Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /t/, the phoneme represented by T. Students will learn to recognize /t/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (moving their finger in ticking motion) and the letter symbol T, practice finding /t/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /t/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

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Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Tommy teaches tigers to talk”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with TROT, TEAL, TOP, TEND, TRICK, TEST; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /t/ (URL below)

Procedures:

 1) 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 /t/. We spell /t/ with letter T.  /T/ is the sound a timer makes when it is ticking.  

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2) Let's tick with our finger, /t/, /t/, /t/. [Pantomime ticking finger] Notice where your where your tongue is touching? (The roof of your mouth pushing against the back of your top front teeth). When we say /t/, we blow air out of mouth.

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3) Let me show you how to find /t/ in the word tent. I'm going to stretch tent out in super slow motion and listen for my finger ticking. Ttt-e-e-ent. Slower: Ttt-e-e-e-n-ttt There it was! I felt my teeth touch the roof of my mouth and push against the back of my top front teeth. I can feel the ticking /t/ in tent.

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4) Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. " Tommy teaches tigers to talk." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. "Tttommy ttteaches tttigers ttto tttalk." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/t/ ommy /t/ eacher /t/ igers /t/ o /t/ alk.

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5) [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter T to spell /t/. Let’s write the capital letter T. Draw a straight line that touches the sky and goes all the way to the ground. Now draw a line that across the sky and touch the top of the line in the sky.  Let me see everyone’s T. After I put a star on it, I would like for you to make nine more just like it. Now let’s write the lowercase letter t. Start at the rooftop and draw a line straight across it. No draw a straight line starting just a little above the roof top and draw it straight down crossing the first line and make it touch the ground. Let me see everyone’s t. After I put a star on it, I would like for you to make nine more just like it.

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6) Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /t/ in from or tent? Draw or tilt? Fact or lie? Big or flat? Plate or cup? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words. Tick your finger if you hear /t/: Tommy, likes, to, teach, big, scary, tigers, how, to, talk.

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7) Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a ten tired turtles on a tuttle tree!" Read page 46, drawing out /t/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /t/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Tiffer-teffer-teff, or Tooter-tipper-tang. Then ask each student write their silly creature’s name using invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

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8)Show tent and model how to decide if it is top or bop: The T tells me to tick my finger, /t/, so this word is ttt-op, top. Now ask the children to try some: TROT: spot or trot? TEAL: feel or teal? TEND: mend or tend? TRICK: trick or slick? TEST: rest or test?

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9) For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with T. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

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Tina DiChiara, Time is Ticking Away With T!:

 http://ttd0005.wixsite.com/msdichiara/emergent-literacy-design​

 

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/t-begins2.htm

 

Seuss, . (1963). Dr. Seuss's ABC. New York: Beginner Books.

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http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/cultivations.html