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T the Ticky Timer

Allison King

Emergent Literacy Design

  • Materials: This lesson is designed for students to learn and understand the phoneme /t/, represented by T. After the lesson, students will apply /t/ in spoken word and printed text through sound analogies, guided printing practice, and engaging activities.

  • Rationale: Class set of primary paper and pencils, toy garbage truck (1), pieces of paper with /t/ words that will serve as the “trash” (10-15), silly sentence on large poster paper (1), Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemenshe (1), class set of assessment worksheets.

  • Procedures:

    1. Explanation: “Boys and girls, I want to show you all a very important letter that we need to learn in our alphabet adventure. When we see /t/ and /T/ they both mean the same thing. These two make the “t-t-t” sound. Today, we are going to learn to spell with our new letters, play a game with them, and read a book to show us what we have learned.”

    2. Review: “So, all the letters and their sounds that we have already done have made our mouths make a funny shape or move a funny way. Well, when we pronounce /t/, it makes our tongue touch the roof of our mouth right behind our front teeth. We make the same sound as a kitchen timer (move hand like timer dial while pronouncing /t/). Everyone look at their neighbor and /t/ like the timer.”

      • Guided Printing Practice: “Okay my friends, we need to practice writing big /T/ and little /t/, so everyone take out our printing paper and pencil. First, we’re going to do big /T/. Take your pencil and draw a straight line all the way from the roof to the sidewalk. Next, draw a line at the very top of the first one along the roof. Great, let’s practice that 5 more times. Let’s move on to little /t/. To start, take your pencil to the middle, just above the fence, and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk. Now, draw a line through the first line along the fence. That’s how we get little /t/! I want us to practice that one 6 more times.

    3. Explanation of how: “Now that we have talked about our new /t/ sound, we are going to practice it in a silly sentence. There is a turtle named Tommy who works at a company that sells printers. One day, his boss let everyone bring in something they really liked, so Tommy brought his train tables! ‘Tommy turtle took train tables to work.’ Let’s say it two more times. Now let’s stretch out the /t/ sound at the beginning of the word. ‘T-t-t-tommy t-t-t-turtle t-t-t-took t-t-t-train t-t-t-tables t-t-t-to work. Now look at your neighbor and say it again together, stretching out the /t/ sound at the beginning of the word.”

    4. Model: “When we see /t/, now we know we need to /t/ our tongue like a timer against the roof of our mouth. I will show you how to find /t/ in pretty. I’m going to stretch it out and listen and feel for my timer: ppppprrrreeeet-t-t-t-tyyyyy. One more time: ppppprrrreeeet-t-t-t-t-t-tyyyyy. I felt it! /t/ is in pretty. Let’s learn how to find /t/ in the word stop. I will say it slowly and give me your “ready” signal when you hear /t/. Listen boys and girls, s-s-s-t-t-t-t-o-o-o-p-p-p. Great job, I saw lots of “ready” signals when we heard the word /t/. Let’s practice some more, can you hear /t/ in white or couch? (call on student who volunteers to give answer).”

    5. Provide simple practice:

      • Activity: “We are going to play a game that helps us practice reading words with /t/. I am going to put us in to three teams and when your team is called, one person will go to our trash pile (gesture towards pile of balled up papers with words on it to read). Your group will work together to try to read the word on your piece of garbage. If your group says the word correctly, put it in the back of the garbage truck (gesture towards toy garbage truck). If we need to practice the word again, crumple it back up and toss it back into our trash pile. Once we read all the words the game is over.

    6. Extend practice to whole texts: “In this book, there is a trash man named Mr. Gilly who gets up every morning to drive his trash truck. He needs to fill his trash truck to take it to the dump. He drives all over Trashy Town to the school, the park, and the pizza parlor to look for trash. What are some things that we through in the trash that has /t/ in it? (allow for responses) Will he find enough trash to go to the dump? Let’s read and find out!” Afterwards, have students draw their /t/ sound trash and create an invented spelling of the name. The trash can be something they made up or a real object.

    7. Assess: Assessment will occur informally throughout the whole lesson via observation. A formal assessment will occur with a worksheet containing pictures of words that start with /t/ and words that do not. Students will be instructed to circle the pictures of the words that start with /t/. This will help you understand what concepts individual students are missing and help design lessons for individual intervention.

  • Resources

Assessment Sheet: https://www.education.com/slideshow/things-that-start-with/alphabet-phonics-h/

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Brock, Sarah Jane. Fishing Frenzy. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/brockel.html

 

Murray, Bruce. Canvas Files. https://murraba.wixsite.com/lessondesigns2018/emergent-literacyLinks to an external site.

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Link Back to Advancements: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/advancements/

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