Pop! Goes the Weasel

Phoneme Awareness Procedure 1. Have children sit in a circle on the floor . Teach them the traditional song “Pop! Goes the Weasel .” (The lyrics appear on the next page .) 2. Model the game for children by skipping or walking around the outside of the circle while singing the song . After you sing the third line, “The monkey thought it was all in fun,” stop skipping, pause in your singing, and then sing the final line with a substitution for pop, such as hop, mop, or lop . Help children identify that you changed the first sound in the word . 3. Skip around the circle, and sing again . Ask children to think of a different initial sound substitution for pop . Have children take turns going around the circle . All the children should sing the first three lines, but only the child skipping should say the word pop with a different initial sound . Then, all should sing the last line with the new word . 4. Have the child rejoin the circle, and select another child to skip around the circle . The game continues until all children have had a turn or until interest has waned . Differentiate or Extend ▲ Ask children to use the initial sound in their own names to create a new /ŏp/ word . For example, a child named Sam would sing “Sop goes the weasel .” If a child’s name begins with a vowel sound, add the vowel sound to the beginning of /ŏp/ . For example, a child named Amy would sing, “A-op!” Letter Connection ▲ Prepare cards of each of the letter-sounds that children have learned . Include digraphs (e .g ., sh, ch) if appropriate . Share the song and emphasise the word pop . Ask which letter children hear at the beginning of the word . Tell them you are going to show them a letter, and then you all will say the word pop with the new sound in the initial position . Practice this with each of the letters . Then, provide each child with a letter card, providing duplicates as necessary if not many letter-sound correspondences have been taught to date . Have the child Pop! Goes the Weasel Objective Students will substitute initial phonemes in words . Overview Children sing the traditional song, “Pop! Goes the Weasel” and play the accompanying game . The teacher focuses on the word pop and substitutes the initial sound in the word with other sounds . Materials letter cards (optional) School-Home Connection Ask families to share traditional songs from their home cultures with the class . Only if appropriate, change the initial sound of one of sample samplethe words in the song . skipping around the outside of the circle display their card . Everyone sings the song with the substituted word .

Phoneme Awareness Pop! Goes the Weasel All around the mulberry bush The monkey chased the weasel; The monkey thought it was all in fun, Pop! Goes the weasel. Pop! Goes the Weasel (cont.) sample