The best predictors of reading success are letter knowledge and phonemic awareness. This means that children need to be aware that spoken words are made up of phonemes and that these vocal gestures have a corresponding letter(s) that represent them. My goal in this lesson is that students will learn to identify p = /p/ in spoken words and will learn the written letter that represents it.
-Primary paper and pencil
- Chart with “Prince Peter put on his parka while eating pumpkin pie.”
-Picture cards of the following: pig, pen, cat, soap, pear, bat, dog, plane, apple
-“Hop on Pop” by Dr. Seuss.
Boys and girls, we have been learning our letters so we can become better readers. These letters that we have been learning all make different sounds and our mouths move differently to make those sounds. Can you raise your hands and tell me some of the letters we have learned and the sounds they make? (Students would give answers such as a says /a/ and /A/” and continue reviewing through the previously learned letters.) “Great! Today we are going to continue learning our letters with the letter p.”
This time when we read the tongue twister, every time you hear and say the /p/ sound, pretend to pop a balloon in your hands.
Repeat the activity until all of the students are popping at the correct times.
Now that we know the sound that p makes we are going to learn how to write the letter p. Everyone pick up your pencil and follow my instructions. To make the letter p, start at the fence and draw a straight line all the way down to the ditch. Pick your pencil up and take it back up to the fence. Now, draw a half circle that goes down to the sidewalk and touches the stick. Now, I want all of you to practice making 5 more letter ps while I walk around and see how good they are.
Walk around and help students who need more guidance. When they have all mastered this, continue with the lesson.
Do you hear /p/ in:
doze or sleep?
up or down?
sing or rap?
apple or orange?
You guys are really getting great at the /p/ sound. This time I’m going to show you a couple of pictures. I want you to say what the picture is, and if it has the /p/ sound, make a noise like you are popping a balloon. [Hold up picture cards with the following: pig, pear, pen, bat, cat, dog, soap, plane, apple].
Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print. 1990.
Dr Seuss, Hop
Eldridge, J Loyd. Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Prentice Hall, 1995. p.23-34
Plenty of Popping by Shealy Melton http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/connect/meltonel.html
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