"Take Me Out to the
As children learn to recognize sounds in spoken words, they acquire
the alphabetic principle, or the realization that letters map out the phonemes
in words. As children increase their awareness and understanding of the
alphabetic principle, they are better able to decode words because of an
increasing awareness of the specific sound-to-letter correspondences of
our alphabet. This lesson will help children identify the c=/k/ correspondence
by learning a meaningful representation and a letter symbol, or grapheme
for this specific correspondence. Also, children will practice finding
the c=/k/ correspondence in written words.
copy of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
chart with "Casey and his cousin came to camp and caught a cold."
picture page with catcher, ball, base, Coke, peanuts, popcorn, cotton
candy, fans, Cracker Jacks, pitcher, hot dog, mascot, umpire
Introduce the lesson by explaining that the secret to understanding
our writing "code" is to find out which letters stand for which sounds.
"Today, weâre going to begin to understand what sound we usually
say when we see the letter Îcâ. Soon, you will be able to spot
this letter and sound in many words."
"Have you ever been to a baseball game and heard the sound the bat makes
when it hits the ball? C-c-rac-c-k! Thatâs the sound we hear. Iâll
show you how to spot /k/ in a word. Stretch it out, and see if you say
/k/ like the crack of the bat. Iâll try catch, c-c-c-a-a-tch.
Yes, right at the beginning I said /k/."
"Letâs try a tongue twister." [on chart] "Casey and his cousin
came to camp and caught a cold. Everybody say it together. Now say it again,
and this time, stretch the /k/ at the beginning of the words. Cccasey and
his cccousin cccame to cccamp and cccaught a cccold. Try it again, and
this time break it off the word. /k/asey and his /k/ousin /k/ame to /k/amp
and /k/aught a /k/old. Nice work."
[Have students take out primary paper and pencil.] "We can use letter
c to spell /k/. Letâs write it. Start just below the fence
line. Make a curve up to the fence line and curve over. Curve down to the
sidewalk and back up around just above the sidewalk. I want to see everybodyâs
c. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make a row of câs
just like it."
"I am going to read you a list of words. If you hear /k/ in the word,
say, "C-c-ra-ck-ck!" and swing your arms like youâre batting. If
you donât hear /k/ in the word, say, "OUT!" Read the list of words
"Great! Now, letâs
try our tongue twister again. Raise your hand each time you hear /k/."
Read each word slowly. "Casey·and·his·cousin·came·to·
Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
and talk about the story. Read it again, and have students raise their
hands when they hear words with /k/. List their words on the board. Then
have each student draw a picture and write a message about one of the words
using invented spelling. Display their work.
For assessment, distribute the
picture page with pictures of each of the nouns in the list above. (catcher,
ball, base, Coke, peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy, fans, Cracker Jacks,
pitcher, hot dog, mascot, umpire) Ask each student to circle the pictures
whose names have /k/.
Eldredge, J. Lloyd. Teaching
Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Ohio: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1995. (53)
here to return to Illuminations.
For further information, send
e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org.