Bouncing the Basketball with B

Savannah Newton

Emergent Literacy Design

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.

Materials:

Primary paper and pencil
Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963)
Poster with tongue tickler: Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby.
Orange construction paper and markers to make a “basketball”.
Word cards with BAG, BAT, BALL, BOOK, BIKE, and BRAKE
Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /b/.

Procedures:

Say: Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /b/. We spell /b/ with the letter B. The letter B sounds like a bouncing basketball - /b/, /b/, /b/.
Let’s pretend to bounce a basketball. [Do the motion for bouncing a basketball, say the sound /b/. Notice that your lips touch when you make the noise? When we say /b/, our lips come together to make the sound.
Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word marble. I’m going to say marble very slowly to listen and feel for my basketball. M-ar-b-le. Slower, mmm-aaar-b-llle. There was the basketball! I felt my lips come together and found /b/ for basketball in marble.
Let’s try a tongue tickler. Say: Barbara had a beautiful baby boy. She decided to have a party for his first birthday. She called her friends Bill and Betty, and they agreed they would bring her baked brown bread. Here’s our tickler: Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby. Everybody say it along with me (Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby). Now everybody say it on your own and break off the /b/ from the word. /b/ ill and /b/ etty /b/ aked /b/ rown /b/ read for /b/ arbara’s /b/ aby.
Tell students to take out primary paper and pencil. We use the letter B to spell /b/. Let’s write the lowercase letter b. Start just below the rooftop, go straight down to the sidewalk. Then make a backwards "c" up to the fence. I want to see everybody write a lowercase b. After I put a smiley face on your paper, go back and write 9 more b’s.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew:
1. Do you hear /b/ in ball or tale?
2. Do you hear /b/ in book or movie?
3. Do you hear /b/ in bike or car? Say: Now let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Bounce your basketball if you hear /b/: Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby.
Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about things that start with the letter B: barber, baby, bubbles and a bumblebee! Ask students: What are some other things that you can think of that start with the letter B? Ask students decorate their basketballs using the orange construction paper and markers. Have them display their basketballs in the classroom.
Show the word BAD and model how to decide if it is bad or mad. The B tells me to bounce my basketball, /b/, so this word is bbb-a-d. bad. You try some:
1. Ball or tall? BALL
2. Bake or fake? BAKE
3. Bill or dill? BILL
4. Brake or flake? BRAKE.
For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Have students color in the pictures that begin with the letter B. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.