POPPING 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 "Princess Polly picks pretty pears"; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with PEN, MOON, PILL, PART, PORK, and FAKE; 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 kettle of popcorn, and /p/ sounds like popcorn popping.

2. Let's pretend to pop popcorn, /p/, /p/, /p/. [Pantomime popcorn popping] Notice how you start with your lips pressing together? (Touching lower lip). When we say /p/, we blow air between our upper and lower lip by releasing the attention from the pursed lips.

3. Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word leapt. I'm going to stretch leapt out in super slow motion and listen for my popcorn. Lll-e-e-ept. Slower: Lll-e-e-e-ppp-t There it was! I felt my lips release pursed tension and blow air. Popcorn /p/ is in leapt.

4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Princess Polly likes pears in everything. She even puts them in her popcorn. Polly’s unique popcorn is the most popular in the land. Here’s our tickler: "Princess Polly picks pretty pears." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. "Ppppprincess Ppppolly pppicks pppretty pppears." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/p/ rincess /p/ olly /p/ icks /p/ retty /p/ ears.

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter P to spell /p/. Capital P looks like a kettle of popcorn. Let's write the lowercase letter p. Start just below the fence. Straighten it out all the way down to the ditch. Then return just below the fence and create a backwards c connecting to the straight line. 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 pen? Pirate or buccaneer? Leech or leap? Mope or moat ? wrap or rat? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Pretend to eat popcorn if you hear /p/: The, pretty, positive, bug, parked, proximal, to, the, pink, flowers.

7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature with pink pajamas and a friend in a pail!" Read, drawing out /p/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /p/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Pepper-plopper-pip, or Peeler-puffer-pong. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

8. Show PIG and model how to decide if it is pig or dig: The P tells me to pop popcorn, /p/, so this word is ppp-ig,pig. You try some:POT: pot or rot? PARK: park or mark? PILL: pill or will? PORK: fork or pork? PUSH: push or mush?

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: 

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

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Worksheet:

https://www.daycareworksheets.com/beginning-sounds-p-phonics-worksheet/

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http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/insights/

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