Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /b/, the phoneme represented by b. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (bouncing a ball) and the letter symbol b.

 

Materials:

Primary paper and pencil

The Barenstain’s B book (Random House Publishing, 1971)

Chart with “Bo brings big blue bubbles to his best bud.”

Word cards with: bird, dog, bee, me, book, look, bake, glow, bad, met, soccer, football, mat. bat

Pictures with these words on them

Worksheet 1 and worksheet 2

 

Procedures

1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. Our language is made up of many letters and sounds that are used to form words. Our mouths move in different ways to make each of these sounds. Today we will be focusing on /b/ and the way our mouth moves when we make that sound. B sounds like a ball bouncing and we will be using balls to demonstrate this sound.

2. When we say /b/ to make the letter B, let’s pretend that we are bouncing a ball. When the ball hits the ground, it makes a /b/ sound. Now we are going to bounce 3 different balls for you to hear that the /b/ sound always occurs. A tennis ball, a basketball ball, a bouncy ball will be used. Watch and feel how our mouths sound when we make the /b/ sound.

3. Now we are going to find /b/ in words. The word crab has a /b/ sound in it. When I say the word, listen for the ball hitting the ground and look at my lips press together before I say the /b/ sound. Ccc-rrr-aaa-bbbb. Did you hear the ball at the end and watch my lips move? Let’s try it again.  

4. Now I will give you a tongue twister that is written on the chart to hear the sound /b/ in a sentence. “Bo brings big blue bubbles to his best bud.” Let’s say it together. “Bo brings big blue bubbles to his best bud.” Can you separate out the /b/? Bbbbo bbbrings bbbig bbblue bbbubbbbles to his bbbest bbbud.

5. Now I want you to write it down and practice the letter B. I will be walking around if you need assistance. Let’s take out our primary paper and pencil. Worksheet 1 will be handed out to you to practice on there as well. We use the letter B to represent /b/. Uppercase B has one more loop than lowercase b, so we can remember that it is “bigger”. Since the uppercase B has two loops; think of them as basketball hoops! The lowercase b has only one. To write an uppercase B, we start at the roof on our paper and draw a line straight down to the sidewalk. Then we come back up to the roof and make a loop from the roof to the fence, then from the fence to the sidewalk. Let’s try that step and practice writing a capital B a few times. Now, writing a lowercase b is similar, but it only has one loop at the bottom. Start at the roof and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk. Then put your pencil on the fence and draw a hump down to the sidewalk. Let’s practice writing lowercase b. After I check your work, I want you to make a line of capital B’s and a line of lowercase b’s.

6. Ask the students the cards we made earlier. Do you hear /b/ in bird or dog? Bee or me? Book or look? Bake or glow? Bad or met? Soccer or football? Mat or bat? Blow or glow?

7. After going through this list of cards with pictures, we are now going to read a book and have students apply their knowledge. We are going to look at the book The Berenstain's B Book to see all the words that are spelled with /b/. Then, students should come up /b/ words that they can think of on their own.

8. After reading the book and coming up with their own /b/ words, I will give them worksheet 2 to assess where each student is at.

9. Extra time? Phonic cue reading.

 

References: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/holcombel.htm

 

http://kk31895.wixsite.com/kgilley0318/imergent-literacy-design

 

Book: Berenstain, Jan and Stan. Berenstain's B Book. Random House: New York, New York. (1971).

 

Worksheet 1: http://twistynoodle.com/beach-ball-worksheet/

 

Worksheet 2: https://www.myteachingstation.com/words-starting-with-letter-b