What’s the Buzz With Z?
Emergent Literacy
Rationale:
This lesson will help students identify /z/; the phoneme represented by the
letter z. Students will be able to recognize /z/ in spoken words by connecting
it to the sound of a buzzing bee. We will practice finding /z/ in words and
using phonemic awareness to identify the correct usage of /z/.
Materials:
Primary paper with pencil, paper and crayons, word cards with BUZZ, BOX, FUZZ
PRIZE, ZOO, and MOO, worksheet about identifying /z/.
Procedure:
1. "Our alphabet is very tricky, there are many letters with all different
sounds. Today we will be working with the letter z. Let’s look at how our mouth
moves when we say the letter z. This is how we write the letter z, /z/ sounds
like a bee flying by your ear.
2. Let’s pretend there is a bee in the room, what do you hear? Buzz. When we say
/z/, we blow air between our top and bottom teeth with our tongue slightly
touching our teeth.
3. Let me show you how to find /z/ in the word
maze. I am going to stretch
maze out very slowly and I want you
to find the bee flying by your ear. Mmm-A-zzzz. There’s the bee!
4. Let’s try a tongue twister using /z/. "Zizzi's zippy zipper zips." Now you
say it four times back to me. Now say it one more time and stretch the /z/ at
the beginning of each word.
5. We use Z to spell /z/. A capital Z looks like this while a lower case looks
like this z. Let’s practice writing both of them. The capital Z starts at the
rooftop, short line to the right, cross down then line to the right again. The
lower case z is very similar except it starts in the middle. After I have
approved it I want you to do nine more just like it.
6. Do you hear /z/ in maze or
cage? Fuzz or
tug? Zoo or
moo? Now let’s see if you can pick
out the words with the mouth move /z/.
The small zoo keeper blazed through the gazebo.
7. Think of a creature that starts with Z. We will now come up with other words
with /z/ and we can record them. Now we will come up with a silly name for our
creature that starts with /z/. I want you to write your funny name on your paper
along with a picture. Spelling does not count so I want you to do your best.
8. I will show the word ZIP and model how to decide between
zip and
tip. The Z buzzes between my lips and
teeth.
9. Students will be given a worksheet with a number of word boxes on it. There
will be a color coding key that tells the students what to do if the word has or
does not have /z/.
Reference:
www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/shellel.html Bruce
Murray
Circle the correct word.
1.
Do you hear z in
maze or
mat?
2.
Do you hear z in
moo or
zoo?
3.
Do you hear z in
zip or
tip?
4.
Do you hear z in
tone or
zone?
5.
Do z in
fizz or
fit?
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