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Pete the Penguin Popped Popcorn

Emergent Literacy

Anne Scott Turner

Rationale

  • This lesson will help children identify /p/, the phoneme represented by p. This lesson will enable students to recognize /p/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (Play Like a Penguin) and the letter symbol p, practice finding /p/ in words, and learning a tongue tickler filled with /p/. Students will also apply phoneme awareness with /p/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials

Procedures

  1. Say: Our written language is a really cool thing! Because of it, we are able to learn how to say, spell, or read anything. The only hard thing about our written language is learning what each letter stands for – the mouth moves we make as we speak. Today, we are going to try to spot the mouth move /p/. We spell /p/ with the letter p. /p/ sounds like popcorn popping in the microwave or on the stove.

  2. Now, let’s pretend to pop popcorn with our hands, /p/, /p/, /p/. [Pantomime a piece of popcorn popping with your hands.] Do you notice where your lips are? (Open) When we say /p/, our lips pop open!

  3. Now, let me show you how to find /p/ in the word cap. I’m going to stretch cap out in super slow motion and listen for the popping popcorn. Ccc-a-a-p-p. Slower: Ccc-a-a-a-p-p-p. There it was! I noticed that my lips opened up and blew air. Popcorn /p/ is in cap.

  4. Next, let’s try a tongue twister. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick? Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /p/ at the beginning of the words. Pppppppeter Ppppppippppper pppppicked a pppppeck of ppppppickled pppppepppppers. If Ppppppeter Pppppippppper pppppicked a pppppeck of pppppickled pppppeppppppers, how many pppppickled ppppepppppers did Pppppeter Pppppippppper pppppick? Try it again, and this time, break it off the word: /P/eter /P/iper /p/icked a /p/eck of /p/ickled /p/e/pp/ers/. If /P/eter /P/i/p/er /p/icked a /p/eck of /p/ickled /p/e/pp/ers, how many /p/ickled /p/e/pp/ers did /P/eter /P/iper /p/ick?

  5. [Ask students to take out primary paper and a pencil.] We use letter p to spell /p/. Let’s practice writing lowercase letter p! Start at the fence and make a straight line to the ditch and stop. Now, put your pencil on your line at the fence and start making a circle and stop it at the sidewalk on the line you drew. Now it’s your turn to practice! First, trace the p with a different color and then try to write 3 capital P’s and 3 lowercase p’s. [Students will first trace over the letter p written in highlighter with a different color. Then they will write each p independently.]

  6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /p/ in sit or pat? Play or list? Lift or punch? Call or pink?  Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /p/ in some words. Pop popcorn if you hear /p/: part, fall, pick, past, pay, late, mist, pad.

  7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. In the book "Pests at Camp," Kim and Gus go to camp together. While at camp, Kim meets a group of girls on the bus. They are in the pond while Gus is sitting in the sun next to the pond. The girls splash Gus with water. What is Gus going to do to get the girls back for splashing him? Let's read to find out! Read the first page of “Pests at Camp” and draw out /p/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /p/. Ask each student to make up a silly creature name like Pesky-prickly-penguin. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature.

  8. Show pig and model how to decide if it is pig or dig: The P tells me to pop my lips /p/, so this word is pppp-iiii-ggg, pig. You try some: PEN: pen or den? PAST: last or past? PLAY: say or play? POST: post or most? PINE: line or pine?

  9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet to the students. Students color the pictures that begin with p. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

References:

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Get in Touch!

ast0028@auburn.edu

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