State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will tip over tops by tapping them and will read and write words that end in -ip, -ap, and -op, such as tip, tap, and top.

Literacy Activities
Read target words in a text

• Help the children read the Make a Tower of Tops text (see below), fading support as appropriate.
• Have the children find the words that end in -ip, -ap, or -op.
• Repeat with the texts Tip Over a Tower of Tops and/or Tip, Tap, Top (see below).

Make a tower of tops

• Have the children make a tower of tops by stacking one top on top of another.
• Make comments such as, “A top on top and a top on a top” and “Tops on top of tops.”

Tap the tops to tip over the tops

• Let the children tap the tower of tops.
• Make comments such as “tap the tops on the top,” “tap the tops to tip the tops over” and “Tops topple on tops. Topple over tops.”

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• With word-building cards (see below), have the children make new words by changing the vowel in each word:
  • top → tip, tip →tap, map → mop, lip → lap, cap → cop, flip → flop, sap → sip, drip → drop, rap → rip