Bounce the Basketball with Letter B
Emergent Literacy
By: Kaitlyn Barnes
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented in letter B. Children will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (bouncing the basketball) and the letter symbol B, practice finding /b/ in words, and practice phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading using flashcards by identifying rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
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Primary paper and pencils for students
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Crayons
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Chart with “Bobby bounced the basketball”
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Flash cards with BALL, FALL, BOX, FOX, BAT, CAT, BAG, RAG, BED, and LED
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Assessment worksheet (one for each student)
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Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963)
Procedures:
1. Teacher says: “Our written language is a secret code: The tricky part is learning what letters stand for and how the mouth moves as we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /b/. We spell /b/ with letter B, and /b/ sounds like bouncing a basketball.”
2. Teacher says: “Let’s pretend to bounce a basketball [act out bouncing a basketball]. The bouncing basketball is making the sound /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/. Let’s all say /b/, /b/, /b/ while moving your hand up and down like you are bouncing a basketball. Notice where your tongue is sitting in your mouth when we say /b/? When we say /b/ we press our lips together and push them outward.”
3. Teacher says: “Now I’m going to show you how to find /b/ in the word web. I am going to stretch out the word very slowly, so listen for the bouncing basketball. Ww-e-bb. Slower: Ww-e-e-bbb. There it was! I felt my lips press together and push outwards at the end of the word.
4. Teacher says: “Now let’s try a tongue tickler! [refer to chart]. “Bobby bravely bounces the basketball into the basket.” (Tickler tale: Bobby was on the school basketball team with all his friends. Bobby was too nervous to try and shoot the ball, but he bravely bounced the basketball into the basket.) Now we are all going to say it together three times. Say it again, and this time we are going to stretch out the /b/ at the beginning of each word. “Bbbobby bbbravely bbbounces the bbbasketball into the bbbasket.” Try it again, and now we will break it off the word; “/b/ obby /b/ ravely /b/ ounces the /b/ asketball into the /b/ asket.”
5. Teacher says: “Now everyone, take out one piece of primary paper and a pencil. We use the letter B to spell /b/. We are going to learn how to write a capital B. We start by drawing a line from the rooftop to the sidewalk. Then, start at the rooftop again and draw a half circle to the fence. Start again from the same spot on the fence and make another half circle to the sidewalk. Now we are going to learn how to write a lowercase b. Start at the rooftop and draw a line all the way to the sidewalk. Then draw a half circle like we did before, but only draw it from the fence to the sidewalk. I’m going to come around to check everyone’s, after I put a smiley face on it, I want you to make ten more!
6. Call on students and ask them how they knew: Do you hear /b/ in ball or fall? box or fox? bat or cat? bag or rag? bed or led? Teacher says: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Bounce the basketball if you hear /b/. Ben and Bobby bounced bouncy balls into the big box.
7. Teacher says: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells a silly story about a barber, a baby, and a few other things! Let’s see what he has in store for us!” Read page 8 while drawing out /b/. Ask your students if they can think of other words that start with /b/. Ask your students to write 5 words with /b/ on their paper. After they are done, students will share the words they came up with.
8. The teacher will show the word BIG and model how to decide if it is BIG or DIG: Teacher says: “The B tells me to bounce the ball, /b/, so this word is bbb-ig, big. Now you try some: BOOK: book or look? BELL: bell or fell? BRICK: brick or kick? BEST: best or rest? BRAIN: brain or train?
9. For the assessment, pass out a worksheet to each student and assess if each student can correctly trace and write upper- and lower-case B, and draw and label two objects that begin with the letter B. The teacher will also hand out crayons for students to use to draw the object. Teacher says: “I just gave you all a worksheet with upper- and lower-case B on it, and two blank boxes with lines under each one. I want everyone to trace and practice writing upper- and lower-case B, and then draw and label two pictures, one in each box, of an object that begins with the letter B.
References:
Book: Dr. Seuss’s ABC. New York, NY: Random House, 1963. Print
Hana Burdick, Frightened F: The Hiss of Fred’s Cat
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