State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that today they are going to play some special sports as they practice words beginning with the /sp/ sound.

Literacy Activities
Special Sports

Divide children into eight groups and have them rotate through the eight special sport centers:

1. Spiders that spring up
   • Have the children move like jumping spiders that spring up high to catch a bug.
2. Spy a spot and spin on it
   • Put dots on the floor and let the children use their hands as binoculars to spy the spots.
   • Let the children sprint to the spots and spin on the spots.
3. Speed speak
   • Pick a short rhyme or tongue twister and see which child can say it the fastest.
4. Spoons that spill only on spots
   • Give each child a spoon with specks of spots or sprinkles or sparkles inside to balance on a finger or nose.
   • Let the children see if they can spill the spots or sprinkles only in certain spots.
5. Spin on a space
   • Use masking tape to make a small circle on the ground and have each child spin in the space.
6. Sprint to a special space or spot
   • Have the children start at a space and sprint to a certain spot. Comment on their speed: “Sprinters are speedy.”
7. Splash and spill water and sponge it up
   • Let one child splash water and see how speedily two children can sponge it up.
   • Have teams compete to see who is the speediest in sponging up the water.
8. Spray water out of a spout and sponge it up
   • Spray water in spouts on spots or spaces and see who can be speedy in sponging up the water.

More Practice
Write target words

• List the special sports on the board, emphasizing the /sp/ sound.
• Have the children write down what their favorite special sport was and why.