“Yummmmy M”
Emergent Literacy Design

Maria Sanders

 

Rationale:

This lesson will help students recognize the phoneme represented by M which makes the /m/ sound.  Students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words through meaningful hand motions and tongue twisters.  Students will practice finding /m/ in words and apply their phoneme awareness through phonetic cue reading.

 

Materials:

Poster with Tongue Twister

The 'M' book by Jane Belk Moncure

Primary paper and pencils for all students

M worksheet for all students

 

 Procedures:

  1. First we will talk about what the letter looks like as we are saying it.  Our mouth movements come together and both lips touch.  The letter m makes the /m/ sound like when we really like a cookie we say “mmm.”   Let's pretend we just ate a  really good cookie and we are rubbing our tummy.  Good.
  2. Let's pretend that we are biting down on a cookie.  Open your mouth and then close it with both lips together while saying /m/.  Good. 
  3. Ok, now I am going to show you how we find our letter m in different words and you tell me when you hear our cookie sound ok? Then I will stretch out the word some in slow motion. Sssssoooommmmme.  Ok, I am going to say it one more time and really listen and watch my mouth to see if I am biting down on our cookie ok.  Ssssssssooooommmmmmme.  Did you hear our /m/ sound when I bit down on the cookie?
  4. Let's try a silly tongue twister with our /m/ sound ok.  “Macy makes marvelous muffins.”  Let's say it together, “Macy makes marvelous muffins.” Say it together one more time.  Good. Ok now this time lets stretch out our /m/ at the beginning of the words “MMMMMacy mmmakes mmmmmarvelous mmmmuffins.”  Great, lets do it again and make sure we are biting down on our cookie.  Now let's just make the /m/ sound at the beginning and say the rest of the words like this: “/m/ acy /m/akes /m/arevelous /m/uffins.  That's kind of silly isn't it? Ok now let's try it together.
  5. You all are doing a great job with yummy /m/.  Now let's see if we can write m.  It kind of looks like humps on a camel.  Tell me if you hear our /m/ sound in hummmps? How about cammmel? Good. Ok now everyone has a piece of primary paper we are going to make our camel's humps.  Start from the middle line, where the fence is and go straight down then make the camel's first hump touch the fence like this.  (Model for the students.)  Now the camel can't just have one hump so start from the middle hump and make sure he has another one just like it, like this.  (Finish modeling.)  Now you try.  I will come around and check on all of your camel's humps.  We need to have many camels so make sure you have 5 m's. 
  6. Ok, now I think our camel may want some cookies let's see if we hear yummy /m/ in the words I say.  If you do hear yummy m make sure to rub your tummy.

Do you hear /m/ in frog or mop? Mop.  Sock or Mat? Mat.  Many or Few? Many. Mess or Dress? Mess.  Mine or fine? Mine.

 

  1. Ok now let's look at this M book and see what things start with the letter m.  Remember if you have trouble look for your yummy m sound and think about if you bite down on a cookie.  Example words include: Mice, Monkey, Moon, Mittens, & Mud.  (Write different words on the board as the children say them.  Then have them pick five or so of the number of words on the board to write themselves on their paper from earlier.  Remind them of the camel's humps.) {“My M Book,” by Jane Belk Moncure.}
  2. For the assessment have the students do a worksheet and call each student over individually to see if they hear yummy m in different words.  Fix or Mix?  Man or girl?  Rose or Mice? March or June?

 

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/insight.html

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