Miranda Snider
Elementary Education
Emergent Literacy
Beat the drums with B
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented by B. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (beating the drums) and the letter symbol B, practice finding /b/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
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Chart with the tongue tickler, “Betty the baker bakes black bread.”
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Primary Paper
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Pencils
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The Berenstains’ B Book (Dr. Seuss)
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Sheets of Paper
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Word cards with BOY, FOX, BAT, BOOK, BLACK, MAD, BUG
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Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /b/ (Kidzone worksheet)
Procedures:
1. Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /b/. We spell /b/ with the letter B. B looks like a pair of drums, and /b/ sounds like beating the drums.
2. Let’s pretend to beat the drums, /b/, /b/,/b/. Notice how your lips touch? (Touch lips). When we say /b/, our lips come together and we make the sound /b/.
3. Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word tub, like I take baths in the tub. I am going to stretch tub out in super slow motion and listen for my beating drums. Ttttuuubbb. Slower: Tttt-u-u-u-bbb. There it was! I felt my lips come together. I can feel the beating drums /b/ in tub.
4. Now let’s try a fun tongue tickler [on chart]. “Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby.” Now everybody say it three times together. Now, let’s say it again, and this time, stretch the /b/ at the beginning of the words. Be sure to get out our beating drums when we hear the /b/ sound. Okay, here we go, “Bbbill and Bbbetty bbbaked bbbrown bbbread for Bbbarbbbara’s bbbaby.” Now this time, let’s try it again and break /b/ off the beginning of the words. “/b/ ill and /b/ etty /b/ aked /b/ rown /b/ read for /b/arabara’s /b/aby.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter B to spell /b/. Capital B looks like a pair of drums. Let’s all write the lowercase letter b. Start by drawing a straight line from the rooftop down to the side walk, next draw a circle beside the straight line. The circle connects to the straight line. Be sure to keep the circle between the fence and the sidewalk. Now, I would like to see everybody’s b. After I put a smile and a check mark by it, I want you to make eight more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they know: Do you hear /b/ in cook or bake? Book or pencil? Black or green? Bob or Tom? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Beat your drums if you hear /b/: The baker baked good, brown bread for Mr. Bubbles.
7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book! The Berenstains’ B Book. In this book a bear, a bull and a baboon go on a crazy adventure. They do funny things like blow bubbles and ride a bicycle backward. But what’s happens when they go too fast on the bicycle? We will have to read to find out!” After reading the book, ask the students if they can think of other animals that start with /b/. Make sure that when they say the animal, they beat their drums. After they name some animals beginning with /b/, then ask them what are some names that begin with /b/ that we could give the animals. Say examples like “Bubbles the Bird.” Distribute sheets of paper for students to draw their B animals and out beside the animals write their B names with invented spelling. Display their work around the classroom.
8. Next, show the word BOY [on the card] and model how to decide if it is boy or toy. The B tells me to beat my drums, /b/, so this word is bbbooy [beat drums as you say it]. But for the word TOY, I do not beat my drums because there is no /b/ sound. Then, have the students try some: BOOK: book or look? BLACK: black or snack? BAT: bat or cat? MAD: mad or bad? BUG: bug or tug? FOX: fox or box?
9. Assessment: For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with B. Call students up individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
Berenstain, Stan, and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstains' B Book. New York: Random House, 1971. Print.
Drum GIF: http://giphy.com/gifs/beat-drums-drum-3oz8xPaCV8fDMvrv8Y
Kidzone Assessment/Activity sheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/b-begins2.htm
Murray, Bruce; Emergent Literacy Design: Brush Your Teeth With F http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html
Smith, Rachel: Pop Your Gum with P http://rs4179.wixsite.com/mysite/pop-your-gum-with-p
