Blow the Balloon with Ms. Brooke
By: Brooke Scocos
Emergent Literacy
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 meaningful representation (the sound from blowing up a balloon), the letter symbol b, listening for and pointing out /b/ in spoken words, and applying phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Betty Botter baked brownies"; balloon in the shape of a “b”; blank drawing paper and crayons or markers; A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy (David McPhail, 1998); word cards with BIG, BOX, BAG, BABY, BENCH, BUG, DIG, FOX, TAG MAYBE, STENCH, RUG; assessment worksheet identifying pictures of items that start with /b/.
Procedures:
1. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth movement that we make as we say words with /b/. We spell /b/ with letter b, like a balloon (show picture) and /b/ sounds like blowing up a balloon, bbbbbb (exaggerate when saying “bbbbbbbbb”).
2. Say: "Let's pretend we each have a balloon we need to blow up. Begin by blowing air into the balloon. [Pantomime grabbing and blowing a balloon] Each time, think about the movement your mouth is making and where your lips start. [Point to mouth closed; lips are shut and pushed together] When we say /b/, we press our lips together and push the “b” out of our mouths by moving our lips apart. This creates /b/."
3. Say: "Now I will show you how to find /b/ in the word ribbon. I'm going to stretch ribbon out slowly and listen for the balloon sound. Rr-i-bbb-o-n. Slower: Rrr-i-bbbbb-o-n. There it was! I felt my lips come together and push air out of our mouths by opening our mouths. I can feel blowing up a balloon /b/ in ribbon."
4. Say: "Let's try a tongue tickler (from chart). ‘Betty Botter baked brownies.' Let’s all say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /b/ at the beginning of the words. 'Bbbbbetty Bbbbbotter bbbbbaked some bbbbbrownies.’ Try it again, and this time break the /b/ off of the beginning of the word: '/B/etty /B/otter /b/aked /b/rownies.'"
5. (Have students take out a pencil and a sheet of primary paper). Say: "We use the letter B to spell /b/. Capital B looks like a caterpillar standing up on its back legs. Let’s write the lowercase letter b. Start just below the rooftop, straighten out all the way to the sidewalk, come back up to the fence, make half a circle from the fence and curve all the way back down to the sidewalk. I want to see everybody’s b. Once I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Next, call on students to answer the following questions and explain their reasoning: Ask: "Do you hear /b/ in beach or mountain? Cube or ball? Strawberry or banana? Bear or tiger? Red or blue? Now let's see if you can spot my mouth movement for /b/ in certain words. Gran and blow up the balloon when you hear me say /b/: Betty, Block, blows, big, black, bubbles."
7. Say: "Now let's look at A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy! Booktalk: A bug, a bear, and a boy are best friends and do everything together, even though they are different sizes. When they eat, the bear eats from a bucket, the boy from a bowl, and the bug from a bottle cap. The bear sleeps on a rug on the floor, the boy in a bed, and the bug in a peanut shell. What else do they like to do together? You will have to read on and see. As I read the book aloud, look for the balloon sound of /b/. Each time you hear the sound, grab and blow up your imaginary balloon." After the story, have students think of an activity that starts with B that would make a rainy day fun! (Ex. play basketball, look for butterflies). Have the children illustrate the activity on a piece of blank, white paper and display their work.
8. Show BIG and model how to decide if it is big or dig: Say: "The B tells me to blow the balloon, /b/ /b/ /b/, so this word is bbb-ig, not dig." (Call students individually while the others are completing the following worksheet and see if they can pick out words that have /b/. Use the following; BOX: box or fox? BAG: bag or tag? BABY: baby or maybe? BENCH? bench or stench? BUG: bug or rug?)
9. For an assessment, handout the letter B worksheet. Students are to trace the uppercase B and lowercase b at the bottom of the worksheet. Then, students color all of the pictures that begin with the letter B. While they are completing activity, call students individually to answer questions from #8.
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Related Lesson: Bouncing the "B" Ball-Hannah Shelton
