Messy Monkeys!!
Emergent Literacy Lesson Plan
Rationale: Letter recognition
is a very important step towards a student's ability to successfully
read and
write. Adams states that "the single
most predictor of students' end-of-year reading achievement- regardless
of
instructional approaches- was their ability at the beginning of the
year to
recognize and name upper and lower case letters" (Adams, p. 10). The goal of this lesson is to introduce a
letter
of the alphabet. The letter I chose to
teach in this lesson is m. I
will demonstrate how to write m in both upper and
lower case
letters. I will also teach students the
sound that m makes, also making them
aware of the movement of their mouth when pronouncing m. My goal is for the students
to learn to recognize both upper and lower case M, to
be aware of the mouth movement involved with m, and
to practice finding the letter m in words.
Materials:
-Posterboard with tongue twister: "Maggie the messy monkey gets mad on Monday!"
-Primary writing paper (for students)
-Pencils (for students)
-Dry erase marker
-Dry erase board
-Picture of Maggie the messy monkey
(found at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/results.aspx?qu=monkey&sc=20)
-Picture cards with words that begin with m and words that do not begin with m, such as marshmallow and chocolate, mouse and cheese, man and woman, money and coins, mother and father
-Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed book (by Eileen Christelow)
-worksheet for assessment with pictures of words beginning with m and pictures of those not beginning with m (examples: moon, earth, cat, monkey, muffin, pizza, mop)
Procedures:
1. Introduce the lesson by
explaining that our alphabet is like a secret code.
"Today, we are going to learn more about the
letter m so that when we spot it in
words we will be able to recognize it and sound it out!"
2. First, we will review the
letters that we have already learned, for example, a, e, b,
and p. As you write the
letters on the board, have
the students make the sound that each letter makes as a class. Have students give an example of a word that
starts with each of these letters. "Good
job everyone! I really liked how you
came up with your own words for those sounds!"
3. Tell the students
that: "Today we are going
to learn about the letter m. My
friend Maggie the messy monkey (show
picture) is going to help us with this letter.
First, let's see what our mouth does when we make the /m/ sound,
like in
mmmmonkey, mmmmoon, and mmmmelon. Do
your lips come together? Great job!!"
4. "Okay now we are going to
listen for the /m/ sounds in a pair of words.
I want you to pick out which word in the pair has the /m/ sound. Let's do one together. Does
mug or cup have the /m/sound? M-m-m-u-u-g-g or c-c-c-u-u-p-p?
I hear the /m/ sound in mug. Did you hear it? Now,
you try a few." Ask students: "Do you hear
the /m/ sound in
mac and cheese or cookies? Munch or chew?
Muffin or cake?"
5. Next, I will show the poster
with our tongue twister on it. Tell the
students: "Put your listening ears on tight, because after I say our
tongue
twister I want you to say it back to me.
Okay? Make sure to listen for the
/m/ sound in our tongue twister." The
poster says, "Maggie the messy monkey gets mad on Monday!!" I will read the tongue twister to them,
emphasizing the /m/ sound. Then I will
have them say it with me, making the /m/ sound on every m word. Say to the students: "Now you try the tongue
twister. Great
job guys!! Let's say it three more times
together."
6. I will then have them take out
their primary paper and pencil to practice writing their upper and
lower case m. I will
first model this on the
chalkboard. "Okay everybody, eyes on
me. Now we are going to go over how to
write the letter m. To
make a capital M you start on the rooftop and go down
straight through the fence
and stop when you get to the sidewalk.
Next, go back to where you started on the rooftop and go down
the slide
through the fence until you hit the sidewalk and then back up the slide
through
the fence to the next rooftop. Finally,
go down straight through the fence to the sidewalk and stop." Tell the students to practice writing ten
capital M's and if they have
questions to raise their hands for help. "Now,
to make a lowercase m you
start on the fence and go down to the sidewalk then back up toward the
fence
and hump around and down to the sidewalk again." Have
the students write ten more lowercase m's.
7.
Next, I will show them the picture cards of different objects
two at a
time. I will then ask the students which
picture begins with the /m/ sound. I
will model this for them by saying, "I hear the /m/ sound in marshmallow, but
not in chocolate." Then I will show them
the pictures to informally assess them.
8.
I will then read the book Five
Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed? by Eileen Christelow. "Today we are going to read a really funny
book. This book is about five little
monkeys who are not sleepy and do not want to go to bed.
What do you think their mom is going to say
to them about jumping on the bed? We
will have to read to find out what happens!
Let's pay extra clase attention to words where you hear the /m/
sound. If you hear the /m/ sound in a
word, I want you to put your hands under your arms and 'act like a
monkey'
without making any noise!!"
9. "Everybody did an awesome
job! You were all great listeners!" For assessment, I will pass out the worksheet
with pictures on it. The students will
be instructed to circle the pictures that have the /m/ sound in their
name. "Look at each picture carefully
and then circle the pictures that start with the letter m."
References:
Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning
to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print.
Center
for the Study of
Alexander, Shannon. Magical
Moon.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/navig/alexanderel.html.
Christelow, Eileen. Five
Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.
1-32.
Clark, Kathryne. Max's Magic Magnets.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invent/clarkel.html.
Murray, Bruce. The
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