Plenty of Popping
Emergent Literacy
Shealy
Melton
Rationale:
In order to learn how to read
and write, children need to be aware that spoken words have phonemes
that are
the sounds of the letters. They also
need to understand the relationship between these sounds and the
letters that
represent them. In this lesson students
will learn to identify p = /p/ in written and spoken words.
Materials:
-Primary
paper and
pencil
- Chart with
“Peggy
Prince sipped
pink lemonade at the park. Peggy put her
straw
deep into the cup and patted her puppy and ate a pile of popcorn. Then she sipped
and sipped the pink lemonade.”
-Picture
cards of the
following: pig, pen, cat, soap, pear,
bat, dog, plane, apple
-“Hop on
Pop” by Dr.
Seuss.
Procedures:
- Introduce the lesson by explaining
that all of the letters of the alphabet have different sounds. Also explain that our mouths move differently
when we say the different letters.
- Ask the students, “Have
you ever heard popcorn popping in the microwave? Can
anyone tell me what sound popcorn makes? You’re
right! The sound that popcorn makes sounds
a lot like the sound the letter p makes. Now,
let’s all make the /p/ sound together.” Demonstrate
the /p/ sound and then have everyone join in. “Great job! When we make the /p/
sound, does anyone notice what your lips do?” Demonstrate
with exaggeration the act of putting your lips together and letting out
a small breath. Ask the class to do this
with you. “Some words that
have the /p/ sound are, pan, rap, and pop. Everyone
pretend to pop popcorn a couple of times. This
is the /p/ sound.”
- “Now let’s try a fun
tongue twister” [on chart]. Read it to
them first and then explain the activity with the tongue twister. “This time when we read the tongue
twister, every time you hear and say the /p/ sound, pretend your hands
are pieces of popcorn and make them pop/bounce in the air like popcorn.” Repeat the activity until all of the students
are popping at the correct times.
- [Practice writing the letter p]. Have students take out a
piece of primary paper and a pencil. “Now that we all know what p sounds like, we’re going to
learn and practice how to write the letter p. Everyone
pick up your pencil and follow my instructions. To
make the letter p, start at the fence and draw all the way down to the
ditch. Pick your pencil up and take it
back up to the fence. Now, draw a half
circle that goes down to the sidewalk and touches the stick. Now, I want all of you to make 5 more letter
p’s while I walk around and see how good they are.”
Walk around and help students who need more guidance. When they have all mastered this, continue
with the lesson.
- “Okay, now I’m going to
give you a couple of words. Tell me which
one you hear /p/ in. For example, I will
say, ‘Do you hear /p/ in skip or run? Sss
– kkk – iii – ppp. Skip. Rrr – uuu – nnn. Run. I hear the
/p/ in skip! Now, let's try this with the
rest of our words.
Do
you hear
/p/ in:
doze or sleep?
up or down?
sing or rap?
apple or orange?
“To practice a bit more, I’m going
to show you a couple of pictures. I want
you
to say what the picture is and if it
has the /p/ sound, make a noise like you are a
piece of popcorn.” [Hold up
picture cards with the
following: pig, pear, pen, bat,
cat, dog,
soap, plane, apple].
- Read Hop on Pop, by
Dr. Seuss. Tell students to raise their
hands every time they hear the /p/ sound. When
they do this, write the words on the board. After
reading, have them look around the room and see if they can find other
words with p in them. Talk
about the words.
- For assessment, give
the students a worksheet with pictures and words containing the
correspondence p = /p/ mixed with words that do not.
The students will circle the pictures and words that have p
= /p/.
References:
Adams,
Marilyn Jager. Beginning
to Read: Thinking and
Learning About Print. 1990.
Dr
Seuss, Hop on Pop.
Random House: New York,
New York. 1987
Eldridge,
J Loyd. Teaching
Decoding in Holistic
Classrooms. Prentice Hall, 1995. p.23-34
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