Bad Baby B

Rationale: To be good readers and writers, it is important for children to learn the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that they make. Children need to understand what phonemes are and how essential they are to reading and writing. This lesson will be focused on teaching children the letter /b/. My goal for this lesson is to help students recognize, identify, and locate b = /b/ in spoken or written words.

Materials:

Bad Baby by Ross McDonald

Coloring sheets with 6 pictures on it (bear, basketball, house, banana, fish, balloon)

Crayons

Pencils

Primary paper

Bag with the following items inside: baseball, book, bottle, bear, ball, baby, banana,

bread, dog, cat, soap, cup, duck and pencil.

Dry erase board with markers

Procedure:

1. Introduce the lesson and explain why it is important to the children.

* Say to students, "Today, we will learn about the letter b. The letter b makes the /b/ sound. You can hear the /b/ sound in the word baby and basketball. Do you know any other words with the /b/ sound?"

2. Children will practice saying the /b/ sound and learn a meaningful gesture.

*Say to students, "When I think about the sound that /b/ makes, I think about a heartbeat." Demonstrate to the students a heartbeat by patting chest over heart and saying "/b/ /b/ /b/". Ask students, "Can you show me a heartbeat?" Say, "When I say /b/, how does my mouth look? Look at how my lips start out together and then they open as a puff of air comes out. Now let us do our heartbeats while we practice the /b/ sound."

3. Have students say: Bad baby Ben blew big bubbles in Blue's bed. I will first demonstrate aloud how to say the tongue twister 'Bbbad bbbaby Bbben bbblew bbbig bbbubbles in Bbblue's bbbed.' Students will then say the tongue twister off of the poster board aloud with me. The first time the students and I will just say it. The second time the students and I say it stressing the /b/ sound and using the new hand gesture that we learned.

4. The letter b can sometimes be problematic to write. Give each student a piece of primary paper and a pencil. Using the marker board, demonstrate how to write b and B. Talk student through the process of writing b.

*Say to students, "I am going to show you how I write the lowercase letter b. First, watch me write b and then you can practice on your paper. (Write as you talk) Start at the roof, go down, b-bbounce up and around. Now say it with me as you practice. Start at the roof, go down, b-bbounce up and around. Let us try again. Start at the roof, b-bbounce up and around. Now write little b six times."

*Say to students, "I am going to show you how I write the uppercase letter B. First, watch me write B and then you can practice on your own paper. (Write as you talk) Go straight down the sidewalk; around for his big chest, and around for his big tummy. Now say it with me as you practice. Go straight down the sidewalk; around for his big chest, and around for his big tummy. Great, let us try again. Go straight down the sidewalk; around for his big chest, and around for his big tummy. Now write big B six times."

5. Play a drawing game to help students hear the /b/ sound in words. Students will select items out of a bag. When the item is selected, students will name the item aloud and say whether they hear the /b/ sound or not in the item‰¥ús name.

*Tell students, "We are going to play a drawing game. Each of you is going to pick an item out of my bag. When you draw an item out, you will name the item and tell if that item begins with a /b/ sound. For example, I selected a __________. I do/do not hear the /b/ sound in _________."

6. Read Bad Baby a loud to students. Each time that students hear a word with the /b/ sound, the students will silently do the hand gesture that I taught them for /b/.

*Tell students, "I am going to read Bad Baby aloud now. Jack's wants someone to play with. One day, he gets a new baby sister. He is so excited and everyone loves her. Then Jack notices that she likes to explore and sometimes gets into trouble. Maybe Jack doesn‰¥út want someone to play with after all? Let's read to find out. While I read, each time that you hear the /b/ sound, I want you to silently make the motion that we use for /b/. (Show motion) Let's practice with the title. Ready‰¥ÏBad baby. Remember to only do the motion when you hear the /b/ sound."

Assessment:

Give students coloring sheet with six pictures on it. Students are to color only the pictures that have the /b/ sound. I will talk to each student while they work to determine if they have any problems with the letter b.

Reference:

Darby, Matthew. Bouncy Ball and Baseball Bats. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/darbyel.html

MacDonald, Ross. Bad Baby. Roaring Brook Press. Connecticut. 2005.

Murray, Bruce. Mouth Moves and Gestures for Phonemes. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/mouthmoves.html

Murray, Bruce. Teaching Letter Recognition http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/letters.html

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