State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will build a tower of tops as they listen for and play with words that start with the /t/ sound, such as tap, top, tip, and two.

Literacy Activities
Touch, tap, or take a top

• Spread out the bottle or jar tops.
• Call on a child and say, “Take a turn tapping tops.”
• Have the children perform actions with the tops (e.g., touch two tops, tap two tops, take two tops, toss two tops, take ten tops).

Make a tall tower of tops

• Give the children different sizes of bottle or jar tops.
• Have the children stack the tops to make a tall tower of tops.
• Make comments such as, “How tall can you build the tower of tops?” and “Don’t tip your tall tower of tops over.”
• Take a T letter card (see below) and put it on top of the tower.
• Ask, “Will the tower topple if you tap or touch it?”
• Let the children try to tip and topple the tower by tapping or touching the tops.

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• With word-building cards (see below), have the children form some of the /t/ target words (e.g., top, tap, tip, ten, tell).
• Have the children make new words by changing a consonant or the vowel.
  • Change the beginning consonant: tap→ lap, tip→ dip, top→ mop
  • Change the vowel: tap→ tip, ton→ tan
  • Change the ending consonant: tap→ tan, tad→ tab, tip→ tin, top→ tot

Read Make a Tower of Tops

• Read the Make a Tower of Tops target text (see below) with the children; support as needed.
• Have the children find the words that begin with the letter T.
• Have the children say the /t/ sound when they see the initial T in a word.
• Repeat with Tip Over a Tower of Tops (see below).

Identify the /t/ sounds in words

• Make a list of familiar words that begin with the letter T (e.g., top, tip, tower, topple, ten, tell, tap, tip) and point out that each word starts with the /t/ sound.
• Comment that you hear the /t/ sound in words such as top, tip, tap, tower, and topple.
• Ask the children if a word starts with /t/ (e.g., Does toe start with /t/?); support as needed.