Making M's is
Magnificent!
Emergent Literacy
By: Kacey Albright
Rationale: My goal is for
students to automatically recognize both the letter
m and the phoneme that accompanies
this letter. The reason that this is so important is so that students can become
more fluent readers as they recognize one phoneme at a time. In this lesson,
this goal is met by aiming to teach kindergarteners how to detect the phoneme
/m/ in spoken words through many different exercises. Students learn to
recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (rubbing
my tummy and saying , "mmm mmm good!") and by learning to write the letter
symbol m both in the uppercase and
lowercase. The students will also practice finding /m/ in different words, and
they will apply and use phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonemic cue reading.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil for each student
Poster with tongue twister: "Miss Mouse Munches on Marvelous Meatballs"
Crayons and paper
Dry erase board with markers for writing
Cards with the following pictures on them: mushroom & tree; nickel & dime; Run & game; Movie & show
Marcus and the Mail by: Joanne Meier
Index cards with rhyming words on them: moon or soon; cap or nap; feet or meet; make or take.
Assessment worksheet
Index cards with the following
words written on them: man, moon, map,
meet, and make.
Procedure:
1. Say: "Learning language can be
a tricky thing to do, but today we are going to just focus on one letter. That
letter is "m". I am going to show you what words have the /m/ sound in them as
well as how our mouth moves when we say /m/. Our sound for /m/ is represented
with the letter m (Write this on the
board). M is the sound we make when we run our tummies." Show picture: Bring in
a picture to show the students.
2. "Let's go ahead and pretend we
just ate something really good, like a cookie! Now rub your tummy and say, "mmm
mmm good." Do you hear the /m/ sound as you are doing this? Notice how our lips
come together as we make the /m/ sound. Can you show me how your lips come
together when you make this sound?"
3. "Let me show you how I'd check
for the /m/ sound in the word moon.
Now remember, we are looking for the "mmm" sound that we made as we rubbed our
tummies after a delicious snack. You say the worm
moon. Do you hear the /m/ sound?
Where do you hear that sound, at the beginning of the word or at the end of the
word?" Go through this same process with the words:
milk, mango, mustard, and apple. (I threw apple in there just to make
sure that the students understand the /m/ sound. I don't want them to think that
every type of food starts with /m/ even though 3 of the 4 words I have them do
start with m).
4. "Now let's all try a tongue
twister with the letter m. Take a
look at our poster and repeat this after me: "Miss Mouse Munches on Marevelous
Meatballs." Let's all say it three more times so that we can all become very
familiar with it." The last time say it with extra emphasis on the /m/ sound in
each word. Break the /m/ sound off of each word so that the children notice it
more clearly (example-/m/ouse).
5. Next, pass out primary papers
and pencils to each child. Then, model how to write the letter m, both the
uppercase and lowercase on the dry erase board marked with lines. Say: "Capital
M's look almost like a zig zag line except that you stop at the dotted lines for
two middle lines in the letter. Look up here, and I will show you. For the
lowercase m, take your pencil and
start at the fence. Go all the way down to the sidewalk, and come back up to the
fence, making a hump as you bring your pencil back down to the sidewalk. Do the
same thing, come back up to the fence and make another hump and go straight back
down to the sidewalk. I will walk around, and once I have marked on your paper,
I want you to make nine more m's on
your paper."
5. "Now we are going to do some more
practice! I am going to show you some pictures that contain two objects on them,
and I want you to raise your hand and tell me that name of the object that has
the sound /m/ in it. Okay, are you ready? Let's get started!" Show the students
each picture card one at a time and ask them questions. "Do you hear /m/ in
mushroom or in
tree? In
nickel or
dime?
Run or
game? Movie or
toy?" Then, take the lesson one step
further and ask students other questions to help them apply it in another way.
Say: "Whenever you hear the /m/ sound in any of the words I say, I want you to
rub your tummy to signal the "mmm mmm" that we hear when we say /m/. Okay here
we go: man, cat, match, bug, game, home,
grog, and
make.
6. Say: "Let's look at the book,
Marcus and the Mail." This book is written by Joanne Meier, and it features
several words that have the /m/ sound to help reinforce this phoneme. Say: "One
day Marcus receives a book in the mail about the moon. He reads this book with
his mother. What do you think he is going to learn?" After you read this book,
ask the students what words they heard that had the /m/ sound. Then, tell them
to go back to their desk and draw out the events that took place in the book (if
you do not have time leave this part out of the lesson). They may color these as
well. Display their work in the classroom.
7. Lastly, guide the students in
an exercise to help them distinguish between rhyming words that have /m/ in
them. Write the word man on the board, then model how to know if the word is man
or can. Say: "The m tells me to rub
my tummy –"mmm mmm good." I know that the word is
man because it has the /m/ sound and
can doesn't. You try a few! Have the
following words written on the board: MOON, MAP, MEET, and MAKE. Then, have two
words written on index cards, and ask the following questions: Is this
moon or
soon? (MOON)
Cap or
map? (MAP)
Feet or
meet? (MEET)
Make or
take? (MAKE)
Assessment
Assess the students by passing
out a worksheet (found on the link below). On this worksheet, the students must
draw a line to the objects that begin with the letter
m. Call each student up the your desk
to individually quiz him or her on the assessment in number 8 as well as have
them repeat the name of each object on their worksheet, making sure that they
are saying the /m/ sound very clearly.
Resources and URL's
Meier, Joanne.
Marcus and the Mail: The sound of M.
New York. Child's World Publisher, 2004.
Tongue Twisters:
Cox, Tanya. "Mrs. Cox's
Kindergarten class"
http://teachers.plainfield.k12.in.us/tcox/TongueTwistersbyletter.htm
Worksheet:
DLTK's sites: Kidzone Fun Facts
for kids. "Beginning Consonant Sounds"
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/m-begins1.htm