Emergent Literacy Design

Mama Monkey Says Mmmm with M

Rationale: Much research has been performed on how to effectively teach children phoneme awareness. This lesson is formed from evidence-based procedures. Children should be taught one phoneme at a time. This lesson will help children identify the phoneme /m/ represented by M. Using an interesting name, gesture, and illustration, the phoneme will be made memorable to students, and students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy [Mmmm that tastes yummy, rubbing stomach.] Through these steps, several retrieval paths with be created. Students will learn the letter symbol M and practice writing this symbol on their own. Students will complete phoneme-finding practice to learn to detect /m/ in words. Students will then apply their new phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters in order to move from phoneme awareness to decoding.

Materials:

Primary paper
Pencil
Chart with “Mama Monkey makes mini milkshakes”
Book: Many Marvelous Monsters by Ed Heck (Price Stern Sloan, 2010)
Words cards with MAN, MOP, MAY, MAKE, MEAL, and MILK
Paper
Crayons
Worksheet

Procedures:

1. Say: Our written language is made of super cool alphabetic letters that stand for sounds. Using these sounds, we can create just about any word imaginable! The tricky part is learning what sound each letter stands for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /m/. We spell /m/ with letter M. M sounds like when you eat your favorite food and say “Mmmm that was yummy.”

2. Let’s pretend like we just ate our favorite food. Rub your tummy and say /m/, /m/, /m/. Now I want you to pretend to be a scientist. Get with a partner and take turns saying /m/. Watch your partner’s mouth as they say /m/ and feel what your own mouth and lips do when you say /m/ [Touching lips.] Were your lips together or open? Did you feel your lips vibrate and make a humming noise? Did air come out of your mouth or nose? When we say /m/, our lips touch together, and we can feel them vibrate as air comes out of our nose. We make the /m/ sound at the back of our throats.

3. Now I am going to show you how to find /m/ in the word jump. I am going to stretch jump out in super slow motion and listen for my yummy food sound. Jjj-u-u-ump. Slower: Jjj-u-u-u-mmm-p. There it was! Sound was made at the back of my throat, and I felt my lips touch together and vibrate to make the /m/ sound. Yummy /m/ is in jump.

4. Let’s try a super fun tongue tickler [on chart.] Mama Monkey has two little children. It is a hot day, and she and her children want something cold and sweet to drink! But her children are so little, Mama Monkey has to make something small for them. Here’s our tickler: Mama Monkey makes mini milkshakes. Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /m/ at the beginning of the words. “Mmmama Mmmonkey mmmakes mmmini mmmilkshakes.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word. “/m/ ama /m/ onkey /m/ akes /m/ ini /m/ ilkshakes.”

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil.] We use letter M to spell /m/. Capital M looks like two pointy mountaintops side by side. Let’s write the lowercase letter m. Start with your pencil at the fence and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk. Trace this line back up to the fence and draw a hump back down to the sidewalk. Trace this line back up to the fence and draw another hump down to the sidewalk. I will walk around and take a look at everyone’s m. After I look at yours, practice m by writing it nine more times.

6. Now we are going to practice finding /m/ in spoken words. [Call on students to answer and tell how they knew]: Do you hear /m/ in break or mend? Come or go? Move or stay? Smile or frown? Messy or clean? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /m/ in some words. Rub your tummy if you hear /m/ in these foods: milk, cake, ham, bread, muffin, cheese, mango, pie, plum, chips, macaroni.

7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. We are going to look at a monster named Marvin the Magnificent who is competing in a talent show! Let’s look and see what his talent is. Do you think he will win?” Read page 3, drawing out /m/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /m/. Ask students to draw their own marvelous monsters, name them, and give them a talent for the talent show. Display their work.

8. Show MAN and model how to decide if it is man or fan: The M tells me to rub my belly because I ate something yummy, /m/, so this word is mmm-an, man. You try some: MOP: mop or hop? MAY: may or say? MAKE: make or bake? MEAL: meal or deal? MILK: milk or silk?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students draw a line from the mice to the items that begin with /m/. They can then color the /m/ items. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

References:

Kirkland, Ashley. The Silly Slithering Snake with S.

https://abk0020.wixsite.com/reading/emergent-literacy

Murray, Bruce. Emergent Literacy Design: Brush Your Teeth with F.

https://murraba.wixsite.com/lessondesigns2018/emergent-literacy

Murray, Bruce. Making Sight Words. Linus Publications, Inc., 2012. Print.

Assessment worksheet:

https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/m-begins1.htm

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