“Beat Still My Heart”

Madison Wolanek

 

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 meaningful representation (the /b/ makes the sound of a heartbeat) 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: 

• Chart with “Bill beat Beth’s brown box.” 

• Dry erase board 

• Primary paper

• Pencils

• The Berenstain’s B Book by Stan   (Random House, 1971)

• Worksheet for assessment: [complete URL in References]

• Crayons

• Flashcards with the words BAT, MAD, BEAT, BOX 

 

Procedures:

• Introduce the Lesson: “When we speak, our mouth moves in certain ways as we speak letters.  Today, we are going to work on the letter b and how our mouth moves when we say /b/.”

 

• Model the Phoneme Sound: “Have you ever listened to your heart beat? Pretend you are a doctor and listening to a patient’s heartbeat: ‘b-b, b-b, b-b.’ Place your hand over your heart and beat your hand against your chest as you say, ‘b-b, b-b, b-b.’” Model how to make the /b/ sound: “How does it feel to say /b/? When I say /b/ my lips push together and let out a puff of air.  B-b-b...A word that has the /b/ sound is the word bat. Stretch the /b/ sound so you can hear the /b/ heartbeat in bat. B-b-b-b-bat.” 

 

• Tongue Twister: “Now let’s try out tongue twister on the chart.  I’m going to say it once for you and then I want you to say it four more times with me. ‘Bill beat Beth’s brown box.’ Repeat twice with group. Great job! Now lets say the tongue twister one more time and repeat those heartbeat b’s each time we hear it at the beginning of the word.  ‘Bbbbbbill bbbbbbeat Bbbbbeth’s bbbbbrown bbbbox.’ Great! This time let’s separate the /b/ from the beginning of each word that begins with /b/. /b/ ill /b/ eat /b/ eth’s /b/ rown /b/ ox. 

 

• Write the Letter: “Take out your pencils and primary paper! Now that we’ve learned what the letter b  sounds like, we’re going to learn what it looks like on paper! (Teacher demonstrates the letter b on the dry erase board and talks students through the steps.) To make an uppercase B, we start at the rooftop and draw straight down to the sidewalk. Then we pick up our pencil and start at the rooftop again, draw around for the big chest, and then around for his big tummy.  To make the lowercase b, start at the rooftop, draw straight down to the sidewalk, and then bounce up and around to make a belly. Now you practice writing the uppercase B and lowercase b on your own paper.  Write it once first, and then once I come around and have checked your first Bb, I will place a sticker on your page.  Then I want you to write Bb nine more times.”

 

• Listen for the Sound: “Listen for /b/ in the words I am going to call out.  Tell me which word has the /b/ in it.  When I say a word that you hear the b-b-b-b sound, quietly place your hands over your heart and beat your heart with your hands (no words, just the sound of your hands , b-b, b-b, b-b. Let’s practice one together: If I say bat, I hear the /b/ sound in bat, so I will place my hands over my heart and go ‘b-b, b-b, b-b.’ If you don’t hear the /b/ sound, Now it’s your turn! Do you hear /b/ in cab? What about sat? What about bad? Or dad? Great work!

 

• Hear It In a Sentence: “Now I am going to say a sentence, then I will repeat two words of that sentence, and you tell me which word you hear the /b/ sound in by beating your heart when I repeat that word.  Let’s do a practice round. ‘I sat near the bat’ Do you hear the /b/ sound in sat? (Pause to give children a chance to think) What about bat? (Pause for children to beat their heart). Good! Now let’s do another sentence! ‘Dad said not to act bad.’ Do you hear the /b/ sound in Dad? What about bad? Great! One more sentence. ‘Mom gave me a book to look at.’ Do you hear the /b/ sound in book? What about look? 

 

• Read a Book: Now read “The Berenstains’ B Book” by Stan Berenstain to the class. “Today we are going to read a book that has a lot of words that start with the letter b! Some of them will be words you hear every day, and some of them will be silly words. Listen for all the words that have the /b/ sound as we read this book!” After you read the story, talk about the different words the students heard in the book that started with /b/. Read a page or two from the book again, having students beat their heart each time they hear a word with the /b/ sound in it.  Have the students write a message using invented spelling something they have at home that start with the letter /b/. 

 

• Phonetic Cue Reading: Show students the a card word BAT and ask “Is this bat or sat?” Model how to read the word by going - the b tells me it makes the sound “buh-buh,” like my heart, so this is buh-at, BAT!” Repeat this procedure: MAD: is this bad or mad? BEAT: is this beat or seat? BOX: is this fox or box?

 

• Assessment: To assess the children’s knowledge, give them a worksheet with different items on it. Go over the worksheet with the children, naming each item before they begin.  Then, have them work individually using a crayon to circle the items that start with the letter /b/, then write a b above each item they circled.  Then have students come individually to read the phonetic cue cards from step #8. 

 

 

References: 

 

The Berenstains’ B Book by Stan Berenstain.  Random House Children’s Books. (1971). 

 

Bice, Bethany. “The Slimy, Scaly, Slithering Snake” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/discov/biceel.html

 

McGill, Leslie. “Sid the Silly Slow Sloth” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/guides/mcgillel.html

 

Smith, Julie. “B B BEE!!” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/navig/smithjel.html

 

Assessment Worksheet: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/circlewordsthatstartwith/b.shtml

 

 

 

Return to the Handoffs index