Droopy Dog says….
Rationale: Children need to learn that letters stand for specific mouth moves, phonemes, and that when phonemes are combined they create words. Before children can associate letters with phonemes they need to be able to recognize them in written and spoken words. This lesson will help children recognize /d/ in words. By the end of this lesson children should be able to recognize /d/ in print, by learning the letter symbol, and in spoken words, by separating it from the rest of the word.
Materials: A dog puppet; Primary pencil and paper; chart with “Droopy Dog Doesn’t like Digging in the Dirt” written on it, a book: Clifford the Big Red Dog or any dog book, a worksheet with pictures of a dog, cat, drum, door, ladder, lamp, bed, book and doctor with primary lines under each picture were they could write the name of the picture, and crayons.
Procedures: 1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that the English language has twenty-six different letters and that each one of them has one or more sounds or mouth moves. “ Today we are going to learn about the sound /d/. Can everyone make that sound? Say it slowly and tell me where your tongue is when you start to say /d/. That’s right, the tip of your tongue is on the top of your mouth. We are also going to learn how to listen for the /d/ sound in words and recognize it is written words, by looking for the letter that represents the /d/ sound, D.
2. Let’s try our silly sentence: “ Droopy Dog Doesn’t like Digging in the Dirt.” Lets all say it three times together. Now we are gong to stretch out the /d/ sound of each word “DDDroopy DDDog DDDoesn’t like DDDigging in the DDDIRT.” Now we are going to say the /d/ sound very quietly and the rest of the word using our inside voices: “ d roopy d og d oesn’t like d igging in the d irt”. Good job! You guys are really getting the hang of this.
“I think we have a special guest today (pulling out the dog
This is Droopy Dog. He has a problem. He can only make the
/d/ sound. I am going to try to help him with a few words, but I
need your help. Droopy is going to say the /d/ sound and I am
to say the rest of the word and I need to help us glue the word
/d/ og = dog
/d/ rum = drum
/d/ ark = dark
/d/ ance = dance
re /d/ = red
ki /d/ = kid
bir /d/ =bird
/d/ ictionary = dictionary
to /d/ ay = today
un /d/ er = under
/d/ a /d/ = dad
4. “Class please get out your writing (primary) paper and a
We are going to practice writing the letter that stands for the mouth
/d/ which is D. To make a capital D, we are going to start at the
sidewalk and come straight up to the roof. Then we are going to
back around and down to the sidewalk (modeling on the board, as I
Very good! Let’s practice by writing a capital D nine more
Give them time to finish and then work on lowercase d. “Class do
you remember yesterday when we practiced little c? Well to make a
little d, you start at the fence and curve around to the
Then you go back up to the roof and come straight down to the sidewalk
(modeling on the board, as I talk). Sometimes we can get little b
and little d mixed up so we should always remember “ little c than
d”. Let’s practice witting little d by writing nine more times”.
5. Because Droopy was a dog, I would read them Clifford, the Big Red Dog. After I read it to them once, I would teach the children how to make a D in sign language. “ Class we are going to make a D in sign language using our hands to make a D you start by making a pretend telescope like this. Then point your first finger straight up.” I would them ask them what there favorite part of the book was. I would go back to that part and read a few pages. “Okay class since this was your favorite part of the book, I will read these pages again slowly. I want you to all make the sign for letter D and when you here me read a word that has the /d/ sound in it, I want you to raise your D sign in the air. If you don’t here the /d/ sound I want you to put your sign over your lips. Let’s practice with a few words: Dog, cat, fed, dish, plate etc… Now lets read this page of the story very slowly.”
6. For Assessment: I would give them a worksheet with pictures, and ask them to circle the pictures that have the /d/ sound in their names. When they were finished, I would ask them to write the name of the picture under the picture using invented spelling. Then they could color the pictures that they circled.
Reference: Mrs. Carol Mingle’s first grade class at Boynton Elementary School in Ringgold, Georgia. I did my pre-teaching there in August of 1999.
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