Emergent Literacy Design
Mash your lips together for M
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 mashing their lips together 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 “Miss Mary’s muffins make me feel mighty merry”; Eileen Christelow’s Five Monkeys jumping on the bed (Clarion Books, ©1989.), word cards with MELLOW, MAT, MOIST, MANY, MALL 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 liked the Mccdonalds logo.
2. 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 miracle out in super slow motion and listen and look for my mouth to be closed. Mmmm-r-i-c-a-l-e. slower: Mmmm-i-r-a-c-l-e. There it was! My mouth was closed in the beginning of the word to form miracle.
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 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 muffins. Here is our tongue twister Miss Mary’s muffins make me feel mighty merry 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. Mmmmiss Mmmmary’s mmmmuffins mmmmake mmmme feel mmmmighty mmmmerry Try it again and this time break it off of the word: M/iss M/ary’s m/uffins m/ake m/e feel m/ighty m/erry
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 talk with your neighbor. What fast food place has a logo that looks like an m. That’s right! Mccdonald’s yellow arches look like an M
7. How do they know? Show the words on the card and ask them which one it is. Do you hear /m/ in melon or grape? Mop or boy? Man or boy? Few or many? Now lets see if you can see when my lips mash together when you hear /m/ in these words. If you hear /m/ then close your mouth but when you don’t, open it. My sister Mallory makes more of a mess than me.
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 everyone to yell mash! After we get done, I want you all to think of your favorite thing that starts with an M, draw it, and give it a name! Ex: Megan the mop!
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to color the pictures that start with the letter M
References
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