Telling Time with /t/
LeighEllen Morrison
Rationale: This lesson will help students identify the /t/, the phoneme represented by T. Students will be able to recognize /t/ in spoken sentences by learning a helpful representation (ticking of the clock) and the letter symbol T. They will practice finding /t/ in words and learn how to apply phoneme awareness with /t/ in phonetic cue reading by being able to identify rhyming words from the beginning letters.
Materials:
primary paper and pencil; Tongue Tickler chart with “Tom and Timmy take turns typing”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with TEST, TRY, TOP, MAT, TAN, LAP; 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. Today we’re going to be learning about the letter /t/. We will learn that /t/ and /T/ make the same sound. We will learn that our mouth moves as we say each letter sound. We are going to work on spotting the mouth move /t/. We spell /t/ with the letter T. When the second hand moves on a clock, it makes the sound tick tock, or t t t t. (use finger to be the tick tock on a clock)
2. Now, let’s pretend we are looking at a clock and we hear the /t/, /t/, /t/ of the second hand moving. What does your tongue do when we say /t/? Our tongue starts at the roof of our mouth and air pushes it off. Our top and bottom teeth are together.
3. Now, let me show you how to find /t/ in the word fort. I’m going to stretch out the word fort in slow motion and I want you to listen for the /t/ sound a clock makes: ffoorrttt. Now slower: ffff-oooo-rrr-tttt. There it was! I felt my tongue tough the roof of my mouth and the air push it down and my top and bottom teeth touched! I can hear the clock tick /t/ in fort.
4. We are going to try a tongue twister (using the chart). “Tom and Timmy take turns typing”. Let’s say it together three times. Now say it again, and this stime, we’re going to stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. “TTTom and TTTimmy ttttake tttturns ttttyping.” Try it again and this time break it off the word: “/T/im and /T/ommy /t/ake /t/urns /t/yping”.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter T to spell /t/. Capital T looks like a tree. Let’s write the lowercase t. Start just below the rooftop then draw a straightened line all the way down to the sidewalk. Then cross it at the fence. I want to see everybody’s t. After I put a sticker, I want you to make nine more t’s just like the first one.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /t/ in finger or toe? Top or below? Type or draw? Plate or bowl? Hot or cold? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words. Do a clock movement with your finger if you hear the /t/ sound in the words: stuff, blue, tap, boat, fly, tree, top, monkey, stay, trip.
7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss uses a tongue tickler to name things that start with T. Read page 46, stressing /t/. I want you to use your finger to tick like a clock every time you hear the /t/. Can you think of any school supplies you use that start with the letter t? Let’s write the name of an item and then draw a picture of it. Then I will display the students’ work.
8. Show TAN and model how to decide if it is tan or man: The T tells me to think of the ticking of a clock, /t/, so this word is tttt-an, tan. You try some; TRY: try or fry? TASTE: paste or taste? TAP: tap or lap? TALL: fall or tall? TOAST: roast or toast?
9. For assessment, I will call on students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8. Also, I will hand out the worksheet. Students will be asked to fill out the worksheet, color it, and then turn it in for a grade. On this work sheet, students will be asked to only color the pictures that start with the letter T.
https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/printables/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf
Reference:
Savannah Adcock: http://savannahadcock.wix.com/wildaboutreading#!emergent-literacy/c24f1
Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/printables/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf
Allie Black: https://sites.google.com/site/alliesresearchbasedlessonplans/home/watch-the-clock-tick-with-t
