popcorn
