Emergent Literacy

Beat the Bongos with B

Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (beating the bongos) 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: primary paper and pencil; chart with Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby; Drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC book; words cards with BAD, BAG, MEAT, BARE, YARN. assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /b/. https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-b_WFFMM.pdf?up=1466611200

Procedures:

1. Say: Our written language is a secret! We have a code only we know. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today were going to work on spotting the mouth move /b/. We spell /b/ with letter B. B looks like a bongo drum and /b/ sounds like beating a drum.

2. Let’s pretend to play the drum, /b/, /b/, /b/. Notice when you are beating your imaginary drum that your lips touch.

3. Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word about. I’m going to stretch about out in super-duper slow motion and listen for the drum sound. Aaa-bb-oouu-ttt. Let’s do it slower: Aaaaa-bbbbb-ooouuu-ttt. Did you hear it? I felt my lips touch. Drum beat /b/ is in about.

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler. Barbara just had a baby. Bill and Betty want to welcome the baby by baking him brown bread. Here’s our tickler: Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /b/ at the beginning of the words. “Bbbiilll and Bbbettyy bbbaked bbrown bbbread for Bbbarbara’s bbbabby.” Try it again and this time break it off the word. “/b/ill and /b/etty /b/aked /b/rown /b/read for /b/arbara’s /b/aby.”

5. [have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter B to spell /b/. Capital B looks like sideways bongo drums. Let’s write the lowercase letter b. start just below the rooftop, go down, and b-b-bounce around. I want to see everyone’s b. after I put a smiley face on it I want you to make nine more just like it.

6. call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /b/ in book or look? Bath or shower? Cub or dog? Football or soccer? Goodbye or hello? Say: let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Beat the drum if you hear /b/: the, basketball, bounced, and, hit, the, big, blue, door.

7. Say “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a fun barber and baby. Ask children if they can think of any other words with /b/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like bbarrr-bbeeyyy or boot-blip-bang. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Show off their work.

8. Show BAD and model how to decide if it is bad or dad. The B tells me to bang the bongo drum, /b/, so this word if bbbaaadd, bad. You try some: BAG: bag or sag? MEAT: meat or beat? BARE: bare or stare? YARN: yarn or barn?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with B. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

Reference: Dr. Bruce Murray

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Brush Your Teeth with F by Dr. Bruce Murray. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html

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