​Robyn Hunter Early Childhood Education 

Emergent Literacy Design:

By: Robyn Hunter

 

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /p/, the phoneme represented by P. Students will learn to recognize /p/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (popping a bubble) and the letter symbol p, practice finding /p/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /p/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with " Paula picked a pretty pink purse”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop; word cards with PEG, PIT, MEET, FIND, PORK, and PINS; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /p/.

 

Procedures:

• Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /p/. We spell /p/ with letter P. P looks like the girl above, blowing a bubble and /p/ sounds like it popping.

 

• Let's pretend to pop the bubblegum bubble, /p/, /p/, /p/. [Make popping bubble noises] Notice how your lips are? (Pressed together). When we say /p/, we blow air between our top and bottom lip and it sounds like a bubble popping.

 

• Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word help. I'm going to stretch help out in a super slow motion and listen for my popping bubble. Hhh-e-e-elp.  Slower: hhh-e-e-e-l-ppp. There it was!  I felt my lips come together and blow air. I can feel the bubble pop /p/ in help.

 

• Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. "Paula picked a pretty pink purse." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. "Pppaula pppicked a pppretty pppink pppurse." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/p/ aula /p/ icked a /p/ retty /p/ ink /p/ urse.

 

• [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter P to spell /p/. Capital P looks like someone’s finger coming to pop the bubble. Let's write the lowercase letter p. Start just below the rooftop. Start at the fence then go all the way down past the sidewalk into the gutter. Then come back up, a little bit under the fence and draw a curve like a backward c and attach it to the stick. I want to see everybody's p. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it. After I put a smiley face on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.

 

• Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /p/ in work or play? Pink or red? Down or up? Lift or drop? Stop or go? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Pop the bubble that you blew from your mouth with your pointer finger if you hear /p/: The, purple, furry, pet, flew, far, to, the, pink, flowers.

 

• "Let's look at Hop on Pop.  Dr. Seuss tells us about many different characters get into silly things with friends and family. Let’s read to see what activities they take part in.  Ask children if they can think of other words with /p/.  Ask them to make up rhymes with p words. Then have each student write his or her words with invented spelling and draw a picture of it. Display their work.

 

• Show PIG and model how to decide if it is pig or gig: The P tells me to pop my bubble, /p/, so this word is ppp-ig, pig. You try some: PAN: pan or man? PEEL: peel or feel? PALE: pale or male? PORK: fork or pork? PICK: pick or sick?

 

• For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with P. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

 

Reference:

Seuss, D. (1963). Hop on Pop. New York: Random House

Adapted from:

“Popping Bubbles by P” by Caroline Rush https://sites.google.com/site/carolineslessondesigns/home/popping-bubbles-with-p

 

“Brush Your Teeth with F” By Dr. Bruce Murray

 

Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/p-begins2.htm

 

 

 

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