Polka Pig
Emergent Literacy
Rationale
This lesson is designed
to teach upper and lower case Pp and
the phoneme that corresponds, because research shows that knowing letter-sound
correspondences are necessary in being able to decode, and decoding is necessary
for reading. I am also teaching this because the state of Alabama requires
that students in kindergarten know this information. The students will
learn the p letter sound
correspondence. Here are the Alabama Course of Study guidelines for
Kindergarten Language Arts that relate to this lesson. They are followed
by learning goals for this lesson.
5.) Recognize and name
upper- and lower-case letters.
- the students will be
able to recognize the letter p (upper and lower case) when it is used in a word
or seen individually; the students will also learn the letter name p and connect
this name to the letter when they encounter it
6.) Demonstrate an
initial understanding of letter-sound relationships.
-the students will be
able to identify the p consonant sound, /p/, when it is heard in text and or in
individual words
21.) Write upper- and
lower-case letters.
- the students will
have opportunities the practice writing the upper and lower case p
Materials
• Polka Pig
• marker to write on
the board with
• pocket chart
• visual of upper and
lower case p's on a picture of a pig
• each student needs a
pencil and crayons
• paper with a line at
the top for them to trace and write p's,
then space below to draw
• 3 pictures
• word cards with all
of the p words from the story written and on them (some will also have
illustrations on them) (pretty, pig, polka, pink, purple, polka-dotted, peace,
petunia, picture, pumpkin, pine, pom-pom, plane, parachute, parachuting, Pete,
pilot, pickles, place, pleasant, pulled, pulling, push, pushed, popped, pile,
paste, pleased, picked, picking, prickly, pool, paint, princess, Penny,
puffball, pillows, playground, pansy, patch, paths)
Procedures
Review
• The students should
have already learned to hear and identify some of the short vowel sounds (/a/,
/e/ and /i/) and some of the beginning consonant correspondences.
Explain Why/How
• The teacher will read
Polka Pig.
• After she reads the
book, the teacher will introduce the letter
P to the students by showing them the
upper and lower case p letters
printed on a pig.
• Teacher –
This is the letter P – pointing
to the upper and lower case letters. This letter makes the /p/ sound as
in pig. Can everyone say the /p/ sound with me. The story I just
read had a lot of words that begin with the letter
p in it. Can you remember any
of them? (If for some reason all of the students answer no, than the
teacher will reread the story.) If you remember a
p word from the story please raise
your hand and when I call on you tell me the word. I will write your word
on the board and then I will point to it. When I point to the word, please
say it with me and the rest of the class. Each time someone says a new
word I will write it on the board, and then we will repeat all of the words
beginning with the first one. Let's try it.
• The teacher will call
on a student and write his or her p
word on the board. She will have the class repeat that word. When the
next student names a p word from the
story, the teacher will write it on the board, and then the class will repeat
the first word, then the second word. When a third student names another
p word, the teacher will write it on
the board. The class will repeat the first, second, and third
p word. As the class is
repeating the word, the teacher will point to the written word on the board.
This will continue until no more p words from the story can be recalled by the
students.
• Teacher – Now
I am going to teach you how to write the upper case letter
p and the lower case letter
p. Watch and listen as I make
this letter on the board. (The teacher will have 3 lines drawn on the
board that look like primary lined paper; she will demonstrate each step as she
says it to the students.) To write the capital
P, first make a straight line from
the top line to the bottom line. Then pick up your pencil and go back to
your staring point on the top line. Draw a half circle between the top
line and the middle line. The half circle curves around and along the
middle line until it meets with the first line you made. That's the
capital P. Now please practice
drawing the capital letter p in the
air with you finger, also try using your finger to draw it on your desk.
Now I will show you how to draw the lower case or small
p. It also begins with a
straight line. Start on the middle line and draw a little ways below the
bottom line. Retrace this line back up, and then begin making a circle.
