Overview
The children will build a tower of tops as they listen for and play with words starting with the /t/ sound as in tap, top, tip, and two.

Literacy Activities
Tell others to touch, tap, or take a top

• Spread the bottle tops and toy tops (optional) on the ground.
• Call on a child by name and tell him or her, " Take a turn tapping tops."
• After the child completes his or her turn, have the child call on another child and say, “Take a turn tapping tops.”
• Have the children continue interacting each other to perform actions with the tops using words that start with the /t/ sound (e.g., touch, tap, tip, take).

Put a toy top on top of a bottle top

• Place a bottle top on the ground.
• Put a toy top or a bottle top used as a toy top on top of the bottle top.
• Spin the toy top or bottle top (tipped on its side and spun) on a bottle top.

Make a tall tower of tops

• Give the children different sizes of bottle tops.
• Have the children stack one top on top of another to make a tall tower of tops.
• Take a toy top or a T letter card and put it on top of the tower.
• Throughout the activity, make comments such as, “How tall can you build the tower of tops?” and “Be careful not to tip over your tall tower of tops.”
• Have the children topple over the tall tower of tops by telling them to take a top from the tower (explain that the word topple means to make something fall over).
• Tell the children that they can tip over the tower in other ways, such as by tapping the tops and touching the tops.
  • Ask, “Will the tower topple if you tap it or touch it?”

More Practice
Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• With word blending cards, form some of the /t/ sound target words.
• Have the children make new words by changing the vowel or either of consonants:
  • tap → lap; tip → dip; top → mop
  • tap → tip → top
  • tap → tan → tab; tip → tin; top → tot

Read target words/patterns to the children

• Read the Make a Tower of Tops target text to the children.
• Have the children underline the words that begin with T.
• Have the children say the /t/ sound every time they see a word that starts with T.
• Repeat with the Tip Over a Tower of Tops target text.

Practice alliteration

• Remind the children of the words they played with (e.g., top, tip, tower, topple).
• Ask each child to think of a new word that starts with T (e.g., tell, toss, take; support as needed).

Write about the activity using target words

• Give each child a paper and pencil or whiteboard and have them practice writing the letter T.
• Have the children write words as you say them and change one or two letters each time to make a new word: tip, tap, top, mop, map, mat, sat, cat, cut.
• Help the children write about the activity by generating sentence frames and letting the children fill in the blanks with target words and phrases:
  • Tell a friend to ___ (tap) two ___(tops).
  • We will build a tower of ___ (tops).
  • We can ___ (tap) and ___ (tip) the tower.
  • Make the tall tower ___ (tip).
  • Put the toy___(top) on ___ (top).
  • Be careful when you touch the ___(top).
  • Do not let the tower ___ (topple).