Emergent Literacy Design: A MMMouse ate my cookie
by Olivia McKnight
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /m/, the phoneme represented by F. Students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (eating food) and the letter symbol M, practice finding /m/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; picture cards with items that start with M; chart with “Mike mopes while his melting malt drips”; flashcards with “Mmm” on one side and “yuck” on the other; The Letters are Lost (Ernst, Lisa Campbell. Viking, 1996.); mirror drawing page; traceable word list, worksheet for assessment.
Procedures: 1. Say: The words we write every day are a secret code. The tricky part is learning what the letters stand for- our mouth moves different ways as we say words. today we are going to work on looking for when out mouth moves when we say /m/. We spell /m/ with the letter M (write letter on board for visual).
2. When you imagine eating something yummy like an ice-cream cone or cookie, we finish that first bite by saying “MMM-mm-mm”. Everyone imagine you're eating a cookie. Take that bite and say it together..(Pantomime biting a cookie) “MMM-mm-mm”.When we do this our mouth is placed in position to say /m/. We press our top and bottom lips together like they are glued shut and let the sound come from our throat.
3. Let me show you how to find /m/ in the word mine. I am going to stretch mine out in super slow motion, listen for the moment after you bit your cookie. Mmm-i-i-n-n-n. Found it! I felt my lips glued together in the beginning! Now I am going to show you some pictures on flash cards and I want you to stretch them out and try to locate your scrumptious /m/.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister (on chart). “Mike mopes while his melting malt drips” Everybody say it together three times. Now lets say it again together, but this time stretch the /m/ at the beginning of words. “Mmmike mmmopes while his mmmelting mmmalt drips”.Try it once more, this time breaking it off the word: “/m/ ike /m/ opes while his /m/ elting /m/ alt drips”.
5.(Have students take out primary paper and pencil).Now, we are going to learn how to write an "m." Watch me first and then you try.To start with on my paper, I put my pencil at at the fence and come to the ground.Then I go back up and make two bumps along the fence, then I come back down and end on the ground. You try, good job!
6. Call on students to answer and tell ow they knew: Do you hear /m/ in take or make? Sun or moon? Pencil or marker? Tomato or carrot? Alabama or Auburn? (Hand out flashcards to students with “mmm” and “yuck” on either side while going over these words). Say: I passed out a card for everyone, I want you to hold up “mmm” if the word is yummy and you can spot your mouth move /m/ in the words: My, mom, makes, me ,make, my, bed, almost, every, morning.
7. Say: “ Let’s look at an alphabet book. In this book, all of the letter blocks are lost and we find the letter block M admiring himself in the mirror. Can you draw something that starts with he letter M in the mirror?” (hand out template of mirror drawing page)Show the class the book and leave it in view.
8. Show MOP and model how to decide if it is mop or top.The /m/ tells me to enjoy my cookie , /m/ so this word is mmm-op, mop. You try some: more or door? Try or my? find or mind? fake or make? feet or meet?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with M. Call students individally to red the phonetic cue words from step 8.
Reference: assessment worksheet- http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/m-begins2.htm
Ernst, Lisa Campbell. The Letters Are Lost! New York, NY, U.S.A.: Viking, 1996. Print.
Katie Holland. "Sneaky Snakey Slithering S".http://keh0043.wix.com/holland-lessons#!emergent-literacy/c24f1
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/connections.html
