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Bobby Bippy's Bouncing Basketball with B

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Emergent Literacy:

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 sound analogy (bouncing basketball) and the letter symbol B, practice finding /b/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

  1. Chart with tongue tickler: “Bobby bounced the basketball against the wall.”

  2. Primary Paper: One piece per student

  3. Pencils

  4. Crayons

  5. Word cards with: BIG, BED, BRASS, BAKE, BARK

Assessment Worksheet: https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/b-begins2.htm

   6. Book: “My ‘B’ Book” By: Jane Belk Moncure

 

 

Procedures:

  1. Say “Our written language in 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. B looks like the eyes of a robot turned sideways, and /b/ sounds like bouncing basketball.

 

      2.  Let’s pretend we are bouncing a basketball on the floor, /b/, /b/, /b/.         [Pantomime bouncing a basketball]. Notice what your lips are doing            when you say /b/. When we say /b/, our lips come together and then we         blow air out between them.

 

   3.Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word zebra. I'm going to stretch     zebra out in super slow motion and listen for my bouncing basketball.         Zzz-E-b-rrr-a. Slower: Zzz-E-b-rrr-a There it was! I felt my lips come                together and air was blown out. Bouncy basketball /b/ is in zebra.

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4. Let’s try the tongue tickler that is on this poster. Bobby Bibby bounced his basketball against the wall! Here’s our tickler: “Bobby Bippy bounced his basketball against the wall.” Let’s say it together. Now stretch the /b/ at the beginning of every word that starts with a B. “bbbbobby bbbibby bbbounced his bbbbasketball against the wall.” This time we are going to break it off in the beginning of the word. “/b/obby /b/ippy /b/ounced his /b/asketball against the wall.”

 

5. (Pass our primary paper and pencil to students). We use letter B to spell /b/. Capital B looks like a half a pair of butterfly wings. Let's write the lowercase letter b. Start just below the rooftop. Draw a straight line down and then b-b-bounce up and around connecting your circle to your line. I want to see everybody trying their best making these b’s. I am going to walk around and see yours and draw a smile when I’ve seen it. After I draw the smile, keep practicing by writing 9 more so you have 10 b’s on your paper.

 

6. (Call on students to answer and tell how they know): Do you hear /b/ in fall or ball? Bored or snored? Rain or brain? Blue or you? Bead or read? Say: let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Bounce the basketball if you hear /b/: Bobby Bippy bounced his basketball against the wall!

 

 

7. We are going to read our letter /b/ book. Book talk: “Little B is a little girl who is going on an adventure! She is going to show us all the things that start with the letter b and put them into her sound b box.” Read the whole book, drawing out /b/, until the last two pages that give multiple /b/ word examples. Then stop there. Ask the students if they can think of more words with /b/. Students will pick their /b/ word, write an invented spelling sentence explaining what it is or what it does and draw a picture of it. Display work around the room.

 

 

8. Show BAKE and model how to decide if BAKE is Bake or Take. The /b/ tells me to bounce my basketball. So, this word is bbb-ake, You try some: BIG: Big or Pig? BED: Bed or Ned? BRASS: Brass or grass? BARK: Bark or Park?

 

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

 

 

References:

Stewart, Kaley; Bouncing Bunnies with B: https://kms0072.wixsite.com/sweetreads/untitled-c1b0d

 

My “b” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ3Jd32lfwk

 

Assessment Worksheet: https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/b-begins2.htm

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