Beth's Big B
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale:
It is important for children to be able to recognize phonemes in the
spoken language so they are able to become booming readers. In
this lesson students will learn to recognize the /b/ sound in spoken
words by learning a meaningful representation (bouncing a ball) and the
letter symbol. By writing practice, tongue twisters, and
independent work, students should improve enormously when recognizing
the /b/ sound.
Materials:
Primary
Paper for each child,
pencil
for each child
Sentence
Strip with "Beth borrows Benny's big
baseball bat" written on it
Sentence
Strip with upper case B and lower case b written on it
Word
list with the /b/ sound and without: ball, cab, basket, about, Beth,
best, bubble, bed, hat, grass, pot, dog, cable
Book:
Dr. Seuss's ABC
(Random House, 1963).
Worksheet
Procedures:
1.
Our
written language is a secret code. We have to learn what letters stand
for, which can be tricky. The letters stand for the way our mouths move
when we say a word. We will work on learning how our mouths move for
different letters, and today we will work on spotting the mouth move
for /b/. We spell /b/ with the letter B. B looks like two balls stacked
on top of each other and /b/ sounds like a bouncing ball bouncing
across the floor.
2.
Now pretend you have a ball in your hand. Push the
ball to the floor and say /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/ each time you it
bounces. When we say /b/, we press our lips together tightly then
open our mouths and push out air.
3.
Let's try our tongue tickler: "Beth borrow Benny's big
baseball bat.��� Good, now try to say it
in a whisper voice to yourself three times in a row. This time I
want us all to say it together and stretch out the /b/ sound each time
you hear it and use your hand motion like you're
bouncing a ball. ���BBBBBeth bbbbborrows BBBBBenny's
bbbbbig bbbbasebbbbball bbbbat.��� Great
job! This time lets break it off the word. ���/b/eth /b/orrows
/b/enny's /b/ig /b/aseball /b/at.���
4.
Let me show you how to find the /b/ in the word table.
I'm going to stretch tableout in
super slow motion and listen for my bouncing ball.
Ttt-aaaaa-bbbb-b-b-b-llllll-e.
There it is! I felt my lips come together and pop open.
I can feel the bouncing ball /b/ in table.
5.
Pass out primary paper and pencil to students.
We can use the letter b to write /b/. To write an
upper case B we start at the rooftop, draw a straight line to the
sidewalk the pick up your pencil and start back at the rooftop make
half a circle to the fence then another half circle to the
sidewalk. Now I want to see you make an uppercase B. After
I have seen your B, write 9 more of those. Now, to write a lower
case b we start off the same way. Draw a straight line to the
sidewalk the pick up your pencil and start back at the fence and draw
half of a circle down to the sidewalk. After I have seen your
lowercase b draw 9 more of those.
6.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew:
Do you hear /b/ in Beth or Laura? Cable or
purse? Bubble or chair? Best or west? Let's see
if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words.
Bounce your ball if you hear the /b/:
row, ball, cab, basket, about, Beth, best, bubble, bed, hat,
grass, pot, dog, cable, chicken
7.
Ask the children to raise their hand if they can think of a word with
the /b/ sound in it. If you have plenty of time have the children
right their word on the board, but if you do not write it yourself.
8. Now let's look
in the alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature who
actually has a name that starts with /b/. Can you guess its name? Are
there other words you can come up with that start with /b/. Now you get
to become an illustrator and create your own creature like Dr. Seuss
did. Your creature has to have a name that starts with /b/. After you
are finished creating a name and drawing, we'll
display them in the classroom.
9.
Assessment: In order to assess the students learning of the
letter B they will write the uppercase and lower case form of B on a
piece of primary paper. To assess their learning of the phoneme
/b/ I will pass out a worksheet that has different pictures on it and
have them color the pictures that have the /b/ sound and finish all of
the words.
References
Leah B. Smith
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/smithel.html