Rationale: This lesson will help the children learn how to identify /t/, the phoneme represented by T. Students will then learn how to recognize /t/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation, a clock ticking, and the letter symbol T. Students will also practice finding /t/ in words, and apply phonemes with /t/ in phonetic cue reading by being able to distinguish rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:This lesson will need primary paper and pencil; chart with “Tom the turtle took two trains to town”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC(Random House, 1963); word cards with TOY, TALL, TEN, TAIL, TIME, andTREE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /t/. (below)
Procedure: 1. Say: Today we will be learning about how our mouths move as we say each letter sound. In this lesson we will learn about the letter T and /t/. We will learn that T and /t/ make the same exact sound. We spell /t/ with the letter T. We are going to work on spotting the mouth move while saying /t/. On a clock when the hands move, it makes the sound tick tock, or you can hear it go t t t t t. 2. Now let’s pretend we are the clock changing time, /t/, /t/, /t/. (Moving your finger like a clock would move changing time). Notice what you tongue does? When we say /t/, our tongue starts on the top of our mouth and our air just pushes it off. 3. Now let me show you how to find /t/ in the word boat. I’m going to stretch out boatin slow motion and listen for the /t/ sound the clock makes: b-o-a-t. Now we can try it slower: bbb-ooo-aaa-tttttt. There it was! I felt my tongue touch the top of my mouth and air push it down. I can hear the clock ticking /t/ in boat. 4. We are now going to try a tongue twister (on the chart). “Tom the turtle took two trains to town”. Let’s say it all together three times. Now we are going to try something different. We are now going to say it again, but this time stretch out the /t/ at the beginning of each word. “TTTom the ttturtle tttook tttwo tttrains to tttown”. Try it again and this time try breaking it off the word. “/t/om the /t/urtle /t/ook /t/wo /t/rains to /t/own”. 5. (Have students take out primary paper and pencil). We use the letter Tto spell /t/. A capital T looks like an upside down broom. Now let’s write the lowercase letter t. Start just below the rooftop then draw a straightened line all the way down to the sidewalk. Then cross the line at the fence. I want to see everybody’s t. After I put a stamp on your paper, I want you to make ten more t’s just like the first one you did. 6. Now call on students to allow them to answer and tell you how they know these questions. Do you hear /t/ in Six orTen? Tall or Small? Store or Shop? Blue or Light? Tooth orNose? Good job! Now let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words. Everyone do the clock movement with your finger when you hear the /t/ sound in the words: dog, tiger, five, test, nap, toe, turn, plate, slow, treat. 7. Say: Let’s look at our alphabet book. Dr. Seuss uses funny names and words that start withT. Read page 46, while stretching out the /t/. Now ask the children if they can think of any words starting with Tthat they can find in the classroom or their own home. Have them write these items they think of and draw a picture of the items. Once they are all done, display their artwork. 8. Show the words on the chart. First show TOY and model how to decide if it is toyor boy. You can model this by saying: The Ttell me to think of the clock saying tick tock as it moves. So the /t/ in this word is ttt-oy, toy. Now the students can try some: TALL: tallor small? TEN: ten or men? TAIL: tail or bail? TIME: time or dime? TREE: tree or bee? 9. For the assessment, I have a worksheet handout. Students are asked to color the pictures that end with the letter T. They are also asked to practice writing the letter t. When all of them are working on that, I will call on students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.