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Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /t/, the phoneme represented by T. Students will learn to recognize /t/ in spoken words through the sound analogy of a ticking clock, and the letter symbol T. Students will also practice fining /t/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /t/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing words that rhyme from the beginning letters of words.
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Materials:
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Primary paper (I will be using the rooftop, fence, sidewalk, ditch paper)
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pencil
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chart with “Tom the Tiger takes tons of tacos”
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Dr. Seuss’s ABC And Amazing Alphabet Book!
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drawing paper and markers
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word cards with tag, shell, trick, tail, porch, and took
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assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /t/ (linked below)
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Procedures:
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Our written language is a super-secret code. Our mouths move in different ways when we say words and letters, which makes the code super tricky to crack. Today we will be working on moving our mouths to say /t/. We spell /t/ with the letter T. T looks like a tree and /t/ sounds like a clock ticking.
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Let’s pretend that we are ticking clocks. Ready? /t/, /t/, /t/. Did you feel your tongue touching the top of your mouth? To make the /t/ sound we touch our tongue to the top of our mouth, and we blow air between our top teeth and our bottom lip.
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Let me show you how to find /t/ in the word fast. I’m going to stretch out fast in super slow motion and I want you to listen for my ticking clock. F-a-s-t. Let’s try it slower: Fff-a-a-a-ss-t. There it was! Did you hear it? I felt my tongue touch the top of my mouth and blow air through my teeth and lip. Our ticking clock /t/ is in fast.
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Let’s try a tongue tickler (on the chart). Tom the tiger has been really hungry today. He did not want to eat the mush that the zookeepers set out for him, so he finds a taco truck in the zoo. Here’s our tickler: “Tom the tiger takes tons of tacos.” Everybody say it with me three times together. Now say it again, but this time stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. “Ttttom the tttiger tttakes tttons of tttacos”. Try it again and this time break off the /t/ sound off of the word. “/t/ om the /t/ iger /t/ akes /t/ ons of /t/ acos/”.
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(Have students take out primary paper and pencil). We use letter T to spell /t/. Capital T looks like a tree. Let’s write the lowercase letter t. Start at the rooftop. Take your line all the way down to the sidewalk. Then pick up your pencil and cross it at the fence. I want to see everyone’s t. After I put a star on it, I want you to make nine more t 's just like it.
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Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /t/ in take or give? Book or tale? Tie or loop? Toe or finger? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words. Tick like a clock if you hear the /t/: sent, color, script, sand, bank, sting, buy.
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Say: Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Suess tells us about each letter of the alphabet. He gives us a tongue tickler for every letter. What do you think his will be for T? Will it be about /t/ omatos or /t/ rucks or something else? Let’s read to find out! On page 15 draw out each /t/ sound for each T word. Ask children if they can think of any other words with the /t/ sound. Have them make up a super silly creature name like Topper-tipper-teffer. Then have each student write out their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their creature. Be sure to display their work.
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Show tag and model how to decide if it is tag or bag. The T tells me to tick my clock /t/ so this word is ttt-ag. You try some: shell: shell or tell? trick: flick or trick? tail: tail or sail? porch: porch or torch? took: took or look?
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For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color words that start with the letter t.
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Reference:
Anna Bolton, Tick, Tick, Tick Goes the Clock (T).
https://abolt833.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/emergent-literacy
ABC Amazing Alphabet Book, Dr. Suess, Random House, 1963.
Assessment Worksheet: https://free4classrooms.com/free-beginning-sounds-worksheet-letter-t/
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