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       Say “Mmmm” with M

                                                                    Emergent Literacy Lesson Design

                                                                              Maggie Murchison

 

 

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (saying “mmm” for a yummy food) and the letter symbol, M, practice finding /m/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Mmmm mommy made me yummy marshmallows”; drawing paper and crayons; flash cards with “MOP, WASH, RAN, MAN, THEM, THOSE, MILK, CHEESE; ” Dr. Seuss’ ABC (Random House, 1963), assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /m/ (URL below).

Procedures:

  1. Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /m/. We spell /m/ with letter M. M sounds like when you just eat your favorite food and you say “Mmmm Mmm that was yummy.”

  2. What is your very favorite good? Let’s pretend you just ate it. We will rub our tummies and say “Mmm Mmm” together. Today, we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /m/. See how my mouth stayed close when I made the “Mmm Mmm” sound? While my lips vibrate together, I make the “Mmm Mmm” sound in the back of my throat.

  3. Now I am going to show you how to find /m/ in the word “summer.” I’m going to stretch the word “summer” in slow motion, so that you can hear the “mmm” sound. Ss-u-ummer. Slower: Sss-u-u-u-mmm-e-r. There is was! I felt my mouth vibrate together and make noise in the back of my throat. Yummy “Mmm” is in the word summer.

  4. Now that we can hear /m/ in words, let’s try our tongue tickler (on chart). “Mommy made me yummy marshmallows.” Little Mary was at school and she was in the mood for some yummy marshmallows. When she got home from school, Mary asked her mommy, “Mommy can you please make me some yummy marshmallows?” Mary’s mother said, “Of course!” And the next day at school, Mary gave all her classmates yummy marshmallows made by her mommy. Now, everybody say the tongue tickler three times together. Next, we will stretch the /m/ at the beginning of the tongue tickler. “mmmmommy mmmade mmme yummmmmy mmmmmarshmmmmallows.” Let’s try it one more time, but this time break your /m/ off the word.  /M/ommy  /m/ade  /m/e yummy /m/arshmallows.

  5. (Ask class to take out primary paper and pencil) Let’s practice writing the letter /m/. I want you to write both a capital M, and a lower case /m/. Let’s start with the lowercase /m/. Start by drawing a straight line from the fence to the sidewalk. Then make two humps that look like two frowns from the sidewalk to the fence then back to the sidewalk then back to the fence and then finally back to the side walk. I’m going to come around and look at your m’s. If I give you a smiley face then go ahead and make 9 more /m/’s.

  6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /m/ in Mop or Wash? Them or Those? Man or Ran? Cheese or Milk? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /m/ in some words. Rub your tummy if you hear /m/: Monkey’s eat mangos when they make soup.

  7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about mice that make music at night." Read page 30 drawing out /m/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /m/. Ask them to draw a word that starts with the letter M that the mice might want to eat for a midnight snack like, milk, mangos, muffins, marshmallows, etc. Provide drawing paper and crayons and display children’s work once it is finished.

  8. Model MILK and model how to decide if it’s milk or silk: The M is yummmmy “mmm,” so this word is mmmm-ilk, milk. You try some: MAKE: make or snake? MEET: feet or meet? MIND: mind or kind? MAP: lap or map?

  9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet (link below). Students color the pictures that begin with M. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.k

 

References:

 

Lesson Reference: Katherine Youngblood, Yummy In My Tummy!!! Mmm Mmm Mmmm!

 http://khyoungblood.wixsite.com/khyoungblood/emergent-literacy

 

Book: Dr. Seuss’ ABC (Random House, 1963)

 

Assessment worksheet:

http://www.kidsfront.com/work-sheets/color-the-picture-which-start-with-letter-m_3025_color.html

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