The Popcorn Sound

This week we talked all about our popcorn sound /p/. We are going to do fun things with popcorn the next couple of weeks. We talked about how /p/ is a really quiet sound with air that explodes from your mouth. We had the kids put their hands in front of their mouth to try to feel the air. You can use the sheets attached below to practice the /p/ sound but if your kiddo doesn't love drill work you could turn it into a game, or if that might be tough, just model a lot of /p/ words yourself. You can always pull out some bubbles to try to do quiet "pop"s!

Isolation

• Practice /p/ by itself. You can do it in front of a mirror, or video your practice together. Then you can watch it after you finish!

CV Combos

• Use this sheet from Heather's Speech Therapy to practice some CV combos.

VC Combos

• We often target sounds word initial first, but for certain kids on some sounds, word ending is easier! You can use the same sheet but use the vowel before the /p/. Or just practice "up!" Tell your bubbles to go "up" or hit a balloon up in the air.

Words

• Try these words from Heather's Speech Therapy. You can say them then crinkle them and throw them, or hang them in a darkened room and use a flashlight to find them.

The next two weeks, we are targeting speech sound skills and phonological awareness a lot. Usually, each week, I target phonological awareness for at least a few minutes at the beginning of our group. Phonological awareness is an essential pre-reading skill for all kids. Phonological awareness starts with awareness of sounds and increases into the ability to identify sounds in words, manipulate, rhyme, and segment syllables. If you would like to read more about phonological awareness. Super Duper has a nice handout about it and you can find it here.

We are also talking about basic concepts this week at large group. We are doing fast/slow, high/low, and over/under. Basic concepts can be really tricky for kids to learn because their meaning is often reliant on context. So kids really have to put together several pieces in order to consistently comprehend a basic concept word. You can play with a blanket at home to target some of those words like we did with the parachute : )

Attached below is our activity card for the week: