Click Your Camera with /k/.
Emergent Literacy Design
By: Taylor Freeman
Rationale: This lesson will help children recognize /k/ which is written as C, K, and CK. By using a meaningful hand gesture and teaching to recognize specific mouth movements, I will help my students identify /k/ in spoken words. We will also identify how /k/ looks written.
Small chart with tongue tickler
Pancakes for Breakfast (book)
1. Say, "Our language is like a secret code and we have to figure out the message. The message is made of words and each word is made of letters. Our mouths moves in special ways to give us clues of the different sounds the letters make. Today, we are going to work on spotting the way our mouths move when we say /k/. We spell /k/ lots of different ways. It can be spelled with a C, a K, and CK. /k/ sounds like a camera when it takes a picture.
2. Let's pretend we're taking a picture, /k/, /k/, /k/ (Pretend to take a picture by holding right hand up and pushing pointer finger down). Do you see how my mouth is shaped? My mouth is open and the back of my tongue is on the roof of my mouth. Then I open my mouth and air comes out. /K/ool, huh?
3. Let's see if we can hear /k/ in pumpkin. I'm going to stretch it out. Listen really closely to see if you hear the camera click in pumpkin. Pp-uuu-mm-p-k-i-nn. Slower: P-uu-mm-pp-kk-ii-nn. Did you hear it! I felt my mouth open and air come out! You try! P-u-m-p-k-i-n. Good!
4. I have a fun way to practice /k/. It's called a tongue tickler (on chart). It says, "Cats and kittens can't carry cameras." Let's try it together. (Repeat 3x). Now let's try to say it very slowly. 'Ccccats and kkkittens cccan't cccarry cccameras.' Awesome!
5. Let's take out our paper and pencils. We use lots of letters to make the sound /k/. We can use a C, a K, and CK. Let's start by writing a lowercase C. It's similar to a lowercase A, but without the stick. Write it ten times. Good! Now, let's write a lowercase K. Start a little below the fence and make a straight line down to the sidewalk. Pick your pencil up and start in the middle of that line, and make a slanted line going up to the fence. Then pick your pencil up and start where you began the slanted line, and make another slanted line going down to the side walk. Great! Write K ten times also. Now, we need to write both of them together to make CK. Let's write it five times.
6. Now I'm going to give you a couple of words. I'll call on someone to tell me what word you hear /k/ in. Do you hear /k/ in cake or muffin? Punt or kick? Cook or grill? Bottle or cup? Stomp or clap? Good! Now see if you can spot the mouth movement of /k/ in these words. Click your camera if you hear /k/: The, cute, kitten, eats, cookies, and, milk, at, night.
7. Let's read a book with the sound /k/. It's called Pancakes for Breakfast. It's about an old lady who struggles to make pancakes for her breakfast. We will have to read to find out what happens. Click your camera every time you hear the sound /k/.
8. Show CAN. Remember C, K, and CK tells me to click the camera with /k/. CAN: Does this say can or man? TAPE: Does this say cape or tape? TAKE: Does this say tale or take? POLE: Does this say cole or pole?
9. In order to assess children, hand out worksheet. Students will circle the pictures that begin with C, K, and CK. They will also finish partial spellings and place the correct word in the tongue tickler.
Cats and kittens can't __________ cameras.
a. hold b. carry
Adams, Marilyn Jager (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print, A Summary by Steven A. Stahl, Jean Osborn, and Fran Lehr. Urbana, IL: Center of the Study of Reading.
DePaola, Tomie. Pancakes for Breakfast. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1978.
Return to Doorways