Emergent Literacy
Buzzy the Bee Bunts the Ball
Cassie Jones
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale:
This lesson will help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented by B. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (bunting a ball) and the letter symbol B, practice finding /b/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming works from beginning letters.
Materials:
1. Primary paper and pencil
2. White drawing paper and crayons
3. Chart with “Buzzy the Bee Bunts the Ball”
4. The Berenstains' B Book (1983)
5. Word cards with BASE, TAKE, BOOK, HELLO, BALL, MAKE
6. Assessment worksheet identifying pictures using /b/ (URL attached)
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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're going to work on spotting the mouth move /b/. We spell /b/ with letter B. Ball starts with the letter B and makes the sound /b/ and hitting a ball sounds like /b/ing.
2. Say: Let's pretend to hit a ball, /b/ing, /b/ing, /b/ing. Make the sound when pretend to bunt the ball. When we say /b/ing, we put our lips together and then push them out.
3. Say: Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word tube. I'm going to stretch tube out in super slow motion and listen for my bunting ball. Tt-uu-bb-ee. Slower: Ttt-uuu-bbb-eee. There it was! I felt my lips press together then push them out. I can feel the /b/ in tube.
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4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. "Buzzy the Bee likes to Bunt the Baseball.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /b/ out at the beginning of the words. "Bbuzzy the Bbee likes to Bbunt the Baseball." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: /b/ uzzy the /b/ ee like to /b/ unt the /b/ ase /b/ all.
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5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter B to spell /b/. Capital B is a line with a double bubble. You will go straight down the sidewalk: around for his big chest and around for his big tummy. Let's write the lowercase letter b. Start at the rooftop and make a line down to the sidewalk, b-b-bounce up and around. I want to see everybody's b. After I put a checkmark on it, I want you to write nine more just like it.
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6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /b/ in ball or cat? house or barn? tab or horse? bright or dark? front or back? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Swing your pretend bat if you hear /b/: Happy, Food, Bought, Zombie, Airboat, Animal, Busy, Backseat, Bubbles
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7. Say: "Let's look at this book called Berenstain’s B Book. It’s about three different bears who are going on an adventure! They get to ride a bicycle backwards and even blow bubbles. What will happen when they ride the bicycle backwards? We will have to read to find out! After reading this book, ask the students what other animals might start with B. Ask the students to then give their animal a name that starts with a B. Give examples like, “Bo the Baboon”. Distribute white pieces of paper and have each student write their animal’s name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their animal. Display their work.
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8. Show BITE and model how to decide if it is lite or bite: The B tells me to bunt my ball, /b/, so this word is bbb-ite, bite. You try some: BET: let or bet? BEST: best or test? BYE: bye or tie? COAT: coat or throat? BOAT: boat or tote?
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9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spelling and color the pictures that begin with B. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
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Reference:
Worksheet:
https://www.timvandevall.com/alphabet-printables/letter-b-worksheets/
Book:
Berenstain, Stan, and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstains' B Book. New York: Random House, 1971. Print.
For another “B” lesson:
Julie Clark’s Bouncing the Ball with a B!
https://julieclark216.wixsite.com/ctrdlessondesigns/emergent-design
