“Pop Popcorn Pop!”

by Hope McClanahan

Emergent Literacy Design

Rationale:

            In order to read and spell words, children must understand that letters stand for sounds or "phonemes" and that these phonemes are mapped out in letters or "graphemes" in the spelling of words.  Before children can match letters to phonemes, they have to be able to recognize phonemes in spoken word contexts.  This lesson will help children identify the /p/ sound when they hear it.  They will learn to recognize /p/ by learning a meaningful representation of the sound and a letter symbol (p), and then practice finding /p/ in words.

Materials:

• Primary paper and pencil
• Chart with "Pete picked up the piping popcorn that he popped."
• Popsicle sticks with pig cut-outs glued on them for "pig puppets"
• List of words beginning with the /p/ sound and some that don’t: pop, Polly, rub, bottle, jump, leap, run, luck, map, Patty, cup, hat, tap.
• Drawing paper and crayons
• Worksheet with pictures of things that start with the /p/ sound and things that don't: pig, panda bear, purse, zebra, pocket, bat, dog, bed
• Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

Procedures:

1. Begin the lesson by explaining to the children that we make different mouth movements for all the different sounds in our language.  Sometimes it's hard to figure out what sounds go with which letters in our language, because we can't figure out what kind of mouth movement the sound has.  Let's see if we can tell what our mouth is doing when we say the /p/ sound.  Have children watch each other's mouths as they say the /p/ sound, and talk as a class about what the mouth is doing.  Talk about how the lips are pressing together, and then a burst of air kind of "pops" them apart.  Tell the children that even though /p/ might seem hard to recognize at first, once we get to know it a little better, we'll be able to point it out in all kinds of words.
2. Ask students: "Have you ever heard popcorn popping?  That’s thee same mouth movement we are looking for.  Let's practice being some popcorn popping as we say the /p/ sound. (Squat down and then pop up.)  Pop your pieces of popcorn: /p/, /p/, /p/."
3. Say: "Let’s try a tongue twister." (Bring out chart).  Pete picked up the piping popcorn that he had previously popped.  "Let's say that together."  After saying it together, say to the children, "Now let's pop our popcorn 3 times every time we hear the /p/ sound." (P-p-p-Pete p-p-p-picked up the p-p-p-piping p-p-p-popcorn that he had p-p-p-previously p-p-p-popped.)  Now say to the children, "Don’t forget about the p-p-p at the end of u/p/.  Sometimes we hear the /p/ popcorn sound at the end of a word too!  Now let's say our tongue twister one more time, and this time, we are going to hold up our p-p-p-pig puppets every time we hear the /p/ sound."  (Say the tongue twister.)
4. Say to the children: "Now take out your paper and pencil and we are going to practice making the letter p. Start on the fence. Go down to the ditch and back up without taking your pencil off the paper. Now without lifting your pencil, add a loop to the right side of our line that touches the fence."  (Let the children try to make the letter.)  Then say, "I want to see everyone’s p. Once I put a check mark on your paper, I want you to make nine more just like it.  When we see this letter in a word, we know to make our popping popcorn noise."
5. Practice sound-to-word matching by asking the children to answer some questions.  Call on a child to answer each: "Do you hear /p/ in pot or boiler?  Dog or pet?  Up or down?  Touch or push?  Cup or glass?"  Now say: "Let’s see if you can spot the /p/ popcorn mouth move in some words.  Raise your p-p-p-pig in the air if you hear the /p/ sound, and leave it down if you don't. Don't forget to listen for the /p/ sound at the end of words too!" (Give words one by one: pop, Polly, rub, bottle, jump, leap, run, luck, map, Patty, cup, hat, tap.)
6. Say "Now I am going to read you a story.  Every time you hear the /p/ popcorn sound, I want you to hold up your p-p-p-pig puppets.  We are going to write all of the words on the board that have the /p/ sound in them."  Read Hop on Pop to the students.  Then give the children drawing paper, and have them draw a picture of 5 objects that have the /p/ sound, and label the objects using invented spelling.
7. For assessment, give the children the picture worksheet and have them circle the words that have the /p/ sound in them. 

References:

Strategies for Teaching Phonemic Awareness

http://www.literatureforliterature.ecsd.net/strategies.htm

Peter’s Pickled Peppers by Angela Pridmore

http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/begin/pridmoreel.html

Seuss, Dr. (1963). Hop on Pop. NY: Random House.