﻿ Pop

Pop, pop, pop, POPCORN

Emergent literacy design

Lauren Davee


This lesson will help children identify /p/, the phoneme represented by P.



Primary paper and pencils

“If you give a Pig a Pancake”

Dry Erase Board


1. “Letter p makes the p sound like the sound popcorn makes when it pops. Our hand gesture will be to make our hand a fist and when you hear the sound /p/ open all your fingers just like you fist pops open.”

2. To help my student make a /p/ sound I will bring a mirror so she can watch her mouth move and correct it so she is making the right noise. “When you make the letter p sound  make sure her lips open up as he/ she pushes air out. How do you think your lips are moving when you make the p sound?”

3. “Now lets try a tongue twister. When you hear the /p/ sound make our special popping hand movement. Pippy paints pictures of popcorn popping on purple penguins. Lets stretch it out!

Pppppipppppy ppppp-aints pppp-ictures of ppppp-opppp-corn pppp-oppppp-ing on pppp-urple pppp-enguins.”


4.”Now we are going to write the letter p. Capital P looks like popcorn popping up (Draw a piece of popcorn with motion streaks underneath it to show them what you are talking about.) Now we're going to write the lowercase letter p.  (Draw on chalk board ) I am going to start at the fence and make a straight line down into the ditch. Then I am going to pick up my pencil and put it back where I started. Now I am going draw a half circle from the fence and connect the bottom to the stick so that his chin is resting on the sidewalk.. Everyone needs to write 10 lowercase p’s.”

5. “Let's see if our /p/ sound is in the word bump. I know there is if my lips open up and push out air. B-u-m-pppppp. Yes it is! Did you see my lips open and push out air. Did you hear our popping sound?”

6. “Ok Now we are going to Read, “If You Give a Pig a Pancake.” This book is very silly! What do you think will happen if you gave a pig a pancake? We will have to read the story to find out! While you are listening to the story I want you to pay attention to when you hear the /p/ sound. Whenever you hear it make our special hand signal so I know you heard it.” After the story is finished make sure you talk about the /p/ sound and where it is found.

7.” Now we are going to practice some more listening for the /p/ sound. Do you hear /p/ in pink or tiger? Ice or pie? Dig or pig? Pencil or card? I will name some food we would love to eat at the movies if they have /p/ in them say pop and make the popping hand move if they don’t say yuck. Popcorn, peanuts, chocolate, gummy bears, snow caps, kit kats,”


8. For assessment, distribute the worksheet.  Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with p.


Brush Your Teeth with F Bruce Murray:


Popping P’s Bailey Taylor: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/caravans/taylorel.htm

Worksheet reference:


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