Ticking Timemachines say T,T,T…
Emergent Literacy
By: Sarah Plier
Rationale:
This lesson will help children recognize /t/, the phoneme represented by
t. Students will learn to recognize
/t/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful motion (tapping the wrist where a
watch would be) and the letter t by
practicing finding /t/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words
through their beginning letters.
Materials:
-primary
paper
-pencil
- poster board with the tongue tickler "Tiny Tim taught Ted to turn,"
-flashcards (tip, talk, tan, tell, tap)
-The Alphabet Book
-blank paper
-crayons/markers
-magazines
-scissors
-glue
- worksheet to assess understanding of /t/ by identifying pictures with /t/
through coloring the picture and completing the spelling of the word represented
Procedures:
1.
Say: "Words in our language are made of letters, and each letter makes a sound.
It is up to us to learn how to move our mouths to make the sounds of each letter
in order to properly pronounce words. Today, we will work on moving our mouth to
make /t/. The letter t spells /t/,
and /t/ sounds like a ticking clock. Repeat after me: tick, tock, tick, tock.
Great! As we practice moving our mouths to say /t/, I want you to tap on your
wrist, as if pointing to a watch, every time you hear /t/in a word. Try it with
me as you say tick, tock, tick, tock (do the motion with the words)."
2.
Say: "Now I want you to notice what your tongue does when you say /t/. Do you
feel it hit the roof of your mouth and then press against the back of your front
teeth? If so, you are properly moving your mouth to sound the letter
t! Let’s make this sound together:
/t/,/t/,/t/. Great! Now let’s go back to the sound a clock makes: tick, tock,
tick, tock. Did you feel the movement in your tongue and mouth?"
3.
Say: "What if we wanted to find /t/ in a word? Let’s take the word sweeter and
stretch it out very slowly so we can hear /t/.
Sss-ww-eee-ttt-eerrr. Now let me say it even slower-
sssss-wwwww-eeeee-tttt-ee-rrr. Did you hear /t/? I did! And I could feel my
tongue hit the roof of my mouth and the back of my front teeth as I said the
word sweeter."
4.
Say: "I brought a poster with me and I have something called a
tongue tickler written on it. I want us to try together to say what is
written on the poster. You should hear /t/ in every word! Remember our motion
for /t/. Every time you hear /t/ tap your "watch" on your wrist. Let’s say it
four times together: "Tiny Tim taught Ted to turn." Now let’s say it again
stretching out each word so you hear every sound: "Tttt-iiiii-nnnnn-yyyy
Tttt-iiii-mmmm ttttt-aaaauuuggghh-ttttt Ttttt-eeeee-dddd tttt-oooo
tttt-uuurrr-nnnn." Now say the tongue tickler where you break off /t/ from the
rest of the word: "/t/ iny /t/ im /t/ augh /t/ /t/ ed /t/ o /t/ urn."
5.
Say: "Does anyone remember what letter represents /t/? It’s the letter
t. To practice writing the letter
t we will need to take out our
primary paper and pencil. Look at the lines on your primary paper. They are
labeled as rooftop, fence and sidewalk. To form the capital
T, which you would use in a name such
as Tim, you want to position your pencil at the top line, the rooftop, and draw
a line straight down to the sidewalk, then cross at the very top of the line
right under the rooftop. A lower case t
is formed in much the same way, but instead of crossing at the top of the line
directly under the rooftop, you make the cross through the fence, in the middle
of your line. I want you to practice both the capital and lower case
t. Once you have written one of each,
I will check it off with a smiley face and then have you write them three more
times."
6.
Call on students to answer and explain how they know for the following activity:
"Do you hear /t/ in tuck or muck? Do you hear /t/ in tip or hip? Do you hear /t/
in ten or den? Now I will say some words and when you spot my mouth move to say
/t/ tap your "watch" to signal to me. Listen closely: tap, send, mail, ten,
tail, bed, rent, hint, hide. "
7.
Say: "This is The Alphabet Book. I am going to show you the page with /t/
words. What words do you think might be on this page? Let’s see if you were
right! Now, since you have your very own paper, pencils and scissors, we will
make a class book with the letter t.
I want you to look through these magazines and cut out a picture of something
that begins with /t/ but was not in this book, glue the picture to your paper,
and write the name of your /t/ item on your paper."
8.
I am now going to show you some words and I want you to tell me what they are.
Let’s look at this word together so I can model how I would figure out what the
word is (tip is the word): the t
tells me to tap my wrist and say /t/, so this word is ttt- ip. Now it’s your
turn! TALK: talk or walk?
TAN: man or tan?
TELL: yell or tell?
TAP: tap or cap?
9.
To formally assess the students, have them complete the worksheet linked below.
They will have to color the pictures that begin with the letter t and then
complete the word by writing in the first letter on the line. This not only
helps them identify words that start with /t/, but it will also assess their
ability to write the letter t.
http://www.kidzone.ws/imageschanged/kindergarten/t-as-begins2.gif
References:
Assessment Worksheet
http://www.kidzone.ws/imageschanged/kindergarten/t-as-begins2.gif
Lawyer, Nicole. Slithering Snakes Say SSSsss.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/lawyernel.htm
Ivey, Jennifer. T…Tick-Tock Goes the Clock.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/iveyjel.htm
Eastman, P.D. 1974. The Alphabet Book.
