By: Jessica Parker
Rationale: The two greatest factors in learning to read are letter recognition and phonemic awareness. The goal of this lesson is to introduce a letter of the alphabet. The letter I chose to teach is N. I will demonstrate the creation of the upper case N and the lower case n. I will also teach the students the sound the letter n makes (when it is alone, not in combination with any other letters). My goal for this lesson is for each child to be able to write the upper and lower case n, recognize the letter N in text, and know the phoneme that is associated with the letter N.
No, David! By David Shannon
Chalkboard/ Dry Erase board
Chalk or dry erase markers
Worksheet with different N objects and some non-N objects
Alphabet posted in room
Flash cards with upper and lower case letters of letters already learned
Large cut out poster of David
1.)“Who can tell me what makes up a word? That’s exactly right! Letters. In our alphabet we have twenty-six letters. We use letters to make words and use words to read. We all want to be extraordinary readers so we want to learn our letters!”
2.)“Let’s review some of the letters we have already learned.” For review students would sing the alphabet song while I pointed to the letters on the alphabet strip in the classroom. After singing the song I would review letters that the students have already learned using the large flash cards. Flash cards would have the upper and lower case letter written on them in bold black marker.
3.)“Today we are going to be learning a new letter! Does anyone think they could guess what our letter is going to be? WOW! You’re completely correct; we are going to learn the letter N. To help us learn our new letter N we have a special guest. Class I want you to meet David. Our new friend David hears a word that starts with our new letter N. That word is “No”. When David hears the word No he has to hear the /n-n-n/ sound that No makes. Can anyone guess who tells David No all the time? That’s right it’s his mom. Well, I asked David’s mom if she would tell me how to make the /n/ sound and you know what?! She told me exactly! Let’s see if we can do by following the directions. First we take our tongues and place them on the roof of our mouth behind our teeth. Then we push air our through our nose making the /n/ sound. Let’s all try that. Awesome job guys! Perfect N sounds.”
4.)“Now when we say the /n/ sound I want everyone to do our “No, No, No!” hand signal. All we are doing is taking our index finger and moving it from side to side. Let me see everyone do their “No, No, No” signal. Perfect! Now let’s learn our tongue twister for the letter N. Our tongue twister is “No, David not now!”. Everyone say that with me “No, David not now!”. Now let’s say it and use our hand signal to stress out the /n/ sound. “N-N-N o, David n-n-not n-n-now!” Great job everyone!”
5.)“Now that everyone has got our /n/ sound that N makes. Let’s practice writing our new letter. I will demonstrate for my students, how I write the letter N, upper case. While I am making the letter N, I will tell the students the position of the different lines using the sky, fence, and ground. The students will have already learned how to create other letters using this method. “For an upper case N we start at the sky and go straight down to the ground. Then we start back at the sky following the mountain down to the ground and straight back up to the sky.” Students will practice writing their capital letter ten times. While they are working I will walk around and help any students that may be confused. After everyone has their ten letters I will model the lower case letter. “Ok everyone, let’s learn now how to do our lower case letter n. For little n we start at the fence and go straight down to the ground and bounce back up to the fence and see a hill and go back down to the ground.” Students practice this letter just like with the upper case letter.
6.) At this point I will have students listen to the story “No, David!” By David Shannon. While reading I will have the students do the “No, No, No!” signal when they see or hear the letter N in the story.
To assess students understanding they will be given a worksheet that has different objects on it. They will have to circle the object that has the letter N in it. Students will be encouraged to use invented spellings to list what the object is.
Hurry Home, Henry! by Meg Betbeze
Super Susie Slithered Slowly by Deanna Barrera
Shannon, David. (1998). No, David!. New York, Scholastic Inc.
Mouth Moves and Gestures for Phonemes
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