Emergent Literacy

Bunny Hopping with B

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented by B. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning this meaningful representation that goes with the symbol B. They will practice finding /b/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words form beginning letters.

Materials: Primary paper and pencil, chart with “Baby Bob’s Bananas Became Blue” on it, drawing paper and crayons, decodable book “Bud the Sub”, word cards with BOOK, BALL, BOX, BOW, and BAIT, assessment worksheet identifying pictures of /b/.

Procedures: 1. Say: Our language has its own unique meanings that only English- speakers know! To learn the English language you have to understand how your mouth moves when you say certain words. Today we are going to work on spotting how our mouth moves when we say /b/. We spell /b/ with letter B. B looks like a bunny, and the word bunny starts with a B.

2. Let’s pretend that our bunny is hopping, ba, /b/, /b/, bouncing. If you put your hand to you mouth while saying /b/, you feel your lips bouncing off of one another, just like our bunny is doing. (show how a bunny bounces when it hops)

3. Now, our bunny is able to hop all day long. Let me show you how you find the /b/ in the word able. I am going to stretch out the sounds of each letter so you can listen for the bouncing bunny sound. A-bb-le, slower: aa-bbb-lle. There I felt my lips bounce off one another, so that must be the /b/ sound!

4. We are going to try a tongue tickler (on chart). Bob is a baby bunny who loves to eat bananas. He ate so many bananas he turned blue. Here’s our tickler: “Baby Bob’s bananas became blue.” Everyone say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time stretch the /b/ at the beginning of the words. “Bbbabby Bbbobb’s bbbananas bbecame bbblue.” Try it again but this time break it off the words: “/b/ a/b/ y /b/ o/b/’s /b/ ananas /b/ ecame /b/ lue.

5. (Have students take out primary paper and pencil) We use letter B to spell /b/. Capital B looks like a big bunny. Let’s write the lowercase letter b. Just start at the rooftop, drop straight down to the sidewalk, and then b-b-bounce back up to the fence and around. So, we drop down, back up and around. Once I have put a sticker on it, you can practice doing 9 more bounces!

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /b/ in girl or boy?? boat or car?? Chair or bed? Let’s see if you can spot your mouth move /b/ in some words. Bounce your lips if you hear /b/ in: The, big, brown, bunny, hopped, to, the, barn.

7. Now we will read this book that uses the /b/ sound on each page! Bud the Sub is the story of a sub who isn’t as big as his sub friends, but he saves the day on his trip with his boss Gus! Let’s read the book to find out how this tiny sub saves everyone on their adventure. After reading, have the students draw Bud the sub and display their drawings.

8. Show word BOOK and model how to decide if it is book or cook: The B tells me to bounce my lips, /b/, so this word is bbb-ook, book. You try some: BALL: ball or hall? BOX: box or fox? BOW: bow or low? BAIT: bait or wait?

9.For the assessment, distribute the worksheet and have students color the pictures that begin with B. Call them individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

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Reference:

Elizabeth Bennett, Emergent Literacy: "Bounce the Ball with B."

https://elizabethbennett79.wixsite.com/lessondesigns17/emergent-literacy

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/letters.html

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