Kimberly Payne
Auburn University
Early Childhood Education
Ice Cream is Mmm-mmm Good!
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M. Students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy, saying “mmm” while rubbing their tummy. They will also learn the how to write the letter 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, pencils, plain paper, crayons, a paper that says “Maddie makes many matches”, plain paper, crayons, index cards with the words man, map, mine, mop, monkey, maybe, mall, and make; worksheet for identifying pictures (https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/alphabet-phonics-m/)
Procedures: 1. The tricky part about our language is learning letter symbols and what sound they make. The mouth moves when these sounds and that is how we identify them. Today we are going to work on the mouth movement for the sound /m/. We spell /m/ with the letter M. The sound /m/ sounds like what you say after you eat something good, like ice cream.
2. Let’s pretend we are eating some yummy ice cream /m/ /m/ /m/. Rub your tummy’s and say mmmm. Notice how your lips are together and you are pressing your tongue against your teeth while making a humming noise.
3. Let me show you how to identify /m/ in the word camp. I am going to stretch out him in super slow motion and listen for the yummy ice cream cc-aa-mm-p. Now slower ccc-aaa-mmmm-p. There it is! I felt my lips press together and hum. The yummy ice cream /m/ is in camp.
4. Now let’s try a tongue tickler. Maddie loves playing concentration. Maddie and her mom were playing a matching game of concentration while snacking and Maddie won. Here is the tickler: “Maddie made many multiple matches while munching on mangoes.” Now everybody say it with me three times. Now we are going to say it again but this time everyone stretch out /m/ at the beginning of the words. “Mmmaddie mmmade mmmultiple mmmatches while mmmunching on mmmangoes” Finally we are going to break /m/ off when we say it: /m/addie /m/ade /m/ultiple /m/atches while /m/unching on /m/angoes.
5. Now let’s take out primary paper and a pencil. We are going to write the letter M. We use letter M to make the /m/ sound. M looks like a two sad frowny faces side by side. Let's try writing the lowercase letter m. Start at the fence and draw a line down to the sidewalk and without picking up your pencil, go up to the fence and curve down and go back down to the sidewalk and repeat the same process again without picking up the pencil by going up to the fence and back down to the sidewalk. I want to see how everyone’s m’s look. Good, I want you to make 4 more lowercase m’s.
6. Now I am going to show you sets of two words and you are going to tell me if you hear /m/ in one word or another. Do you hear /m/ in might or fight? Man or fan? Map or lap? Make or rake? Mall or ball? Now see if you can see my mouth say /m/ in some words. Rub your tummy like you are eating some yummy ice cream if you hear /m/: My mom made me munch on melons.
7. Now let’s look at the book A nap and a map by Lili Henderson. It is about two dogs named Pap and Pam. Pap and Pam can fall asleep anywhere! Where will they fall asleep? Let’s read and find out. Every time you hear /m/ I want you to rub your tummy’s like you are eating yummy ice cream.
8. Now we are going to do a drawing activity with the letter M. Can you think of other words with /m/? Think of a food that starts with /m/ like meatballs, mashed potatoes, or mangos. Then write out your food and draw a picture of it and I will display your work in our classroom.
9. Now for the assessment I am going to pass out a worksheet (in the link above). I want you to color ONLY the pictures that begin with M and leave the others blank.
Reference: Gracie Champion, Molly’s Monkey. https://mgc0028.wixsite.com/gcld
Assessment Worksheet: https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/alphabet-phonics-m/
Book: A Nap and a Map. Henderson, Lili. Learning A-Z. Pages: 8.
