Lesson

Rationale: This lesson will help students to identify /t/, the phoneme which is represented by T. The Students will learn how to recognize /t/ in spoken words by saying “tap” as they tap their desk and hear the sound, which is a meaningful representation. They will also learn how to recognize the letter T, 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; chart with “Tom tasted ten tiny treats today”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with TIP, TOP, TON, TAIL, TANK, and TRUCK; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /t/.

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 /t/. We spell /t/ with the letter T. When we tap our desks with our finger, it makes the sound tuh tuh tuh tuh, or t t t t.

2. Let’s quietly tap our desks, /t/, /t/, /t/. Notice how your tongue moves? When we say /t/, our tongue starts at the roof of our mouth and air pushes off of it.

3. Let me show you how to find /t/ in the word lift. I am going to stretch the word lift out in slow motion and listen for the /t/ sound like when we tap on our desk: ll-i-i-ft. Now slower: lll-i-i-fff- tttt. There it is! I felt my tongue touch the very top of my roof of my mouth and the air push down and out. I can hear the tap /t/ in lift.

4.Now we are going to try a tongue twister (on the chart). “Tom tasted ten tiny treats today.” Let’s say this together three times. Now say it again, but this time, stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. “TTTTom ttttasted tttten ttttiny ttttreats ttttoday.” Try it again, but this time break the /t/ off the word” “/T/om /t/asted /t/en /t/iny /t/reats /t/oday.”

  

5. [have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter T to spell /t/. Capital T looks like an upside down broom. Let’s start with writing the lowercase letter t. Start just below the rooftop and then draw a straight line all the way down to the sidewalk. The cross the line at the fence. I want to see everybody’s t. After I put a star on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.

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6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /t/ in foot or hand? Finger or toe? Hot or cold? Lift or drop? Stiff or sore? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words. Quietly tap your desk if you hear /t/ in these words: tree, dog, cat, damp, fly, fast, ten, hit, clap, can.

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7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Suess tells us a tongue teaser to name things that start with the letter T!” Read page 46 and draw out the /t/. Ask the students if they can think of things that may use at home that start with the letter T and ask them to draw them and write the name of the item. The display the students’ work.

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8. Show TIP and model how to decide if it is tip or sip: The T tells us to think of the tap sound when we tap our desks, /t/, so this word is tttt-ip, tip. You try some: TON: ton or won? TAME: tame or fame? TAIL: tail or sail? TOP: top or mop? TANK: tank or sank? TRUCK: truck or luck?

 

9. For assessment, hand out the worksheet. Students will color the pictures that begin with T. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

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Reference:
Murray, Bruce: http://webhome.auburn.edu/~murraba/murrayel.htm

Assessment worksheet:

https://easypeasylearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Letter-T-Worksheet-Set.pdf

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