Materials Needed: Primary pencil and paper; chart with “Magical mice munch macaroni mostly at midnight”; a Di-cut of the letter M for each student in the class; If You Give a Moose a Muffin; and an assessment handout.
Procedure: I will introduce the lesson by
explaining to the children that reading and writing letters is
much like breaking a secret code.
In order to break the code, we must we must learn what letters stand for
and how we move our mouths to make certain sounds. Today we are going
to begin with finding /m/ at the beginning of words.“What do we say when
we eat one of our favorite foods to show that is tastes really good?
We say /mmm/? Everybody say it with me, /m/! Did you notice that
when we did that our lips came together and we hummed? Let’s try
that again. This time as you do it, touch your lips and notice how
they are together.”“Listen to this sentence carefully and see if you hear
the /m/ sound. "Magical mice munch macaroni mostly at midnight."
Let’s look at this sentence written on chart paper and say it again.
I will point to each word as we read the sentence. (We will all read the
sentence together) Okay, which words begin with the /m/ sound?
I will underline the words as the children say them.“ Now lets make some
m’s of our own. Take our your paper and pencils. Am M begins by starting
a line on the grass that shoots straight up to the sun. Now bring
it down a little bit like a ray of sunshine touching your hair. Then
it bounces off your hair and goes back up to the sun. Finally, the
ray of
sunshine will go straight back down to the
flowers on the ground. Let’s practice writing /m/ a few times." "Now
I am going to say some words. If you hear /m/ at the beginning of
these words hold your M high in the air. If you do not, just keep
your hands in your lap." I will say the words: moon, sand, must,
orange, map, and muscle. I will remind the children if they are having
trouble to say the words to themselves while touching their lips. If their
lips come together and hum, they are saying the /m/ sound.Next, I will
read thebook If You Give a Moose a Muffin. I will introduce the book
by asking the children,” What would a moose eat for breakfast that starts
with the /m/ sound? What do you think
he says when he eats it? Right, /mmm/?
I will then read the book to the children. After I
have read, I will ask the children what
words in the book began with the /m/ sound. I will
write these words down on the chart.
Assessment: I will pass out a sheet with pictures. Some of these pictures begin with the /m/ sound. We will say each picture before the children begin. They will then color in the pictures of the objects that begin with the /m/ sound.
Reference: Eldredge, Lloyd. Teaching
Decoding in Holisitic Classrooms. Prentice
Hall (1995) p 50-70
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