Emergent Literacy Design: Clacking of horseshoe with c =/k/
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /k/, the phoneme represented by C. Students will learn to recognize /k/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (clacking of a horseshoe) and the letter symbol C, practice finding /k/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /k/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Cal’s cat counts carrots carefully"; drawing paper and crayons; Animal Stackers (Hyperion Books for Children, 2005); word cards with CAR, COW, TOOL, CRAB, BALL, and CLAP; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /c/ (URL below)
Procedure: 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 /k/. We spell /k/ with letter C. C looks like a horseshoe, and /k/ sounds like the clacking of horseshoes.
2. Let's pretend we hear a horse walking by, /k/, /k/, /k/. Notice where your tongue is? (Touching roof of mouth). When we say /k/, we are blowing air between the roof of our mouth and our tongue.
3. Let me show you how to find /k/ in the word pecan. I'm going to stretch pecan out in super slow motion and listen for my clacking horseshoe. Ppee-C-aan. Slower: PP-e-e-e-ccc-aann. There it was! I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth and blow air. I can feel the horseshoe clacking in Pecan.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. "Cal’s cat counts carrots carefully" Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /k/ at the beginning of the words. " Ccccal’s ccccat cccounts ccccarrots ccccarefully" Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/C/als /c/at /c/ounts /c/arrots /c/arefully.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter C to spell /k/. Capital C looks like a horseshoe. Let's write the lowercase letter c. Start just below the fence. Start to make a little curl up in the air to the top of the fence, then continue to curl it out all the way down to the sidewalk and give it a little tail going back up towards the fence. I want everyone to continue writing 9 more baby c’s just like the one we just did together and I am going to come around and check your work.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /k/ in tall or call? Rat or cat? Cup or bowl? Cliff or stiff? Tour or core? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /k/ in some words. Cup your hands and clap them together so they sound like a horseshoe hitting the ground. If you hear the /k/ I want you to make the sound: Now listen carefully: The, cute, fluffy, dog, came, carrying, the, carton, of, milk.
7. Say: Now we are going to read the book “Animal Stackers”. This is an alphabet book about all different types of animals. Some might even be animals you have never even heard of. It reviews some of the sounds you already know and then the new one that you just learned about. I want you to make the fun horseshoe clapping sound whenever you hear the sound /c/ throughout the book. Ask: children if they can think of other words with /k/. Say: Now I want you all to come up with animals that start with the letter c. I want each student to name their animal and draw a picture of it. Then I want to display your work for the class.
8. Show CAR and model how to decide if it is car or bar: The C tells me that it sounds like the clacking of a horseshoe, /k/, so this word is cc-a-rr, car. You try some: COW: cow or tow? TOOL: tool or pool? CRAB: trap or crab? BALL: ball or tall? CLAP: clap or tap?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with C. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
Perkin, Hannah. crunch a cookie with C, 2017
https://hannahlouiseperkin.wixsite.com/bomblessondesigns/emergent-literacy-guide
picture of a horseshoe looking like the letter C:
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/c-begins1.htm
Book reference: Belle, J., & Mcphail, D. 2005. Animal Stackers. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.
