Emergent Literacy Design
Make Muffins With Me
Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M. Students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (by connecting /m/ with a Mmmm sound when you taste something yummy and waving your hand) and the letter symbol M, practice finding /m/ in words, and applying phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper, pencil, blank sheet of paper, colored pencils, chart that reads tongue tickler, Mary Madeline makes muffins on Mondays, Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963); flashcards with the words: map, tap, make, lake, must, milk, silk, mess, less, most, host sun, moon, assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
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Say: Our written language is like a secret code. Today in this lesson we are going to work on spotting the mouth moves when we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /m/. We spell /m/ with the letter M. M looks like two mountain peaks. M also sounds like when you say Mmmm after you have eaten your favorite food or dessert. Can everyone say Mmmmm with me? Pretend like you just ate your favorite dessert.
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Say: Say the letter M with me again. Do you feel your lips touching together and your tongue up against your teeth to make a humming sound? That Mmm sound sound like you just ate something yummy, and you are saying mmmmhhh. Can everyone say Mmm with me again? That is the correct way to say the letter M!
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Say: Now let’s try to say some words with the letter M! I am going to show you how I recognize when /m/ is in a word. My lips are together, and I hum when I say m. let me see if it’s in Yum. Ill stretch it out and pay attention to my lips. /y//u//m/. there it is at the end. I hummed and my lips were together.
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Say: Let’s try a tongue tickler! Say this with me, Mary Madeline makes muffins on Mondays. Mary Madeline loves making muffins. Last night, she got hungry and decided to bake some. Here’s our tickler: “Mary Madeline makes muffins on Mondays.” Let’s say it three more times together. Great job students! Now let’s say it once stretching out the /m/ sound at the beginning of the words. “Mmmary Mmmmadeline mmmakes mmmuffins on mmmondays.” Now let’s try and break if off the word. /M/ ary /m/ adeline /m/ akes /m/ uffins on /m/ ondays.
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Say: Students can you take out your primary paper and a pencil please? We use the letter M to spell /m/, remember the mmm sound when something is yummy to you? Capital M looks like two mountain peaks. Let’s write lowercase m, which looks like two mountain peaks but smaller mountains. Go down, make a peak, then another peak. That is how you write a lower-case m! I want to see everyone’s m’s. After I put a checkmark on your paper, I want you to write five more m’s just like that!
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Say: Now I am going to call you to answer these questions. I am going to say some words, and I want you to tell me which word you hear the /m/ sound in. Ready? Do you hear /m/ in mess or nest? mop or drop? mask or task? Now let’s see if you can recognize my mouth move /m/ in these next words. Wave your hand if you hear /m/: Mary, Madeline, made, muffins.
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Say: Now let’s look at an alphabet book, Dr. Suess’s ABC. Dr. Suess tells us about mice making midnight music in the moonlight. I am going to read page 30 to you. Every time you hear me say the /m/ sound I want you to stop me and repeat the /m/ sound back to me. After listening to this page, I want you to think about food that start with the letter m. For example, muffins, macaroni, and M&M’s. I am going to pass out paper and colored pencils, I want you to write your word you thought of and draw a picture under it.
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Say: I want you to sit at your desks and I am going to show a word on the board. For example, MILK. The M tells me to wave my hand, /m/, so this word is mmm-ilk, milk. You try some: MAP: map or tap? MAKE: make or lake? MESS: mess or less? MOON: moon or sun? MOST: most or host?
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Say: To assess, I am going to give you a worksheet. Students will practice writing a capital and lower-case m and color in the pictures that start with /m/.
References:
Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963)
Assessment worksheet: https://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/m.htm
