top of page

Emergent Literacy

 

Mary-Cathryn Parker

Munching Muffins with /m/

Rational: This lesson will help young students identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M. For beginners, spelling and reading can be tough. Coming up with a fun unique way to make a connection between the sound and what it looks like in print can make the process much more efficient. Today we will learn symbols and representations to help us learn the phoneme /m/.

Materials:

  • Primary Paper

  • Pencils

  • crayons

  • Letter “M” worksheet

  • Tongue ticker for phoneme /m/

  •  Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963)

Procedure:

1. "Hello class! Today we will be learning about the letter M. The big M  and the little m  make the same sound! They sound like this ‘mmmm’. We are going to learn how to identify the /m/ sound when we hear it and when we see it. It is just like the sound we make when we eat something yummy! ‘Mmmmmmmm’.”

2. "When we pronounce the letter M we put our lips together and hum! Everyone make the /M/ sound and look around at your classmates so you can see the face you make when you say the letter M. Now let’s pretend that we have just eaten something really yummy! What do we do when we think something is yummy? We rub our tummys and say ‘Mmmm’! Lets all try it together!” *rubs tummy and says ‘Mmmm’*

3. "Okay, now that we have all had a yummy snack, lets try a funny sentence to help us practice using the /M/ sound! I’ll say it first and you listen, then we will all say it together! Mr. Morten’s Monster says ‘Mmmmm’ as he Munches on Marvelous Monday Morning Muffins. Now say it with me!” *says it all together* "This time lets stretch out the M sound on each word! Mmmmmr. Mmmmmorten’s Mmmmmonster says ‘Mmmmmm’ as he Mmmmmunches on Mmmmmarvelous Mmmmmonday Mmmmorning Mmmuffins!”

4. Pass out primary paper and pencils. "Now we are going to practice writing big M and little M. They look a lot alike except the tops of big M are pointy an the tops of little m are round! Think of big M as two big pointy mountains standing right next to each other! Let’s practice that! Start with your pencil at the very bottom line and go straight up to the very top line. Now take your pencil down to the middle line and stop! See how we made one pointy mountain peak? Now we have to go back up to the top line and stop again, and continue down to the very bottom line. All done! Do you see your two mountains? Now time to work on little m. Little m is like a two rainbows right next to each other! Let’s try writing little m together! First, we have to start at the middle line and go straight down to the bottom line. Then we are going to draw a little rainbow from the bottom line to the middle line and continue the rest of our rainbow right back to the bottom line again! There’s one rainbow! Now we are going to do the same thing and stop at the bottom line again! Do you see your two rainbows? You guys did awesome!! Let’s try those big ’s and little ’s 5 more times by yourselves. Now when you are drawing your ’s think about munching on some yummy food on top of your mountains and rainbows!”

5. “Now lets practice finding the /m/ sound in the words that we say! I am going to say two words and I want you to raise your hand if you know which word has the /m/ sound! For example, if I said ‘Do you hear /m/ in MAD or SAD?’ The answer is MAD! Mmmmmm-ad. Okay here we go! Do you hear /m/ in DAD or MOM? MAP or FROG? CAT or MOVE? Awesome guys, y’all found that /m/ sound quick!”

6. "Now let’s see what Dr. Suess has to say about the /m/ sound! He tells us about many mumbling mice in the moonlight.” *read page with /m/ and draw out each /m/ sound* “Now we are going to think back to our monster from our tongue tickler, do you remember? Mr. Morten’s Monster says ‘Mmmmm’ as he Munches on Marvelous Monday Morning Muffins. We are going to use our /M/ sound to come up with a silly name for this monster! For example: Milly-morty-monty-moop. I want everyone to take their paper and flip it over to the back and write out their monster’s name! its okay if you aren’t sure how to spell it perfectly, just do your best and remember to use those ’s! After you are done writing your monsters name, draw and color him/her!

7. Assessment: For my assessment I will hand out the worksheet and the students will use their crayons to color the pictures that start with an M. This will show me if they know how to identify their M  sounds on their own. I will call students up independently to see how well they did and see which areas I need to review.

 

References:

     -Mr. monster's Madness: https://princessmcat2.wixsite.com/mysite/emergent-literacy

 

     -Assessment Worksheet: https://goo.gl/images/rs7UeJ

 

bottom of page