Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /y/, the phoneme represented by Y. Students will learn to recognize /y/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (yelling yay) and the letter symbol Y, practice finding /y/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /y/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials: primary paper, pencil, computer, slideshow for end activity, Carol’s The Yak Who Yelled Yuck, assessment worksheet identifying pictures with y. , colored pencils, cards with words: YUM, YET, CRAM, YARN, YEAR, YES

Procedures:

1. Say: 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 /y/. We spell /y/ with letter Y. Y looks like someone cheering “YAY”, and /y/ sounds like what we say when we think something is disgusting. i.e a worm in my apple

2. Let's pretend to cheer YAY, /y/, /y/, /y/. [Pantomime cheering yay] Notice where your tongue is? (back part if touching the roof of your mouth). When we say /y/, we touch our tongue to the side of our teeth and our mouth is open.

3. Let me show you how to find /y/ in the word Kenya. I'm going to stretch Kenya out in super slow motion and listen for my cheering. K-k-k-e-e-en. Slower: K-enn-yyy-a There it was! I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth and vibrate. YAY /y/ is in Kenya.

4. Let's try a tongue tickler. There were 4 young yaks. The young yaks were fed brussels sprouts for dinner. Their mother said it would be yummy. The yaks turned yellow after eating the brussel sprouts and yelled YUCK! Here’s our tickler: "The young yellow yaks yelled yuck" Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /y/ at the beginning of the words. "The Yyyoung yyyellow yyyyaks yyyyelled Yyyyuck!." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/Y/ oung /y/ ellow /y/ aks /y/ elled /y/ uck!

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter Y to spell /y/. Capital Y looks like a person cheering YAY. Let's write the lowercase letter y. Start just below the fence. Start by making a slant, pick up your pencil, slant down, touch, and on into the ditch. I want to see everybody's y. After I put a smile 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 /y/ in red or yellow? yell or talk? yes or no? grass or sky? hi or bye? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /y/ in some words. Cheer YAY if you hear /y/: yell, funny, sky, yawn, stuff, far, my, you, pink, yarn.

7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Carol Pugliano-Martin tells us a funny story about yaks who yell yuck when trying new food! Read pages 4-5, drawing out /y/. Ask students if they know any other words that start with /y/. Have students come up with a yummy Y gesture and a yucky Y or Yay or Nay gesture in groups. Play a slideshow of Y foods/things and have students stand to act out as pictures are shown.

8. Show YES and model how to decide if it is yes or mess: The Y tells me to cheer YAY, /y/, so this word is yyy-es, yes. You try some: YUM: yum or tum? YET: met or yet? YARN: yarn or barn? CRAM: yam or cram? YEAR: year or tear?

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

References:

Lesson-http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/lessons/letters/

Spelling- http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/lessons/spelling/

Learn to Read Words- http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/lessons/overview/

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Assessment for Y