lots of os in a hot pot

Overview
The children will make a list of words with the /o/ sound such as hot, pot, shop, mop, and top.

Literacy Activities
Put O words in a hot pot

• Show the children the pot and tell them they will pretend to make an odd (or strange) soup in a hot pot.
• Let the children choose picture cards to put in the pot.
• Tell the children to say the sounds in the word on the picture card, then choose letter cards that match the sounds in the word (e.g., m + o + p = mop).
• Have the children put the letter cards in order on the lines below the pot graphic to make the word for each picture (e.g., shop, mop, top, stop, log).
• Let the children make an O shape in the hot pot while stirring the things in the pot.
• Make comments such as “I see a mop in a hot pot” or “The hot pot has an odd stew” while emphasizing the /o/ sound in words with the letter O.
• Point out that each word has the letter O which makes the /o/ sound.
• Have the children write words with the letter O on small pieces of paper to put in the hot pot.

More Practice
Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• Using the letter cards, have the children make new words by changing the vowel or either of the consonants:
  • Change the beginning sound: pot → dot; frog → hog; mop → top
  • Change the ending sound: hot → hop; log → lot; dot → dog
  • Change the middle sound: pot → pit; hop → hip

Identify the target letter and associated sound in a text

• Read the Hot Pot target text together as a class.
• Have the children underline the letter O in words with the /o/ sound.
• Read the text again, fading support.

Write the target letter

• Give each child a whiteboard and have them write words from dictation, changing one or two letters each time to make a new word:
  • pot → hot → hog → jog → job → jot → not → lot → lit → fit → fig → fog → log → dog → dot → rot