Keep your circle going all the way around to the bottom line, the make it curve
up to meet the first straight line that you drew. That is the lower case
p. Practice this by using your
finger to make a lowercase p in the
air, then on your desk. Now I am going to give you a sheet of paper to
practice writing the letter p on it.
You will see an outline of 3 upper case and lower case letter
p's on it. I would like for you
to trace the letters remembering how I showed you on the board and then beside
what you have traced, write 3 upper case
p's and 3 lower case p's.
Please begin.
• When all of the
students have finished tracing/writing their letters
p's, the teacher will have the
students look back up at the board.
• Teacher – I
am going to read this list of words that we got from our story, please listen
carefully. The teacher will read each word in the list and point to it
as she reads it. Now students I want you to pick 3 words from this list
that you would like to draw a picture of. When you have decided on your
three words, begin drawing, one in each section of your paper. If you
would like to write the word that you drew, please do so under your picture.
• While the students
are drawing their pictures, the teacher will go around to each student and give
them a word card (The teacher will only pass out the word cards of the words
that are listed on the board). The teacher will tell the student what word
is written on the word card. She will tell them to keep the word card on
their desk because they will be using it later. After all of the words
cards have been passed out, and all of the students have finished illustrating
their 3 p words, the teacher will
collect their papers and then call the students over to the reading rug.
Whole Texts
• Teacher
– Please join me and the rest of your classmates over here on the rug.
Please bring your word card that I gave you. I am going to read our list
of p words out one more time and then
I am going to read the story of Polka Pig again. This time when I read the
story, listen for the word that is on your word card. When you hear it,
please bring it up and tape it next to where I have written that word up here on
the board. If no one has a word card of one the p words that I read, I
will place it up here in the pocket chart.
• The teacher will
begin to read the story of Polka Pig. Each time she comes to a p word, she
will pause and let the student with that word card bring it up and tape it on
the board. If for some reason they do not match up the word correctly, the
teacher will simply tell the student were to replace it. If no one has a
word card for a word that was read, the teacher will have that word card and
place it in the pocket chart. This will continue until the end of the
story. At the end, all of the words in the list on the board will have a
matching word card taped next to it, and the pocket chart will have the rest of
the p words from the story in it.
Model
• The teacher will
model saying the correct /p/ sound for the students before they are asked to say
it themselves. The teacher will also model and demonstrate the correct way
to write the upper case and lower case letter
p.
Simple Practice
• The students will independently illustrate three
p words from the story that they
choose. They will also individually practice writing the letters
Pp by tracing and writing each 3
times.
Assessment
• The teacher will
asses the students papers that they have illustrated
p words on and have practiced writing
the letter p on. The teacher
will check to see if there are three illustrations and most importantly check to
see if the illustrations are of words that were on the word list from the board,
or words that begin with p. If
the teacher is unsure of what a particular illustration is showing, she will ask
student to explain his/her drawing. By assessing the illustrations, the
teacher will be able to tell if the students have learned or picked up on the
p letter sound correspondence, for
example, if a student draws a dog, then the teacher knows that they did not pick
a p word from the board to
illustrate. This may mean the student does not understand the
p letter sound correspondence and
cannot connect a word that begins with a
p to an illustration. From the same paper, the teacher will also
assess the students' writing the upper and lower case
p's. The teacher will check to
make sure the p's were formed
correctly and are ledge able. By looking at these papers, the teacher will
be able to identify which students can correctly form/write the letter, and
those who may need more practice. Also, as the students are matching their
p words on their word card to the words on the board, the teacher will
informally check to see if each student 1) hears their word, and then brings it
to the board to match it to the same word in the list, and 2) correctly matches
it. The students who are able to do both correctly are able to hear the p
sound and also recognize and match written text.
Reference
• Coubron, J. (1982).
Alaphabet stories: puppets and picture stories that teach letter recognition
and sounds. Carthage, Il: Fearon Teacher Aids.
• Abby Davis, First
Grade, Yulee Elementary School, Yulee, FL, 2010.
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