Digging the Dirt with D
Caitlin Brown
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /D/, the phoneme represented by /d/. Students will learn to recognize /d/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (digging the dirt) and the letter symbol D, practice finding /d/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /d/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and a pencil; a chart with "Dave digging dirt deeply drawing doodles”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with DOG, DROP, HARD, FIND, MOLD, and DASH; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /d/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: I will 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 /d/. We spell /d/ with letter D. D looks like a drawing in the dirt, and /d/ sounds like the sound you might make if you are struggling to dig the dirt with a shovel.
2. Let's pretend to dig a hole in the dirt, /d/, /d/, /d/. [Pantomime digging the dirt] Notice how your mouth is shaped? (Touching our mouths, particularly the lower lip). When we say /d/, we touch our roof of our mouths with our tongue and we almost clinch our teeth while our lips are close together.
3. Let me show you how to find /d/ in the word dirt. I'm going to stretch dirt out in super slow motion and listen for my digging sound. D-D-D-iii-rr-tt. Slower: D-D-D-iii-rr-tt. There it was! I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth and my teeth clinch and my lips are close together. I can feel myself digging the dirt when I say the letter d.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. “Dave digging dirt deeply drawing doodles” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /d/ at the beginning of the words. “Dddave dddigging dddirt dddeeply dddrawing dddoodles”. Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/d/ ave /d/ igging /d/ irt /d/ eeply /d/ rawing /d/ oodles.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter D to spell /d/. Capital D looks like a doodle in the dirt. Let's write the lowercase letter d. Start at the top of the fence. Start to make a little c between the fence and the sidewalk, then add a stick to the front of the open c starting at the rooftop and bringing it all the way down to the sidewalk connecting the stick to the little c. I want to see everybody's d. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /d/ in dig or run? dave or work? Damp or lost? Lift or drop? hard or sore? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /d/ in some words. Dig the Dirt if you hear /d/: Dan, dug, up, the, daisy, bloom, digging, up dirt, for, Dave.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature called a duck-dog!" Read page 12, drawing out /d/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /d/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like DDD-onnn-aa-ll-d-ddd-ooo, or DDD-iii-ttt-ee-rr-dd-oo-nn-gg. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
8. Book Talk: Let’s read Dr. Seuss’s book, ABC, this book is about all of the letters in the alphabet, all of the letters have their own funny sound that they make. Each letter also has a whacky little rhyme and a cute animal to go along with it! We will have to read our ABC’s to find out all of the mysteries!
9. Show DOG and model how to decide if it is fog or dog: The D tells me to Dig the dirt, /d/, so this word is ddd-og, dog. You try some: DISH: Dish or Fish? DROP: Drop or Mop? DIG: rig or dig? DASH: dash or Rash ? DAVE: dave or pave?
10. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the coloring sheet where they have to color the shapes that either have D or d written in them with the correct color that it specifies. Children will also complete a worksheet where they will have to read and circle the pictures that have the letter D in them as well as write four d’s at the bottom of the page for practice.
Reference:
Sarah Jane Brock, Fishing Frenzy.
.http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/brockel.html
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/d2.htm
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/d-color1.htm
Seuss. Dr. Seuss’s ABC Book. Random House, 1991.
Materials: Primary paper and a pencil; a chart with "Dave digging dirt deeply drawing doodles”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with DOG, DROP, HARD, FIND, MOLD, and DASH; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /d/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: I will 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 /d/. We spell /d/ with letter D. D looks like a drawing in the dirt, and /d/ sounds like the sound you might make if you are struggling to dig the dirt with a shovel.
2. Let's pretend to dig a hole in the dirt, /d/, /d/, /d/. [Pantomime digging the dirt] Notice how your mouth is shaped? (Touching our mouths, particularly the lower lip). When we say /d/, we touch our roof of our mouths with our tongue and we almost clinch our teeth while our lips are close together.
3. Let me show you how to find /d/ in the word dirt. I'm going to stretch dirt out in super slow motion and listen for my digging sound. D-D-D-iii-rr-tt. Slower: D-D-D-iii-rr-tt. There it was! I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth and my teeth clinch and my lips are close together. I can feel myself digging the dirt when I say the letter d.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. “Dave digging dirt deeply drawing doodles” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /d/ at the beginning of the words. “Dddave dddigging dddirt dddeeply dddrawing dddoodles”. Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/d/ ave /d/ igging /d/ irt /d/ eeply /d/ rawing /d/ oodles.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter D to spell /d/. Capital D looks like a doodle in the dirt. Let's write the lowercase letter d. Start at the top of the fence. Start to make a little c between the fence and the sidewalk, then add a stick to the front of the open c starting at the rooftop and bringing it all the way down to the sidewalk connecting the stick to the little c. I want to see everybody's d. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /d/ in dig or run? dave or work? Damp or lost? Lift or drop? hard or sore? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /d/ in some words. Dig the Dirt if you hear /d/: Dan, dug, up, the, daisy, bloom, digging, up dirt, for, Dave.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature called a duck-dog!" Read page 12, drawing out /d/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /d/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like DDD-onnn-aa-ll-d-ddd-ooo, or DDD-iii-ttt-ee-rr-dd-oo-nn-gg. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
8. Book Talk: Let’s read Dr. Seuss’s book, ABC, this book is about all of the letters in the alphabet, all of the letters have their own funny sound that they make. Each letter also has a whacky little rhyme and a cute animal to go along with it! We will have to read our ABC’s to find out all of the mysteries!
9. Show DOG and model how to decide if it is fog or dog: The D tells me to Dig the dirt, /d/, so this word is ddd-og, dog. You try some: DISH: Dish or Fish? DROP: Drop or Mop? DIG: rig or dig? DASH: dash or Rash ? DAVE: dave or pave?
10. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the coloring sheet where they have to color the shapes that either have D or d written in them with the correct color that it specifies. Children will also complete a worksheet where they will have to read and circle the pictures that have the letter D in them as well as write four d’s at the bottom of the page for practice.
Reference:
Sarah Jane Brock, Fishing Frenzy.
.http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/brockel.html
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/d2.htm
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/d-color1.htm
Seuss. Dr. Seuss’s ABC Book. Random House, 1991.