Emergent Literacy Design: Dribble Down the Court with D

Anna Bahme

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Materials:

• Primary paper and a pencil

• Chart with “Danny’s dirty dog digs deep”

• Drawing paper and crayons

• An Alphabet Zoo (Carolyn Wells, 1998)

• Word cards with DOG, LOG, DIP, SIP, DARE, FARE, DICE, MICE, DATE, MATE, DUCK, and LUCK

• Assessment worksheet identify pictures with /d/ (website below).

 

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 making our mouth move to say /d/. We spell /d/ with letter D. An example of hearing a D would be like dribbling a basketball. D looks like a basketball, and /d/ sounds like a basketball being dribbled.

2. Let’s pretend we’re dribbling a basketball, /d/, /d/, /d/. [Pantomime dribbling a basketball] Notice where the roof of your mouth is? When we say /d/, our tongue is at the roof of our mouth and bounces off back to our bottom teeth.

3. Let me show you how to find /d/ in the word land. I’m going to stretch card out in super slow motion and listen for the basketball being dribbled. Lll-a-a-and. Slower: Lll-a-a-a-n-ddd. There it was! I felt my tongue bounce off the roof of my mouth.

4. Let’s try a tongue ticler [on poster]. “Danny’s dirty dog digs deep.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /d/ at the beginning of the words. “Dddanny’s dddirty dddog dddigs dddeep.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word. “/d/ anny’s /d/ irty /d/ og /d/ igs /d/ eep."

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil.] We use the letter D to spell /d/. Let’s write the uppercase D. Start at the rooftop and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk, then draw a half circle starting at the rooftop on the straight line and curve around to the sidewalk. Now, let’s write the lowercase d. Draw a straight line down starting at the rooftop and go down the sidewalk, then draw a little c on the left side of the straight line. I want to see everyone write an uppercase and lowercase D. Once I see that you have done this, I will come around and put a sticker on your paper and then I want you to write it six more times.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /d/ in head or nose? Double or single? Dance or sing? Desk or chair? Dog or cat? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /d/ in some words. Dribble the basketball if you hear /d/: Doug, dunked, the, jelly, donut, in, dairy, creamer.

7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet poem. D was a Diligent Doe is a poem about a deer who spends her time during the different seasons.” Read the poem, drawing out /d/. Ask the children if they can think of other words with /d/. Ask them to make up a silly name for the deer starting with the letter D, such as Dozie-Doe. Have each student write the names they have come up with with invented spelling and draw a picture of the deer. Display their work.

8. Show DOG and model how to decide if it is dog or log. The D tells me to dribble the basketball, so this word is ddd-og, dog. You try some: DIP: dip or sip? DARE: dare or fare? DICE: dice or mice? DATE: date or mate? DUCK: duck or luck?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with the letter D. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

 

Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/d-begins2.htm

 

Reference: 

Melissa Murphee, Ding Dong the Doorbell with D!

http://mjm0065.wixsite.com/melissamurphree/emergent-literacy