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EL Design
Making Milkshakes with Miller
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /m/, the phoneme represented
by M. My student will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a sound
analogy (mmmm), like something is yummy and the letter symbols M. The
children will practice finding /m/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness
with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from
beginning letters.
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Materials: primary paper and pencils; chart with tongue ticker “Miller merrily
loves making milkshakes” word cards with MONEY, MEET, FOG, MOON,
LAKE; assessment worksheet identifies pictures with /m/.
Procedures: 1st say: The tricky part is learning what letters stand
for—the mouth moves we make as we say words We can think of it as a secret code.
It can sometimes be tricky to learn what the letters stand for. Today we will be learning
all about the letter M. We will work on spotting the mouth move for /m/ which is spelled
with the letter M. M makes the noise “mmm” just like the noise you may make when you
eat something yummy that you enjoy.
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2. Now I want you to think of your favorite food, once you think of it I want you to rub
your belly and say mmm. Now think about what happens to your lips when you say mmm,
what happens? They stay closed so when we say m our mouths are closed.
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3. Let me show you how to find the word m in stamp. I'm going to stretch stamp out in
super slow motion and listen for my mmm st-aa-mmm-p there it is! I felt my mouth
stay closed when I said stamp like mmm in stamp.
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4.Say: Now, let’s say a tongue tickler! (pull out chart with tongue tickler) “Making Milkshakes with Miller ” Now let’s say it three times together. This time let’s stretch out the /m/ at the beginning of the words. “Mmmmaking mmmmilkshakes with mmmmiller.” Now let’s try it again and this time we are going to break /m/ off the word. “/M/aking /m/ilkshakes with /M/iller”
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5. Have students take out primary paper and pencil* We use the letter M to spell /m/. I will demonstrate how to write the lowercase and uppercase letter M. To make the uppercase M we start at the sidewalk, go way up to the rooftop, bounce down to the fence, go back up to the rooftop, and end by coming all the way back down to the sidewalk. To make the lowercase m, we start at the sidewalk and then make two humps that bounce up to touch the fence. I want you to make ten uppercase M’s and then ten lowercase m’s.
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6. Use the word cards for students to identify the words with M. Ex: pull out the card that says “MOVE” and ask if they hear the /m/ sound in that word. Next, pull out the card that says “FOG” and ask if they hear the /m/ sound in that word. Now do you hear /m/ in MONEY or SUN, I will say “If you hear the /m/ sound in a word I say, I want you to say /mmm/ and rub your stomach. If you do not hear the /m/ sound, I want you to say “next!” for the next word.” Now if you hear /m/ I want you rub your belly: mike, makes, friends, with, macy
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7. Say: “lets look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about many mumbling mice making music in the moonlight.” Read the page with the letter M and draw out the /m/ as I read. Then have students think of a silly name for their mice I will have them draw. For example, they all draw mice on their sheets and then they could name it “MMMMMaddie” or “MMMMMisty” or anything that starts with the letter M. I will then display their work after.
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8. Show MOON and model how to decide if it is moon or soon. The M tells me to rub my belly, /m/ so this word mm-oo-n, you try some: MAD: mad or sad? MEET: Meet or feet? MAKE: make or fake?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet, and the worksheet will count as their assessment. Students are to draw lines to the pictures that start with the letter m. After the students have correctly matched the pictures, they will color the pictures of the things that start with the letter m.
Resources:
Dr. Bruce Murray, Emergent Literacy Design: Brush Your Teeth with F
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html
Dr. Seuss, ABC Book
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https://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/solutions/
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