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 "Polly’s present is a precious puffy pup.” drawing paper and crayons; Pop Pop Popcorn (Heinemann, 2009); word cards with PIG, POT, KEEP, PUSH, MAT, and PORK; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /p/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: English is like a secret code. We have to know what it sounds like before we can read it. The secret code is actually letters! Today we will learn the sound of letter P. It makes the sounds /p/, like popping popcorn. P even looks like a piece of popcorn on a pole!
2. Let's pretend to pop some popcorn, /p/, /p/, /p/. [Pantomime popping popcorn on a stove] Notice what your lips are doing? [Touching lips]. When we say /p/, we put our lips together and the blow air out. Notice you aren’t making a sound in your throat, like /b/. It’s just air! /p/ /p/ /p/
3. Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word stop. I'm going to stretch stop out in super slow motion and listen for my toothbrush. Sss-t-t-op. Slower: Sss-t-t-t-o-o-ppp. There it was! I felt my lips touch and air blow out. Popping popcorn is in stop.
4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Polly wants a puppy for her birthday. She tells her parents that she wants a puppy and hopes they will get her one. On her birthday, after she eats her cake, her parents bring her a present. She is so excited, she rips open the wrapping paper to reveal a brand-new puppy! Here’s our tickler: "Polly’s present is a precious puffy puppy." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. "Pppolly’s pppresent is a ppprecious pppuffy pppuppp." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/p/ olly's /p/ resent is a /p/ recious /p/ uffy /p/ up.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter P to spell /p/. Capital P looks like popcorn on a stick. Let's write the lowercase letter p. Start at the rooftop. Go down, pick up your pencil, and around to the fence. 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 pizza or ice cream? bowl or plate? stop or go? Lift or drop? keep or give? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Make a popping sound /p/ if you hear /p/: Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.
7. Say: "Let's read this story together. Nate and Grace are brother and sister. They love their grandad! He is coming for a visit and is going to pop them a big batch of popcorn! Let’s hope it doesn’t get too big! Now, I am going to read you this story and whenever you hear popping /p/ I want you to do your hand motions! After we have read the story I will have them write what they like to eat. They will draw a picture of their creation and display their work.
8. Show PIG and model how to decide if it is pig or big: The P tells me to pop my lips, /p/, so this word is ppp-ig, pig. You try some: POT: lot or pot? PUSH: mush or push? MAT: mat or pat? PORK: fork or pork? KEEP: keep or keen?
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
Murray, Bruce (2012). Making sight words: Teaching word recognition from phoneme awareness to fluency. Ronkonkoma NY: Linus. p. 110, 294.
Related design: Bruce Murray, Brush Your Teeth with F
https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/emergent-literacy
Assessment worksheet:
https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-p_WFMWZ.pdf?up=1466611200
Helfer, A. (2009). Pop, Pop, Popcorn. New Hampshire: Heinemann.