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Hop on Pop - Short 'o'

Leslie Sidwell O'Neal

I. Rationale:

• To appreciate the alphabetic significance of letters, children must gain conscious access to phonemes (Adams 53).  Functional understanding of the alphabetic principle depends equally on knowledge of letters and on explicit awareness of phonemes because it depends so closely on the association between them (Adams 54).  Short vowels are very difficult to distinguish due to the fact that the shape of the mouth and the sounds made between the vowels vary ever so slightly.  This lesson will help students recognize /o/ (short o).  Students will recognize short 'o' in spoken words and will also identify short 'o' in different words, when asked.

• Primary Paper/pencil, Construction Paper with "We like to hop on top of Pop who's on top of a hot rock" written on it, Hop on Pop by: Dr. Seuss (focusing specifically on pages 40-41), set of short 'o' words for concentration game, Owl/Ostrich worksheets, and a page of pictures that contains animals with the short 'o' sound in their name, and also a short 'o' phonics book dealing with some type of animal.

• First, I just want you to know that writing is a secret code.  It is not always easy to recognize how we move our mouths to form the sounds of different letters or which letter it is that we should write to stand for the sound, but today we are going to learn about short 'o', /o/.
• Did you ever hold out the word Amen in a church song or seen someone do this in a movie?  The "AAAAA" sound is what we are looking for when we are searching for short 'o' in words.  Stretch out the 'o' sound like in AAAAAmen.  I'll say it in rock, rrro-o-o-o-o-o-o-ck.  R-o-o-o, see I said the "AAAAA" sound.
• Let's try our tongue twister now (on construction paper).  "We like to hop on top of Pop who's on top of a hot rock."  Let's say it together.  Now this time let's stretch out all the "AAAA" sounds in the words.  "We like to hooop ooon tooop ooof Pooop who's ooon tooop ooof a hooot rooock."  Now this time break up the words and separate the "AAAA" sound from the rest of the word.  "We like to h/o/p /o/n t/o/p /o/f P/o/p who's /o/n t/o/p /o/f a h/o/t r/o/ck."  Well done!
• Now take your paper and pencil out.  We're going to write the letter that makes the "AAAA" sound.  First, start midway between the sidewalk and the fence like you are going to write a little 'c' and then just go around and close it up.  I want to see everyone's 'o'.  After I check you're paper and tell you that you've done it write I want you to write ten more perfect o's like the ones you just did.
• I will now call on students who raise their hands to answer my questions.  Do you hear /o/ in cop or shoe?  Pot or bun?  On or under? One or hot?  Top or yum?  Now I am going to put you into pairs to play concentration matching up words that use the /o/ sound.  Only match the one's that use the 'o' sound.
• I will now read a short 'o' phonics book and then we'll talk about the story.  And when I re-read it students will quietly raise their hands when they hear the /o/ sound.  Afterwards, they will recall the words they heard and we will make a list on the board.  The students can draw an animal or object that contains the 'o' sound in it and we will display it on a bulletin board if they choose to.

• Have the students complete the ostrich and owl worksheets and have them name some other animals that have the /o/ sound in their name.  Have them write them using invented spelling if they can.

• Adams, Marilyn Jager.  Learning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print.  A Summary prepared by: Steven A. Stahl, Jean Osborn, and Fran Lehr.  1990.
• http://www.learningpage.com/