Bounce with B
Emergent Literacy Design
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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 sound analogy (bouncing a basketball) 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.
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Materials: Primary paper packet and pencils: chart with tongue tickler: “Ben bounces basketballs before breakfast”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with bug, bake, ball, bop, and bad; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /b/ (URL below)
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a lot like a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letter stands for what- the mouth moves as we say words. Today we are working on spotting the mouth move /b/. We spell /b/ with the letter B. B sounds like a bouncing ball.
2. So, let’s pretend to bounce a ball while we say /b/ /b/ /b/. (If possible, bring a ball to class to demonstrate to students). Notice the way your mouth forms when you say /b/. (you put your lips together). When we say /b/ we put our lips together and pop them apart and air comes out when we make the /b/ sound.
3.Now I am going to show you how to find /b/ in the word tumble. First, I am going to stretch the word out in slow motion so that I can hear the bouncing ball. T-u-m-b-l-e. Okay now, let’s do it even slower so that we can really hear the /b/. Ttt-uuu-mm-bbbbb-ll-ee. There it was! I felt my lips touch and pop apart. So, bouncing b is in tumble.
4. Now we are going to try a tongue tickler (on the chart). Ben is trying out for the basketball team. Every morning before breakfast he likes to practice. He likes to bounce the balls and throw them in the hoops. Our tongue tickler is: “Ben bounces basketballs before breakfast.” Now let us say it again “Ben bounces basketballs before breakfast”. This time we are going to stretch the /b/ in every word. “Bbben bbbounces bbbasketballs bbbbefore bbbbreakfast”. Try it again but this time break the /b/ off the word: “/b/en /b/ounces /b/asketballs /b/efore /b/reakfast”
5. We are going to learn how to write the letter B because we use B to spell /b/. ( have the student take out primary paper and a pencil). The capital B looks like two basketballs on top of each other. Let’s try to write the lowercase letter b. Start at the rooftop and go all the way down to the sidewalk. Then go to the sidewalk and make a curved line that looks like a backwards c. After I check it, make 9 more just like it and get a smiley face.
6. Next call on students to answer and ask them to tell how they knew: Do you hear /b/ in bed or chair? bread or cake? bear or tiger? buzz or fly? Say: Let's see if you can find the bouncing ball mouth movement in some words. Bounce the ball if you hear /b/: The bear was hungry and baked some blueberry bread for breakfast.
7. Now we are going to look at an alphabet book. Dr. Suess is going to tell us all kinds of words that make the bouncing /b/ sound. Read page 8, and make sure to draw out the /b/. After you finish ask the students to come up with other words that have the /b/ in them. Act out a few of the words and have students pick their favorite and draw a picture of it to be displayed in class.
8. Show the word bug and model how to determine if it is bug or hug: The B tells me to bounce a ball, /b/, so this word is bbb-ug, bug. Now you try: bake: bake or cake? ball: ball or mall? bop: bop or top? bad: bad or sad?
9. In order to assess the progress of your students, distribute the worksheet. Students will circle the words that begin with B and then color the pictures that begin with B. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step 8 to test progress.
Reference: Bouncing a Basketball with B by Grace Riddle. https://agr0021.wixsite.com/literacylessons/emergent-literacy
Assessment Worksheet: All Kids Network, Letter B Words Recognition Worksheet. https://www.allkidsnetwork.com/alphabet/letter-b-words.htm
Book: Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963)
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