Emergent Literacy Design
Bees Buzz Buzz Buzz
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 (bee) 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 " Zip The ZigZag
Zipper with Zoom"; drawing paper and crayons; Janet Wong's first picture book, BUZZ (Harcourt, Inc.);
word cards with ZEBRA, LAZY, ZOO, ZERO, ZIPPER, ZIGZAG and
Procedures: 1. Say: Our written language is
a hidden code. The trick to learning what letters stand for is the
movement of the mouth as it moves and we say words. Today we will work
on spotting the mouth move /z/. We spell /z/ with letter Z. Z looks
like a ZIGZAG and /z/ sounds like buzzing from a bee.
2. Lets pretend to buzz around like bees, /z/, /z/
Notice where your top teeth are? (Touching your bottom teeth). When we
say /z/, we blow air out between our top and bottom teeth.
3. Let me show you how
too find /z/ in the word zipped. Im going to stretch zipped out in very
slow motion and listen for the buzz. Z-Z-i-pp-e-d. Slower:
Z-Z-i-p-p-p-e-d. Thats it! I felt my teeth touching each other as I
blew air out. I feel the /z/ in zipped.
4. Lets try a tongue twister (on chart). Zip The ZigZag Zipper with Zoom. Everyone repeating it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /z/ at the beginning of the words. Zzzip The zzzigzzzag zzzipper with zzzoom. Try this again and this time break it off the word: /z/ ip /z/ ig /z/ ag /z/ ipper /z/oom.
5. Students will take out primary paper and
pencil. We use the letter Z to spell /z/. Capital
Z looks like a zigzag. Lets write the lowercase
letter z. Start at the mountain top. Start across through the middle to
the other side of the mountain and down in the valley. I want to see
everybodys z. After I put a sticker on it, I want you to make nine more
just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they
know: Do you hear /z/ in sum or zebra? Cook or zoom? Zip or button? Ten
or zero? Toys or zoo? Cup or fuzz? Zero or finger? Say: Lets see if you
can spot the mouth movement /z/ in the same words. Buzz if you hear
/z/: The zipper, zap, zip, zoom, to the green, zero.
7. Say: Lets look at
the alphabet book. Janet Wong tells us about a funny insect whose sound
ends with Z. Can you guess? Reading page 10 drawing out /z/. Asking
children if they can think of other words with /z/. Ask them to make up
a silly creature name like Zinnia-Zannia-Zan, or Zither-Zith-Zeth. Then
have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and
draw a picture of their silly creation. Displaying everybodys work.
8. Show Zap and model
how to decide if it is zap or cap; The Z tell me to zip the zigzag
zipper, /z/, so this word is z-z-z-oom, zoom. You try some: Zoo:
zoo or glue? Zero: hero or zero? Zipper: zipper or pen? Lazy:
busy or lazy? Crazy: made or crazy?
9. For assessment, distribute the work sheet.
Students will complete the partial spellings and color the pictures
that begin with Z. Call each student individually to read the phonetic
cue words from step 8.
Resources:
Janet Wong's first picture
book,
BUZZ (Harcourt, Inc.)
Col,
Jeananda. Enchanted Learning: Z Words.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alaphabet/matchwordsandpix/shorte/
Murray,
B.A., and Lesnaik, T. (1999). The Letterbox Lesson: A hands on approach
for teaching decoding. The Reading Teacher, p. 52
Yopp,
H.K.&Yopp, R.H. (2000) Supporting Phonemic Awareness
Development in the Classroom. The Reading Teacher, p. 54, 130-143.