Emergent Literacy Design: Turn the helicopter blades with W
Rationale:
This lesson will help students identify /w/, the phoneme that is represented by W. Students will learn to recognize /w/ in spoken language by a real life representation (the sound helicopter blades make when turning) and the letter symbol W, practice finding /w/ in words, and also apply their awareness of phonemes with /w/ in phonetic cue reading by differentiating rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil- practice writing “Will’s wild worm wants water”; Drawing paper and crayons; Bill Martin Jr’s and John Archambault’s Chicka Chick Boom Boom (Little Simon, 2012); word cards with WOLF, WORD, MILK, WORM, JACK, and WOOD; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /w/ (URL LISTED BELOW).
Procedures:
1.Say: Our written language is a secret code. It can be tricky to learn what the letters stand for, but our mouths move as we say words. Today we are going to figure out how our mouth moves when we say /w/. We spell /w/ with letter W. W looks like 3 blades like you would see on top of a helicopter, and /w/ sounds like the noise those blades make when they start moving.
2. Let’s pretend like we are moving helicopter blades; /w/, /w/, /w/, /w/ (mimick the noise of the blades). See how your lips are? (put lips together is /w/ position – puckered) When we say /w/, we pucker/pinch our lips together and push air through the circle we make with our lips.
3. Let me show you how to find /w/ in the wow. I’m going to stretch now in a super slow motion so we can listen for the helicopter sound. w-o-w. Slower: www-oo-ww. Did you hear it?? I felt my lips pinch together and blow air through the circle. I can feel the blades moving /w/ in now.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister “Will’s wild worm wants water.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, but this time, stretch the /w/ at the beginning of each of those words. “Wwwwill’s wwwild wwworm wwwants wwwater.” Try it again, but this time break off the /w/ from the rest of the word: “/w/ill’s /w/ild /w/orm /w/ants /w/ater.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter W to spell /w/. Capital W looks sort of like 3 blades still out of a helicopter. Let’s write the lowercase letter w. Start at the fence, then down to the sidewalk, then back up to the fence again, down to the sidewalk again, and finally back up to the fence. Let me see everyone’s w. After I put a sticker on it, I want you to make 6 more like what you just did! Make sure not to have them all connect, take your finger and use it to space out your letters so that you have one finger space in between in letter w.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /w/ in work or fish? window or tissue? white or purple? whale or storm? wash or stale? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /w/ in some words. Move your arms like a helicopter /w/ if you hear it in the word. The, wagon, watermelon, bug, cow, craft, tow, this, finish, walrus.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. The story is about some letters who all want to meet at the top of the coconut tree. Read page __, drawing out /w/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /w/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Willy-Wooka-Wam, or Winny-Walter-Woo. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
8. Show WALK and model how to decide if it is walk or talk: The W tells me to turn my helicopter blades, /w/, so this word is wwwalkkk, walk. You try some: WAM: wam or bam? WISH: wish or fish? WORN: worn or morn? WHEN: when or pen? WAKE: wake or fake?
9. For further practice, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the outlined letters written for them and color the pictures that begin with W. For assessment call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8
Reference:
Sarah Jane Brock, Fishing Frenzy
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/brockel.html
Practice worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/w.htm
Emergent Literacy Design
