Worm in a Wagon
Emergent Literacy
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /w/, the
phoneme represented by W. Students will learn to recognize /w/
in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (wow!)
and the letter symbol W, practice finding /w/ in words and apply
phonetic awareness with /w/ in phonemic cue reading by
distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Worm in a
wagon”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random
House, 1963); word cards with WORM, WAGON, MONKEY, WHITE, BALL;
assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /w/.
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part
is learning what letters stand for-the mouth moves we make as we
saw words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move
for /w/. We spell /w/ with letter W. W looks like an upside M,
and /w/ sounds like “wow!” when you are impressed.
2. Let’s pretend to be amazed/impressed, /w/, /w/, wow! Notice
the way your mouth is shaped when you make the /w/ sound. Your
mouth forms a small circle shape to make the /w/ sound.
3. Let me show you how to find /w/ in the word
meow. I’m going to
stretch
meow out in super
slow motion and listen for my “wow” (making the /w/ mouth move).
Mm-e-e-ow. Slower: Mm-e-e-e-ow-w. There it was! I felt my mouth
forming the W circle.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister [on chart]. “Worms in a wagon”
Everyone say it three times together. Now say it again, and this
time, stretch the /w/ at the beginning of the words. “Wwworms in
a wwwagon.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word:
“/w/ orms in a /w/ agon.”
5. Have students take out primary paper and pencil. We use
letter W to spell /w/. Capital W looks like am upside down M
letter. Let’s write the lowercase
w. Start at the
fence going down to the sidewalk, then bounce right back up and
down and then back up again to the sidewalk. I want to see
everyone’s w.
After put a check by it, I want you to make nine more just like
it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you
hear /w/ in work or fun? whale or fish? walk or run? Say: Let’s
see if you can spot the mouth move /w/ in some words. Make you
amazing face if you hear /w/.
The, wobbly, whale, swam,
through, the, white, water.
7. Say: “Let’s look at the alphabet book. There are all kinds of
animals in this book that begin with every single letter of the
alphabet! Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature whose name
starts with a W. Can you guess? Read W page, drawing out /w/.
Ask children if they can think of other words with /w/. Ask them
to make up a silly creature name. Then have each student write
their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of
their silly creature: Display their work.
8. Show WAS and model how to decide if it is
was or
saw: The W tells me
to form a circle with my mouth, so this word is www-a-ss. You
try some: WALL: wall or mall?
WRITE: write or tight? WORM: worm or squirm? FARM: charm
or farm? (as a non-example)
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to
complete the partial spellings and color the picture that begin
with
W. Call students
individually to read the phonemic cue words from step #8.
References:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/
Suess, Dr. ABC. Beginner
Books, 1963.