Emergent Learning
Thomas lost his first tooth
Gracie Mahoney
Rationale: This lesson will help the student learn /t/, the phoneme represented by T. Students will learn to recognize /t/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (a ticking clock) and the letter symbol T. The student will practice finding the letter T in words and apply phoneme awareness with /t/ in phonetic cue readings by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; coloring paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963); chart with “Tom took his Teddy bear to town”; word cards with TOOK, TOWN, TURTLE, TEST; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /t/ (coloring sheet).
Procedures:
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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 /t/. We spell /t/ with letter T. /T/ is the sound a clock makes when its ticking.
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Let’s tick with your finger, /T/, /T/, /T/ (Pantomime ticking finger) Notice where your tongue is touching? (the roof of your mouth pushing against the back of your top front teeth). When we say /t/, we blow out air in our mouth and through our teeth.
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Let me show you how to find /t/ in the word test. I am going to stretch test out in super slow motion and listen for my finger ticking. Ttt-e-e-st. Slower: Ttt-e-e-e-s-ttt. There it was! I felt my teeth touch the roof of my mouth and push against the back of my front teeth. I can feel the ticking /t/ in test.
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Let’s try a tongue twister [on chart] “Thomas lost his first tooth” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. “Ttthomas lostttt his firsttt tttoottth.” try it again, and this time break off the word: /t/homas los/t/ his firs/t/ /t/oo/t/h.
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[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter T to spell /t/. Let’s write capital letter T. Draw a straight Line that touches the sky and goes all the way down to the ground. Now draw a line that across the sky and touch the top of the line in the sky. Let me see everyone’s T! After I put a smile on it, I would like everyone to make nine more just like it.
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Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /t/ in take or drop? Tall or near? Tear or bug? test or lie? Talk or whisper? tap or dance? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words. Tick your finger if your hear /t/: Tully, the, turtle, lost, a, tooth, in, the, tub.
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Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature with four feathers growing right out of his head! Read page 16, drawing out /t/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /t/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Tiffer - teffer-tett, or Tooter - tipper- tang. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
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Show test and model how to decide if it is take or near? The T tells me to tick my finger, /t/, so this word is ttt-ake, take. Now ask the children to try some: TEACH: ready or teach? TANK: full or tank? TASTE: taste or bland? TEAM: lean or team? TALL: tall or small?
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For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spelling and color the pictures that begin with T. Call students individually to read the phonic cue words from step #8.
Sources:
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/t-begins2.htm
Seuss,.(1963). Dr. Seuss’s ABC. New York: Beginner Books.
Pietrantoni, Wynne, The time Tully lost a tooth
https://wynnepietrantoni.wixsite.com/mysite/el-design
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