Rationale.
This lesson will help children identify with the phoneme/w/, a sound that is represented by the letter W. Going through the lesson will enable the student to recognize the phoneme /w/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (as a dog wags its tail at things that make them happy such as their owners), practice finding /w/ in word, and learning a tongue tickler filled with /w/. Students will also learn to distinguish the letter /w/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials.
- Picture of the white dog wagging his tail: https://img3.stockfresh.com/files/i/izakowski/m/66/1058595_stock-photo-dog-wagging-his-tail-for-coloring-book.jpg
- Chart with tongue tickler: “Willy the white dog wagged his white tail when he won tug of war”
- Primary Paper: One piece per student
- Pencils (1 piece per student)
- Word cards with WOW, WIN, WET, WANG, WIMP
- Assessment worksheet: http://twistynoodle.com/fill-in-the-missing-letter-w-worksheet/
- Book: Whistle for Willie by Ezra Keats
- Say “Our written language is a secret code. It can be tricky at times because we may not know what letters stand for. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth the mouth move /w/. When we spell /w/ we spell it with the letter W. When you see a dog they may be wagging their tail side to side because they are happy to see you.
- Say “I want everyone to pick a partner. Now, both of you close your eyes and say “Willie wags his tail.” Everyone can open their eyes now. You and your partner take turns saying “Willie wags his tail” and see what shape your partners mouth makes. Our mouths make a circle when we say the /w/ sound.
- Now I am going to show you how to find /w/ in the word wow. I will stretch the word out slowly and I want you to listen for the wag sound. “ww—o-ww.” Slower “wwww-o-wwww.” I could feel my mouth make a circle shape at the beginning and end of the word.
- Let’s try the tongue tickler that is on the poster: “Willy the white dog wagged his white tail when he won tug of war.” Lets say it together. Now stretch out the /w/ at the beginning of every word that starts with a W. “Wwwwilly the wwwhite dog wwwwagged his wwwwhite tail wwwhen he wwwon tug of wwwar.” This time we are going to break it off in the beginning of the word: “/w/illy the /w/hite dog /w/agged his /w/hite tail /w/hen he /w/on tug of /w/ar.
- I am going to say two words to you and I want you to tell me which one you hear /w/ in. Do you hear /w/ in wet or pet? Win or chin? Hip or wimp? Now lets see if you can make the /w/ motion. Wag your hands back and forth, just like a dog its tail, if the words that I say start with a W: wing, yay, eight, wash, why, violet, water
- Pass our primary paper and pencil to students. Say “We use W to spell /w/. Let’s start with writing capital W first. Start be drawing a diagonal big line down, a diagonal big line up, a diagonal big line down, and another diagonal big line up. I will then model this on the whiteboard and ask them to write uppercase W ten times. While they are doing this, I will walk around to see if any of them are having trouble writing it. Once they are finished I will say “now let’s write a lowercase W ten times.” I will walk around and aid whoever needs help.
- We are going to read our /w/ book Whistle for Willie. Booktalk: Peter wished he could whistle. He saw how when a boy whistled to his dog, it came straight to him. No matter how many times he tried, Peter could not whistle. He tried many different techniques like putting on his dads hat to make him feel grownup. You will have to read the book to find out if he ever learns!
- Show WANG and show students how to decide if its SANG or WANG: the W tells me to wag my hands back and forth like a dogs tail; /w/, /w/, /w/. So this word is www-ang, wang. Now I want you to try some. WOW; wow or how? WIMP; ship or wimp?
- To assess the students on /w/=w, I will pass out the worksheet and have the students color each picture whose word begins with /w/. Then have students write W in front of the words that have W in the begging. I will walk around and help students who have not grasped /w/=w/. I will call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
https://tvg0827.wixsite.com/readinglessons/emergent-literacy
Keats, Ezra Jack. Whistle For Willie. New York :Viking Press, 1964. Print. 26 pages.
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/letter-of-the-week-book-list-letter-w/
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