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 sound analogy (Popping Popcorn with P) 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

• Pencil

• Chart with “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers” 

• /p/ assessment worksheet (linked at bottom)

• Word cards with PIE, PIG, PRANCE, SHOP, POT

• Pigs Love Potatoes book by Christopher Denise 

 

Procedures:

 

!. Say: Our language is full of many interesting letters! We can think of it as a secret code. It can sometimes be tricky to learn what the letters stand for. Today we will be learning all about the letter P. We will work on spotting the mouth move for /p/, which is represented by P. P makes the sound “p”, like when we say “p”. Let’s say “Popping Popcorn with P” together!

 

2. Let’s pretend to be a popcorn kernel. Pop your hands like you’re a kernel popping while saying, /p/, /p/, /p/ [quickly open and close your hands like a kernel popping] Where are your lips? (lips pressed together and blow air out). When we say /p/, we put our lips together and blow air out. 

 

3. Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word park. I’m going to stretch park out in super slow motion and listen for our pop. Ppp-aaa-rrr-kkk. It was there! I felt my lips come press together and blow air out. Pop /p/ is in park.

 

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Our friend Peter Piper really wanted a sandwich. On his sandwich, he really wanted pickled peppers. So, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Here’s our tickler: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. “Pppeter Pppippper pppicked a pppeck of pppickles pppeppppers.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/p/eter /p/i/p/er /p/icker a /p/eck of /p/ickled /p/e/p//p/er.

 

5. [Have students take our primary paper and pencil]. We use letter P to spell /p/. Capital P looks like a sideways tongue. Let’s write the lowercase p. Start a little above the sidewalk and draw a straight line down to the next line. After you’ve done that, put a half circle against the straight line. Once I’ve given you a thumbs up, I want you to make nine more just like it. 

 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /p/ in piano or drums? Eyes or pinky? Top or bottom? Up or down? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mount move /p/ in some words. Pop like popcorn with your hands if you hear /p/: Emma, popped, popcorn, for, the, princess, movie, with, Penelope.

 

7. Say: “Let’s look at a book called, Pigs love Potatoes.” Author Christopher Denise tells us about a lot of pigs who want potatoes. A family dinner turns into a potato party! Read the book aloud with the class, drawing out /p/. Ask the class if they can think of other words that begin or use /p/. Ask them to make up a type of food the pigs could eat, pizza-pickle-pie. Students should be in groups of 4 and come up with their own food. Illustrate a picture of the food and have one student say the name aloud to the class. Have the class decide if it uses /p/.

 

8. Show PET and model how to decide if it's pet or bet. The P tells me we’re popping popcorn, so it’s /p/et. Now, try some individually and as a small group. PIE: pie or tie? PIG: pig or wig? PRANCE: prance or dance? SHOP: shop or shot? POT: pot or not? Pop up when you hear /p/.

 

9: For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the popcorn kernels that have a P in them. Then, they will trace and practice writing the letter P. 

 

Link to worksheet: https://www.slideshare.net/Azulalia27/worksheet-p-p

 

Book link: https://www.amazon.com/Pigs-Love-Potatoes-Anika-Denise/dp/0399240365

 

Reference: 

Ally Cross, Popcorn Pops with P https://sites.google.com/view/ally-cross-reading-lessons/emergent-literacy

 

Tongue Twister: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/materials/ticklers/