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Mowing the Lawn with M

Emergent Literacy

Emmy Wilson

Rationale:

This lesson will help children identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M. Students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words learning a meaningful representation (pretending you’re starting a lawn mower) and the letter symbol M, practice finding /m/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

primary paper and pencil; chart with “Max makes many muffins for Mary”; drawing paper and crayons, Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with MARK, MEET, MESS, FROG, PINK, MASK; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /m/.

 

Procedures:

SAY: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for the mouth moves when we say words. Today, we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /m/. We spell /m/ with the letter M. M looks the way your hands would move when you start a lawn mower (up and down and up and down when you pull on the string), and /m/ sounds like an engine is about to start up.

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Let’s pretend we’re about to mow the lawn, /m/, /m/, /m/. [pantomime pulling on string] Notice where your teeth are? (Not touching) Notice where your lips are? (together). When we say / m /, we blow air out of our noses like we are humming.

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Let me show you how to find /m/ in the word smile. I’m going to stretch smile out in super slow motion and listen for my engine. Sssssss-mi-le. Slower: Ssss-m-m-m-m-iiiii-l-l-e. There it was! I felt my lips come together and air come out of my nose. Lawn mower /m/ is in smile.

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Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Mary was hungry. Her friend Max loves making things. Mary’s favorite snack is muffins so Max made her many of them. Here’s our tickler: “Max makes many muffins for Mary.” Everyone say it three times together. Now, say it again, and this time, stretch the /m/ at the beginning of the words. “Mmmax mmmakes mmmany mmmuffins for Mmmary.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/m/ax /m/akes /m/any /m/uffins for /m/ary.”

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[Have student take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter M to spell /m/. Capital M looks just like all the shards of grass before we cut the lawn. Let’s write a lowercase letter m. Start on the fence and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk, then make one arch going all the way back up to the fence and down to the sidewalk again. Do that two times making two humps! I want to see everybody’s m. After I put a star on your paper, I want you to make nine more letter m’s just like it.

 

Call on students to answer and tell how they know: Do you hear /m/ in mine or yours? stay or move? mouth or ears? mouse or rat? moon or sun? same or alike? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /m/ in some words. Start your lawn mower if you hear /m/: The, meat, meadow, rug, mitt, me, soap, move, word.

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Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about many mumbling mice making midnight music in the moonlight. Ask children if they can think of other words with /m/. Ask them to make up a silly activity that the mice might also be doing in the moonlight! Then, tell each student to write down their silly activity with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly activity. Display their work.

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Show MAP and model how to decide if it is map or tap: The M tells me to start my lawn mower/m/, so this word is mmm-ap, map. You try some: MIX: fix or mix? MAKE: make or bake? MEET: meet or greet? MIND: mind or find? MONEY: money or funny?

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For assessment, distribute the worksheet, students color the pictures that begin with M. https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-m_WFMNB.pdf?up=1466611200. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from the previous step. 

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References:

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