By Savannah Adcock

Emergent Literacy Design: "Tap It Out With T!"

By Savannah Adcock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /t/, the phoneme represented by T.  Students will learn to recognize /t/ in spoken words by learning through the representation (tapping fingers) and the letter symbol T. Students will practice finding /t/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /t/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

• Primary paper and pencil;

•  Tongue Tickler Chart: “Tom and Timmy took a train to Tiger Town”

• Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /t/ (See link below)

• Word cards with Tuck, Top, Tank, Test, Tap, Sit, Hop,  and Tip.

• Book: “The Tiger Who Came To Tea"; Judith Kerr, Sept. 2012

 

Procedures:

 1. Say: “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 are going to be spotting the movement of our mouth when we say /t/. We spell /t/ with the letter T. The sound for /t/ sounds like someone tapping their fingers!”

 

2. Say: “Everyone try tapping your fingers on your desk with me!” Tap along with them for a second and then stop, so the students also know to stop.

 

3. Say: “Good Job! Now lets practice saying /t/.” Then practice saying /t/ a couple times along with the class. “When you say /t/ you push your tongue up to the top of your mouth behind your teeth and block the air. Then, you quickly release it. It sounds like tapping! Lets see if you can say /t/ while I tap my fingers.” Tap your fingers and say /t/ along with the class. “Good Job!”

 

4.Say: Let me show you how to find /t/ in tap. I am going to stretch out time in SUPER slow motion and listen for our ticking clock. Tt-a-a-pp. Slower: Ttttt-a-a-a-pppp. There it was! Did you hear it? I felt the tip of my tongue hit the roof of my mouth. So, our tapping fingers are in the word tap.

 

5. Say: Let’s try out a tongue tickler [on chart]: “Tom and Timm took a train to Tiger Town.” Let’s all say it together three times. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. “Tttttoomm and Tttiiimm ttttoooookkk a ttttrrainnn tttoe ttttiiggeerr ttttoowwnn.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/t/om and /t/im /t/ook a /t/rain /t/o /t/iger /t/own.

 

6. Students take out primary paper and pencil. Say: We use the letter T to spell /t/. Let’s write a capital T. Make a straight line across the rooftop on your paper. Now go to the middle of the line you just drew and draw a straight line from to the rooftop to the sidewalk. That’s a capitol T.  Now, let’s make lowercase t’s. First you drop a straight line from the rooftop to the sidewalk, and then next you will cross it at the fence. I want to see everyone’s t’s. Once I put a smiley face on your paper, I want you to write four more capitol T’s and four more lowercase t’s.

 

7. Call on the students to answer some questions and ask how they knew. Do you hear /t/ in tick or fish? Tone or plan? To or from? Task or book? Tip or door? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth movement /t/ in some words. If you hear /t/ then tap your fingers on the desk three times. Top, Mat, Tip, Key, Tar, Twist, Chair, and Tape.

 

8. Say: “Let’s read a story about a girl named Sophie who one day has a Tiger show up at her door for tea. Not only does he drink all the tea, he eats all the food and drinks all the water too! What is Sophie and her family going to do? Lets read to find out. This story is full of tapping T’s!” Read “The Tiger Who Came to Tea”.  Then ask the children if they can think of any words that start with /t/. Ask the students to come up with a silly creature and give it a funny T name like Timmy-Tommy-Tucker. Have each student write his or her silly name with invented spelling and create a picture. Display their work.

 

9. Show TOP and model how to decide if it is top or hop. Say: The T tells me to tap, /t/, so this word is ttt-op, top. You try some: TAKE: make or take? HIP: hip or tip? TIME: time or fine? PORK: port or pork? TACK: tack or rack?

 

Assessment: For assessment, have students do worksheet and let them color and turn in for grade. 

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/printables/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf 

 

Resources:

 

 

 

Worksheet: http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/printables/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf

 

“Ticking Clock with T” by: Ali Ingram https://sites.google.com/site/alisawesomelessons/home/ticking-clock-with-t

 

“Tapping Along With T” by Katherine Carnes http://www.auburn.edu/~kmc0029/carnesel.htm