Banging the Big Drum with a B
By: Rachel King
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented by b. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (banging a drum) 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:
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Primary paper and pencil
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Paper and crayons for the students
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A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy (David M. McPhail, 1998)
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Word cards with BAKE, MAD, BOOM, BIKE, and COOK
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Assessment worksheet to identify /b/ (link below).
Procedures:
1. Say: “Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for and how the mouth moves to make each sound. Today we're going to work on learning and recognizing the letter b and making the /b/ sound. We spell /b/ with letter b. The letter b looks kind of like a drumstick that we can us to bang and make music on a drum. The sound made by the letter b sounds like the banging noise on a drum.”
2. Say: “Let’s pretend to bang a big drum. We will use our letter b drumsticks to make a /b/ sound /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/.” [Pretend to be banging a drum.] “What is our mouth doing when we make our drum sound? Notice how our lips push together and then blow out air with our voice box.”
3. “Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word label. I am going to stretch the word label out in super slow motion. Listen for my drumstick. Lllaaa-bbbeeelll. Slower: Lll-aaa-bbb-eeelll. There it was! I felt my lips touch when we said /b/. I can feel the /b/ in label.”
4. Let’s try a tongue twister and listen for the /b/ sound. “Betty bounced on her big ball to Bob’s backyard.” Now, let’s say it three times together. Now say it, but this time stretch the /b/ at the beginning of the words. “Bbbetty bbbounced on her bbbig bbball to Bbbobbb’s bbbackyard.” Let’s say it one more time but this time break it off the word: “/b/etty /b/ounced on her /b/ig /b/all to /b/o/b/’s /b/ackyard.
5. [Have primary paper and pencil set out for the student.] We use the letter b to spell /b/. Lower case b looks like a drumstick. Say: “Let’s write the uppercase letter B. Start at the rooftop, and draw a line straight down to the sidewalk. Then, go back to the rooftop and go down and around to the fence, repeat one more time from fence to the sidewalk.” After I put a smiley face sticker on it, practice 9 more just like that one.
6. I will call on individual students to answer and tell how they knew: “Do you hear /b/ in ball or glove, little or big, basket or can?” “Now, let’s see if you can spot the mouth move of /b/ in some words. Bang your drum if you hear /b/: The, big, furry, bear, caught, bubbles, by, the, bench.
7. Now we are going to read the book “A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy.” Book talk: This story is about a bug, a bear, and a boy. They all become friends and they go on many different adventures together. What do you think they do on their adventures? Let’s read it and see.
After we have read our book we will read it again and look for the /b/ sound. Reread the book and this time look for the /b/ sounds. Say: “Every time we hear the /b/ sound, lets pretend to bang on our big drums. Now that we are really good at finding our /b/ sounds, write a word or sentence with the /b/ sound and draw a picture of it.” Display students work.
8. Show BAG and model how to decide if its bag or rag: The b tells me to bang my drum, /b/, so this word is bbb-ag, bag. You try some: BAKE: bake or make? MAD: bad or mad? BOOM: boom or room? BIKE: bike or hike? COOK: book or cook?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Have the students complete the partial words and color the pictures that begin with the letter b. Call on individual students and have them read the words that start with the letter b from activity #8.
References:
Haleigh Walden, Baking Banana Bread with Betty B.:
https://sites.google.com/site/waldenswonderfullessons/home/baking-banana-bread-with-betty-b
Assessment worksheet:
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/b-begins2.htm
A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy (David M. McPhail, 1998)
