Ziggy Zig-Zagged Through
Buzzing Bees!
Emergent Literacy
Rationale:
Learning to read and
write depends on cracking the alphabetic code and becoming
phonologically aware. The goal for this lesson is to help recognize
/z/, the phoneme represented by the letter Z. Students will learn to
recognize /z/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation
(zipping the zipper on a jacket). They will also develop a
grapheme-phoneme correspondence for the phoneme /z/ through gestures,
listening, reading, tongue twisters, and writing exercises.
Materials:
Poster
with Tongue Tickler
Primary
Paper
Pencil
Word
Cards
Oh Beyond Zebra! By Dr. Seuss
Procedures:
1.
Say: Our alphabet has many different letters with many
different sounds. We even move our mouth in different ways for each
letter. Today we are going to look at the letter Z. The letter Z looks
like a zig-zag and sounds like a buzzing bee.
2.
Say: Let's pretend we are bees buzzing in a zig-zag. Have them put their hands together to act like bees.
Say: When you make the Z sounds does it tickle your teeth? Right!
3.
Say: Ok, when I say a word, I want you to tell me
where you hear the /z/ sound. I'm going to stretch out the word so
listen carefully. B-u-zz. At the end? Right! Now, zzz-i-pp-er. At the
beginning? Perfect! Now you try. Have the whole class say
buzz and zipper to feel the /z/.
4.
Say: Now, let's try a tongue tickler to help us
remember words that have the /z/ sound. I am going to say a sentence
and I want you to repeat after me. Let's remember to have our bees
flying when we say our tongue twister.
Zack zooms to the zoo on his zoomer.
Show the students the chart with the tongue tickler to help them with
the sentence. Say: Ok, now let's go back and
think about what we just said. Did you hear any words that had the /z/
sound in it?
Zack, zooms, zoo, zoomer. Say: Great job!
5.
Say: Not only is the letter Z fun to sound out but it
is also fun to write! Do you remember how we had our bees zig-zagging
around? Well, the letter Z looks just like a zig-zag. Let's practice
writing our upper and lower-case Z. Give the children
primary paper and a pencil.
Say: With the upper-case Z we are going to start on
the rooftop. Take two steps across the rooftop and then make a crooked
line down to the sidewalk.
Demonstrate which way to make the crooked line.
Say: Now that we are on the sidewalk take two steps
across the sidewalk. Allow enough time for child each draw
ten upper-case Z's.)
Say: Now with the lower-case Z we are going to start
on the fence and take two steps forward. Then we are going to draw a
crooked line down to the sidewalk.
Demonstrate in which directions to go.
Say: Finally, we are going to take two steps across
the sidewalk to finish the lower-case Z.
Have the children draw ten lower-case z's.)
6.
Say: Now, I am going to read a few words with the
letter Z in them. If you hear the letter Z in these words I want you to
show me your buzzing bees. Show the cards with the words
as you read the words.
Say: zig, zag, zap, zany, zebra, zing, zoo, zoom.
7.
I will read Oh Zebra Beyond by Dr. Seuss. Book
Talk: Have you ever wondered what letter would come after the
letter Z? Well, this young creature does not think the alphabet should
stop at the letter Z. Let's read the book to find out what he decides
about the alphabet.
8.
To assess the children I will have the children do a worksheet where
they have to say the name of the picture and then color the ones that
have the /z/ sound on it.
References:
O'Brien,
Megan. Liquefy Your Lemons for Lemonade.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/projects/obrienel.html
Oh Beyond Zebra! New York, NY. Random
House, Inc. 1990.
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/z.htm