Rationale:
 Once a child has learned their alphabet the next step is learning the phonemes that go along with the letter names.  In this lesson the phoneme /b/ will be introduced and investigated.  The child will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by practicing it in rhymes and seeing the phoneme in written text.

Materials:
 Chart w/ “Bad Billy bakes beautiful bread for breakfast.”
 White blank paper
 Squares
 Pencils
 Primary paper
 Chalkboard (big paper)
 Chalk or pen
 Familiar book (one or two)
 Recording and words for “Baa, baa black sheep…”
 A sheet with comparison words (bad/fad, black/cat, bakery/store, etc.)
 Kid safe scissors
 Sheet of squares with pictures (/b/ pictures and non-/b/ pictures)

Procedures:
1. I am going to start by explaining to the child that the alphabet letters don’t only have their letter names, but they have other sounds as well.  These identities are made with the parts of our mouth.  Today we will work on the mouth move /b/.  /b/ is in many words, which we will be able to spot in our books and in our written words.
2. Ask the students: Have you ever heard a car that couldn’t run well or was about to break down?  What does it sound like?  That is the mouth move that we are looking for.  Let us all hold our hands up like we are driving our car with our hands on the steering wheel, and pretend our car is breaking down.  /b/…/b/…/b/…you can pretend your car is lurching forward.  /b/ is a short breath sound made with our lips pressed together and air is let out quickly.  The teacher emphasizes /b/ as she makes sure the other students are catching on.
3. Now we are going to work with this sound that comes from how our mouth moves.  Every time you hear the /b/, let us all put our hands on our pretend steering wheel and pretend that we are driving our broken car.  (Good…you heard the /b/ in broken!).  Refer to the chart and read “Bad Billy bakes beautiful bread for breakfast.”   Now we are all going to read this together and we all know to drive our cars when we hear the /b/.  Now when we read this together lets draw out the /b/. “ Bbbbad Bbbbilly bbbakes bbbeautiful bbbread for bbbreakfast.”  Now can we separate the /b/ from the word when we say the sentence.  “/b/ ad /b/ illy /b/ akes /b/ eautiful /b/ read for /b/ reakfast.”
4. Now we are going to find some of our own words that have /b/ in them.  “Let me show you how I decide if the word has a /b/.  My lips come together and a quick breath is let out.  I hear the /b/ in bake not cake." At this point ask the students to tell you their ideas and you will write them down on the board.  After we have a good list of words with /b/ in them, then the students will take out their paper and write 5 of the words on their paper. After they have written the words on their paper, have them go back and reread the words and circle the letter that makes the /b/.
5. If the students aren’t at a stage where they can recognize and spell words with the /b/ in them, then have a list of words already printed out that you can read from and ask the students to tell you which word has the /b/ in it.  For example: Does the word “black” or “cat” have the /b/ in it?  Do you hear /b/ in “bear” or “chair?”
6. The students then can play tic-tac-toe with the words that have the /b/ in them versus the words that don’t.  Have the students break up into pairs of two.  Give each student 5 blank squares and have them draw a tic-tac-toe board on another blank piece of paper, which is big enough to hold the squares that you just handed out.  Have each child put 5 words with the /b/ on one side of their card and on the other side of their cards 5 words without the /b/ in the word.  After the students have done this, for the first game one student plays with their words with /b/ and the other student plays with their non-/b/ words.  For the second game the student’s switch.  Meanwhile, as the students play their cards they say the words.
7. If the students aren’t able to write their own words or read yet, have a sheet of squares with pictures in them, which they can cut out with kid safe scissors.  Have five pictures that have the /b/ in them and five that don’t.  Then the students can play tic-tac-toe with the pictures instead of the words.
8. Now we are going to read a familiar book.  Try and choose one that the students really enjoy and are into.  As you read to them, ask the students to hold their hands up like they are driving a car when they hear /b/.   After we read our book, we are going to sing “Baa, baa black sheep….” Here we are going to once again emphasize the /b/ and whenever we hear this we will pretend to drive our car.
    -Other books that emphasize phoneme sounds are:
     My very first book of sounds. By Eric Carle
     Dr. Suess’s ABC’s
    Barthalamew and the Oableck. (Dr. Suess) soundtrack available
9. To make sure that each child has this /b/ phoneme down, I am going to give them a sheet with pictures on it and have the students circle the picture that has the /b/ in it.

References:
Murray, Dr. Bruce. “A Model Lesson Design.”
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie Reading Genie

Questions?  Email me for answers!

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