Zip Up with Z
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale:
This
lesson will help children identify /z/, the phoneme represented by
Z.
Students
will learn to recognize /z/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful
representation (zipping your mouth shut) and the letter symbol
Z,
practice finding /z/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /z/ in
phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning
letters.
Materials:
Primary
paper and pencil; chart with "Zachs zebra does zigzags in the zoo";
drawing
paper and crayons;
Zin!
Zin! Zin! A Violin
(by
Lloyd Moss); word cards
with
FUZZY,
ZAP,
ZOO,
FIZZ,
ZEBRA,
and
MAZE;
assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /z/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1.
Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is
learning what letters stand for���the mouth moves we
make as we say words. Today
we're
going to work on spotting the mouth move /z/. We spell /z/ with letter
Z. Z
looks like the teeth of a zipper, and /z/ sounds like
zipping a zipper.
2. Let's pretend to zip our mouth shut: /z/ p, /z/ p,
/z/ p. [model zipping your lips shut] Think about what your mouth does
when you make that sound: where your teeth are touching? (Touching
together) and where your tongue is? (almost touching the back of your
front teeth). When we say /z/, we blow air through our teeth.
3.
Let me show you how to find /z/ in the word
maze.
I'm going to stretch
maze
out in
super slow motion and listen for my zipper.
Mmm-a-a-azze. Slower: Mmm-a-a-a-zzz-e
There
it was! I felt my tongue almost touch my teeth and I am blowing air. I
can feel the zipper /z/ in
maze. What about rake? Rrr...aaa...kkk...e. No, I do not feel my
mouth making the right mouth moves and blowing air.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. "Zachs zebra
does zigzags in the zoo." Everybody say it together. Now say it again,
and this time, stretch the /z/ at the
beginning of the words. "Zzzachs zzzebra does zzzigzags
in the zzzoo." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: " /z/
achs /z/ ebra does /z/ igzags in the /z/ oo."
5.
[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter
Z
to spell /z/.
Capital
Z looks like the teeth of a zipper. Let's write the lowercase letter
z.
Start on the fence. Make a line along the fence, then cross from the
end of that line on the fence to just below the start of that line on
the sidewalk. Then make a similar line on the sidewalk back the other
way. I want to see all of your z s. Once you show me, I want you to
make five more of them!
I
6.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /z/ in
buzz
or
ring?
freeze
or
melt?
creep
or
zoom?
furry
or
fuzz?
zoo
or
park?
Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /z/ in some words. Zip
your mouth if you hear /z/: zero, green, frozen, zoomed, elephant,
fizz, brag, maze, left.
7. Say: "Let us look at a book that has the /z/ sound
in it. "Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin" has the /z/ sounds in the title three
times. What in the book do you think will make that /z/ sound? Can you
guess?" Read the book and accentuate the /z/ sounds of the violin. Ask
them to think of other things that could make the /z/ sound and have
them draw a picture with the /z/ sound being produced by whatever they
chose. Hang their work to increase awareness of the /z/ sound in words
around them.
8.
Show ZOO and model how to decide if it is
zoo
or
too:
The
Z
tells me to zip my mouth, /z/, so this word is
zzz-oo,
zoo.
You try some: ZIP: zip or rip? ZIN: fin
or zin? ZAP: zap or map? FIZZ: wizz or fizz? FUZZY:
fuzzy or funny?
9.
For assessment, distribute the worksheet and have students. Students
are to draw a line to the pictures that have the /z/ sound and then
write the letter Z beside them.
Materials:
Activity :
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/z-begins1.htm
Z=/z/
Tongue Tickler:
"Zach's Zebra does zigzags in the zoo."
Moss,
Loyd.
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin. Simon and Schuster Books for Young
Readers. 1995.
Helpful
Lesson:
Zippy the Zebra Zooms Through the Zoo, by Morgan Barrow
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/journeys/barrowel.htm