Funny
Furry Feet
Emergent
Literacy
Emily Mills
Rationale:
Phonemic awareness is a vital prerequisite
to beginning reading. Children must learn that letters stand for
phonemes and
spellings map out the phonemes in spoken words. Before children are
ready to
match letters to phonemes, they need to first develop and strengthen
their
ability to recognize phonemes in spoken words. Children should not be
expected
to learn all the phoneme identities at once, and it is helpful to spend
time on
individual phonemes. Voiced phonemes such as /m/, /s/, and /f/ are the
easiest
to stretch and pronounce by themselves; these phonemes provide a good
starting
point for teaching phonemic awareness.
This
lesson will help children identify the
phoneme, /f/. Students will learn to recognize /f/ in spoken words by
learning
a meaningful hand gesture and the corresponding letter symbol. Students
will
practice finding /f/ in spoken words during a read aloud using a
predictable
book. Students will also practice identifying pictures of items whose
names
start with /f/.
Materials: 1) Four Fur
Feet. Brown, Margaret Wise. Hyperion, 1996.
2) Picture Identification Worksheet (with pictures of the following
words: fish, worm, flower, frog, snake, fly, foot,
hand) 3) pencils (for each student)
4)Picture of the grapheme f
and a foot 5) Chart with a picture of
furry feet underneath flowers with the alliteration, "Funny furry feet
found flowers." 6) Primary paper (for each student) 7) Dry erase board
(with primary guidelines) 8) Dry erase
marker
Procedures:
1. Introduce
the lesson by reminding students that, "our written language is like a
secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the
mouth moves
we make as we say words." [Hold up
the picture with the grapheme f and
a foot.] Today, we're going to
say and listen for the /f/ mouth move. When we see the letter F, we know to say /f/.
2. Has
anyone ever seen an angry cat? When cats get angry, they say /f/. Let's
pretend
to be mad cats; everyone say /f/: /f/. When we say /f/ let's make a
claw like
an angry cat. When I count to three, let's sound like angry cats and
say /f/
while we show our claws. One, two , three… ffffff.
3. Good
job. Now, let's try a tongue twister. [Hold up chart.] "Funny furry
feet found
flowers." Everyone say it three times together. Good, now let's say it
again, but this time, I want you to stretch out the /f/ at the
beginning of the
words. Don't forget to make your claw! Ready? "Ffffunny fffurry fffeet
fffound ffflowers."
4. [Pass
out primary paper and have students get out their pencils]. The letter f spells the /f/ sound. Let's write the
lowercase letter f. [Model
this for the students on dry erase
board with primary guidelilnes]. First I'm going to start to make a
little c up in the air. Then I straighten it
out and go down to the sidewalk. Last, I'll cross at the fence. Now
it's your
turn. When I draw a star on your paper, I want you to make nine more
just like
it. What does the letter f
tell us to say when we see it in a
word? That's right, it tells us to say /f/.
5. Now
I'm going to show you for to find /f/ in the word elf.
First I'm going to stretch out elf in super slow
motion and listen for angry cat.
E-e-e-e-l-l-l-l-f-f.
E-e-e-e-l-l-l-l-l-f-f-f-f-f-f. There it is! I hear the angry cat
/f/ in elf.
6. I'm
going to ask you to listen for the /f/ sound. I'll say two words, and I
want
you to tell me which word has the angry cat in it. [Call on individual
students
to answer.] Do you hear /f/ in skinny
or fat? Tree
or flower? Silly or funny? Grass
or leaf? Now let's listen
to some words. If you hear
/f/ in them, then I want you to make a claw. Read
the following words aloud: laugh, smile, beef, friend,
pal,
fish, apple, fruit.
7. Show
students Four Fur Feet and say: "One
day, a mysterious animal with four fur paws decided to take a walk. He
walked and
walked and walked. As he walked around the whole world he saw wonderful
things
like trains, farms, and boats. Where do you think he is going? What do
you
think he will do when he gets there? Let's find out."
Read Four
Fur Feet and talk about the story. Tell students that we're going
to read
the story again. This time have them raise their hands when they hear
/f/ in
words. After the reread, have children draw their version of the animal
with
four fur feet and use invented spelling to write about what the animal
might do
or where he might go next. Display children's creature messages on a
bulletin
board.
8. For
an assessment, pass out the picture identification worksheet. Help
students
name each picture on the sheet. Have students circle all the pictures
whose
names start with /f/.
Reference:
Sarah Byrd. Five Fantastic Frogs. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invent/byrdel.html