Anna Cagle's Lesson Designs

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 popcorn) and the letter symbol P, practice finding /p/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /p/ in phonetic cue reading by finding the difference between words that rhyme by using the beginning letters.

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Pam’s party had popped popcorn”; drawing paper and crayons; Peter’s Chair by Ezra Keats; Word cards with PAM, PICK, DIG, SAT, POT, PLOW; assessment worksheet using /p/ (URL below).

 

Procedures:

1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. Today, we will be learning about a certain letter and the sound it makes. To make a sound, we must move our mouths a certain way. Today we will be working with how the mouth moves when saying /p/. We spell /p/ with the letter P. The letter P makes the sound /p/ which sounds like popcorn popping.

 

2. Let’s pretend to pop popcorn, /p/, /p/, /p/. [Use hands to make it look like popcorn is popping] Notice how the lips come together then separate without the teeth touching as air is blown out of the mouth? When we say /p/, we blow air out of our mouths when our lips separate.

 

3. Let me show you how to find /p/ in the word pale. I’m going to stretch pale out in super slow motion and listen for the popcorn popping. P-a-a-ale. Slower: Ppp-a-a-l-e-e. There it was! I heard the popcorn popping and I felt the air come out of my mouth when my lips separated. Popcorn popping /p/ is in pale. Now, lets try tale. T-a-a-l-e. Nope! I do not hear the popcorn popping.

 

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Pam has a very small bag of popcorn. The bag is not popped yet. Pam needs to pop the bag of popcorn for her party. Her party will start in a few hours. She popped the popcorn and it was now ready for her party. Here’s our tickler: “Pam’s party had popped popcorn.” Everybody said it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. “Pppam’s ppparty had ppppopped pppopcorn.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/p/ am’s /p/ arty had /p/ opped /p/ opcorn.”

 

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter P to spell /p/. Capital P looks like popcorn popping. Let’s write the lowercase letter p. Start at the fence and draw a line all the way down until you reach the ditch. Then go back to the fence to where you started and draw a half circle until you get to the middle of the line. This looks like a piece of popcorn. I want everyone to practice writing p’s. Try writing p five more times.

 

6.  Now we are going to play a little game. I am going to ask if you hear /p/ in two different words. Once you answer, I will ask if you hear /p/ in two more words and so on. Say: “Do you hear /p/ in park or school? Up or down? Purple or green? Pencil or marker? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Pop the popcorn if you hear /p/: The, pink, carpet, was, covered, in, pen, and pencil, markings.

 

7. Say: “Let’s look at the book called Peter’s Chair! Peter gets a new sister and everything starts to get painted pink. What will he do? Read the line from the book “That’s my cradle,” he thought, “and they painted it pink!” as you draw out /p/. Ask them to think of other colors it could be painted that has /p/ such as purple. Then have each students write the color using invented spelling and then draw a picture of the cradle. Display their work.

 

8. Show PAM and model how to decide if it is pam or sam: The P tells me to pop popcorn, /p/, so this word is ppp-am, pam. You try some: PICK: pick or stick? DIG: dig or pig? SAT: sat or fat? POT: pot or lot? PLOW: plow or cow?

​

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students will come up to my desk and say what the pictures are. They will listen for the p sound. If they hear it, then they will color the pictures. I will assess them as they decide whether or not to color a picture that has the /p/ sound. 

 

References: Keats, E. Peter’s Chair (1998). Puffin Books: USA.

Hill, Adrienne. https://aeh0057.wixsite.com/mysite/emergent-literacy

Assessment worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-wordswith/letter-p.pdf?up=1466611200 

Click here to return to the Application index