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 ball) 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. Primary Paper

2. Pencils

3. Chart with “Billy bounced his basketball behind his back”

4. My “b” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure (1977)

5. Drawing Paper and Crayons

6. Word Cards with BRIM, BACK, MAD, BLISS, BOX, and JET

7. Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /b/ and also identifying the letter; upper and lowercase (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 /b/. We spell /b/ with letter B. B looks like the eyes of a robot turned sideways, and /b/ sounds like bouncing ball.

2. Let’s pretend we are bouncing a basketball on the floor, /b/, /b/, /b/. [Pantomime bouncing a ball]. 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 robot. I'm going to stretch robot out in super slow motion and listen for my bouncing ball. Rrr-O-b-ooo-t. Slower: Rrr-O-b-ooo-t There it was! I felt my lips come together and air was blown out. Bouncy ball /b/ is in robot.

4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Billy the robot was bouncing his basketball while his bad babysitter babbled to her barber. Billy balanced his basketball on things just for fun but also practiced for his ball game. Here’s our tickler: "Billy bounced his basketball behind his back." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /b/ at the beginning of the words. "Bbbilly bbbounced his bbbasketball bbbehind his bbback." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/B/illy /b/ounced his /b/asketball /b/ehind his /b/ack.”

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter B to spell /b/. Capital B looks like sideways robot eyes. 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 knew: Do you hear /b/ in bill or more? blow or time? cart or boat? Pink or blue? Bread or dirt? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Bounce your ball if you hear /b/: The, beautiful, buzzing, bee, landed, on, a, boy, at, the, ballpark.

7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Little B is going to show us all of the things that start /b/ that she can put into her B sound box.” Read the whole book, drawing out /b/, until the last two pages that give multiple /b/ word examples. 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 BRIM and model how to decide if it is brim or trim: The B tells me to bounce my ball, /b/, so this word is bbb-rim, brim. You try some: BACK: back or tack? MAD: bad or mad? BLISS: bliss or kiss? BOX: box or fox? JET: bet or jet?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with B and will write it in where it belongs on the worksheet. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

 

Reference:

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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