Emergent Literacy Design:
Close your mouth for M
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M. Students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by using a meaningful representation of closing your mouth and the letter symbol M, practicing finding /m/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil or a mini white board, chart with “My mom’s macaroni makes my mouth melt”; Eileen Christelow’s Five Monkeys jumping on the bed (Clarion Books, ©1989.), word cards with MANGO, MAN, MOST, MANY, MARS worksheet to identify pictures of items with /m/.
Procedures:
1. Say “Today we are going to learn how the mouth moves for the letter M, pronounced /m/. We spell /m/ with the letters M and m, shaped like your top lip.
2. So every time we hear the sound “mmmm”, close your mouth before you say it. Lets all act like we ate something very good and we close our mouth and say mmmm.
3. I am going to show you how to find /m/ in the word magic. I am going to stretch magic out in super slow motion and listen and look for my mouth to be closed. Mmmm-a-g-i-c. slower: Mmmm-aaa-g-i-c. There it was! My mouth was closed in the beginning of the word to form magic.
4. Lets try another word, this time the word is not going to start with /m/ and lets see if you can find it! Let’s see if you guys can find /m/ in the word smart. I know you can all do this one because you are very very smart. Okay, I am going to say this one just like I did the last. S –mmmm-a-r-t. Did you notice where I had to close my mouth to say /m/.
5. Lets try a tongue twister now {on chart}. How many of you love macaroni? I know my mom used to make awesome macaroni! Here is our tongue twister: “My mom’s macaroni makes my mouth melt.” Everybody say it with me three times together. Now this time when you say it, lets all stretch the /m/ at the beginning of each word. “Mmmy mmmomm’s mmmacaroni mmmakes mmy mmmouth mmmelt.” Try it again and this time break it off of the word: “/m/y /m/om’s /m/acaroni /m/akes /m/y /m/outh /m/elt.”
6. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil] …We use the letter M to spell /m/. I want everyone to write out the letter M and then write a lowercase m next to it. Now think about our lesson so far today and look at your neighbor. What on their face is shaped like the letter m. That’s right! If your mouth is CLOSED then your top lip should make the shape of the letter m.
7. Call on your students and ask them how they knew: Show the words on the card and ask them which one it is. Do you hear /m/ in mango or grape? Man or boy? Least or most? Few or many? Now lets see if you can see when my mouth closes when you hear /m/ in these words. If you hear /m/ then close your mouth but when you don’t, open it. My, pet, monkey, Max, keeps, messing, up, my favorite, mitten.
8. Let’s take a look at a book now. The author tells us about five little monkeys who decide to jump on their bed when their mom goes to bed but trouble lies ahead as they begin to get hurt. Let’s go through and read the pages and every time you hear the letter m I want you to clap. After we get done I want you all to make up a name for a monkey that starts with an M and write it down and draw your monkey. [For example: Milly the monkey].
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to color the pictures that start with the letter M.
Reference:
Eileen Christelow, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Snow, Kate, Slither like a snake with S. http://kss0017.wixsite.com/katesnow/emergent-literacy-lesson
Assessment worksheet: http://kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/m2.htm
