Rationale: The goal of this lesson is to have the children identify /p/, the phoneme represented by P. Students will learn to recognize /p/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (popping bubble wrap) and the letter symbol P, practice identifying /p/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /p/ in phonetic cue reading by looking at rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

-Primary paper

-Pencils

-Poster with tongue tickler “Pretty pink princesses stay in the palace while the pirates make people walk the plank”

-The Perfect Pet by Margie Palatini

-Word cards with PINK, RED, PAN, FAN, PAIL, BUCKET, PUMP, and THUMB written on them

-Assessment worksheet identifying pictures of animals with /p/

 

Procedures:

1. Say: Words are like a code; you have to know what the symbols stand for in order to figure out the hidden message. The symbols we use in our language are called letters, and each letter stands for a particular mouth movement. Anytime you say a word, your mouth moves in several different ways. Today, however, we are just going to learn about the mouth movement for /p/. P is the letter used to represent the /p/ sound. The letter P looks like it has a bubble on the side of a stick, and /p/ sounds like a bubble being popped.

 

2. Say: Let’s pretend to pop a bubble with our finger (pantomime popping a bubble with an extended pointer finger). Make sure to say /p/ each time you do it.

 

3. Say: Pay attention to what your mouth is doing when we make the /p/ sound. Our mouth starts closed, and then air is pushed out between our lips.

 

4. Say: I am going to show you how to find /p/ in the word grape. I am going to stretch it out nice and slow, making sure to notice how my mouth is moving. GGG-rrr-aaa-ppp. There it is! Air was pushed out of my lips. I popped the bubble.

 

5. Say: Let’s try a fun tongue tickler with our new mouth movement. I will read it first, then you repeat it. Remember to pop your bubble when you make the /p/ sound. “Pretty pink princesses stay in the palace while the pirates make people walk the plank.” Great job! Now let’s stretch out the /p/ at the beginning of the words. “Pppppretty pppink ppprincesses stay in the pppalace while the ppppirates make pppeople walk the pppplank.”

 

6. Say: Everyone pull out some paper. We are going to practice writing the letter P because we use it to spell /p/. Capital P looks like a stick with a bubble. Start at the roof and draw a straight line down to the ditch. Then start on the stick a little below the roof and draw a bubble. Bring the bubble back to the stick right before you hit the fence. Now let’s make a lower case p. We are going to make a stick again, but this time we are going to start at the fence and go into the ditch. Now start on the stick and draw a bubble, going back towards the stick when you hit the ditch.

 

7. Say: Now we are going to do a listening game. I am going to say two words and I want everyone to tell me which of the words has /p/ in it. Explain how you knew. Do you hear /p/ in panda or bear? Map or mat? Play or game? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some more words. Pop the bubble if you hear /p/: dog, puppy, kite, balloon, pillow, apple

 

8. Say: Now how many of you have pets? Did you hear the /p/ in pets? We are going to read book filled with the sound /p/. It is about a girl named Elizabeth who really wants a pet, but her parents do not want one. They try to give her other things instead, including a cactus, but nothing is the same. Will Elizabeth find the perfect pet? If so, what type of pet will it be? Remember to pop the bubble whenever you hear /p/. (make sure to talk before you turn to keep the children focused on the plot as they listen for /p/)

 

9. Show PINK and model how to decide if it is pink or red: The P tells me to pop the bubble, /p/, so this word is ppp-ink, pink. Say: Everyone try some: PAN: pan or fan? PAIL: pail or bucket? PUMP: pump or thumb?

 

10. For the assessment, pass out a worksheet to each child in the class. Say: On this worksheet, there are several pictures of animals. Put a bubble (circle) around each of the animals whose name starts with /p/, and give that animal a name with /p/ in it. (Assessment sheet below)

 

Reference:

Smith, R. (2016). Emergent Literacy Design: “Pop Your Gum with P.” http://rs4179.wixsite.com/mysite/pop-your-gum-with-p