Mushy Marshmallows
Rationale:
This lesson aims to teach
emergent readers how to detect the phoneme /m/ in spoken words. Students will
learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation
and the letter symbol m, practice
finding /m/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue
reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil; drawing
paper and crayons; Is Your Mama a Llama?
By Deborah Guarino; chart paper and/or projector with “Mommy made me mash my
marshmallows”; marker board and
expo marker and/or cards with words MOP, TOP, CAN, CAMP, BAT, BUMP, LIMP, and
LATE; assessment worksheet identifying /m/:
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/m-begins1.htm
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a
secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for. Have you ever
noticed that your mouth moves a different way for each letter sound you make?
Today we are going to work on spotting the way the mouth moves when we make the
/m/ sound. We spell /m/ with the letter M. M is the sound we make when something
sounds really good to eat, like ice-cream!
2. Let’s pretend we are looking
at all the freshly baked cookies and cupcakes at the bakery, /m/, /m/, /m/! (rub
stomach) Do you see what your lips do when you make the /m/ sound? When we say
/m/ our tongue and lips don’t move at all. We just push our lips together.
3. Let me show you how to find
/m/ in the word in Amy. Watch me as I
say it slowly. I want you to listen for the /m/ sound (rub stomach), and watch
for my lips to press together. Now let’s see if you hear the /m/ sound in other
words. What about the word camera?
What about candy?
Candy
and camera may sound a little alike,
but only one word has the /m/ sound.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister
that uses the /m/ sound (tongue twister will be written on chart paper or
displayed on a projection screen). “Mommy made me mash my marshmallows.” Let’s
say it together three times. Now we will say the tongue twister around, but this
time we will stretch out the /m/ at the beginning of each word. “Mmmommy mmmade
mmme mmmash mmmy mmmarshmmmallowss.”
Did you hear the /m/ better that time? Now let’s try breaking off the /m/
from the rest of the word. “/m/ommy
/m/ade /m/e
/ m/ash /m/y
/m/arsh/m/allows.”
5. [students take our primary
paper and pencil]. We use the letter M to spell the /m/ sound. Capital M looks
like two mountains. Let’s practice making a lowercase letter m. Start at the
fence and draw a line down to the sidewalk. Now go back up and when you get
almost back to the fence curve your line over and go back down to the sidewalk.
The top of your hump should touch the fence. Now make one more hump just like
the other and you’re done! I want everyone to follow the directions and make one
m. After I look at your m I want
you to practice making them until you have it down perfectly!
6. Now let’s practice listening
for the /m/ sound in different words: Do you hear /m/ in aim or air? Lame or
land? Can or come? Lamp or light? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /m/
in some other words. Rub your tummy if your hear the /m/ sound: The mean
mosquito was munching on my mommy’s favorite meal.
7. We are going to read a book
called Is Your Mama a Llama? By
Deborah Guarino. Lloyd is a silly llama who is having fun asking all of his
friends if their mamas are llamas! Let’s read to find out what kind of animal
Lloyd is and if he ever finds a friend whose mama is a llama! When we finish the
book, I will have the students brainstorm different people, places, or things
that start with the /m/ sound. Then the students will draw one thing that starts
with /m/ and will use invented spelling to tell about what they drew.
8.
Next I will show the students a series of words. I will write the words
two at a time on the marker board and ask them to decide which word makes the
/m/ sound: MOP: mop or top? CAMP: can or camp? BUMP: bat or bump? LIMP: limp or
late?
9. For assessment I will give the
students a worksheet that will require them to identify
a picture and determine whether or not it begins with /m/. The student
will draw a line from the three blind mice on the left side of the page to the
three pictures of words beginning with /m/ on the right side of the page. Before
they begin matching sounds to pictures, I will have them use invented spelling
to label each of the pictures on the right side of the page.
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/m-begins1.htm. While students are working
I will call students up individually to go back through some of the previous
activities so that I can assess each student’s individual ability to recognize
the letter M and the /m/ sound.
Reference:
Assessment worksheet:
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/m-begins1.htm
Byrne,
B., & Fielding-Barnsley, R. (1990). Acquiring the alphabetic principle: A case
for ” teaching recognition of phoneme
identity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 805-812.l
Model Lesson: “Brush Your Teeth with F”
Guarino, Deborah (1989). Is Your Mama a
Llama? Scholastic Inc. New York, NY.