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Revving your jet ski with the letter N
Emily Forest
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /n/, the phoneme represented by N. Students will learn to recognize /n/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (revving a jet ski) and the letter symbol N, practice finding /n/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /n/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
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Primary paper and pencil
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Chart with “Nobody was nice to Nancy’s neighbor Nick, but he was never nasty.”
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Drawing paper and crayons
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Word cards with NET, NAP, NEST, NECK, NEED, and NINE
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Class copy of "Does a Nut have a Nose?"
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Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /n/ (URL below)
Procedures:
1. Say: Learning what letters stand for and the mouth moves we make can be one tricky task. Today, we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /n/. We spell /n/ with the letter N. N sounds like the revving of a jet ski.
2. Say: Let’s pretend we are driving (revving) our jet ski, /n/, /n/, /n/. Notice where your tongue is? Tongue behind your top teeth with air coming out of your nose. When we say /n/, we press our tongue to the roof of our mouth behind our top teeth to make the /n/ sound.
3. Say: I am going to model (show) you how to find /n/ in the word tent. I am going to say the word tent slowly (stretching it out) and listen for my jet ski. Ttt-e-e-nt. Slower: Ttt-e-e-e-nnn-t. I felt my tongue behind my top teeth. Jet ski /n/ is in tent.
4. Say: Let’s try a tongue tickler (Look up here on the board)
The children in the neighborhood all played together in the field behind Nancy’s house. All of the other children tended to stay away from Nick. Nick always took a shower, but he always yelled in other people’s faces. Nick never realized why people stayed away from him because he was never taught how to treat people. Nancy felt bad for Nick but was not sure how to help him. Nick continued to misbehave and get in other people’s space. So that is why nobody was nice to Nancy’s neighbor Nick, but he was never nasty.
Tongue Tickler: Nobody was nice to Nancy’s neighbor Nick, but he was never nasty.
1. Say: Now we are going to say it all together three times.
(Say it normal the first time)
2. Say: Now this time we are going to say it stretching out the /n/ at the beginning of each of the words.
(Nnnobody was nnnice to Nnnancy’s nnneighbor Nnnick, but he was nnnever nnnasty.)
3. Say: Now the last time we are going separate the letter /n/ from the word.
(N/obody was n/ice to N/ancy’s n/eighbor N/ick, but he was n/ever n/asty.
5. [Give the students pencil and paper] Say: We use the letter N to spell /n/. Capital N looks like a nose. Let’s start with the lowercase letter n. Start at the fence, go straight down to the side walk, bounce back up to the fence and curve down to the sidewalk again.
I want to have a look at each n you all created. Now we will practice nine more times.
6. Say: Now we will decide which word we hear the letter /n/ in. Do you hear /n/ in nest or school?
Do you hear the letter /n/ in work or next? Neighbor or frog? Trick or tent? Phone or pole?
Now lets see if you can spot the mouth move /n/ in some words. Revv your jet ski if you hear /n/. The new notebook needed to be drawn in.
7. Say: Now let’s look at the letter N in the book “Does a Nut have a Nose?”. In this book, children will explore the phonetic sound of the letter N. This will allow children to practice recognizing the letter along with the sound. In “Does a Nut have a Nose?” it tells of a journey of discovering if a nut has a nose. Do you think a nut has a nose? How will we figure it out? Will we discover if a nut has a nose? Have each student come up with a silly name for their nut and have them write the name and draw what their nut may look like with a nose of their choice. You may display this in your classroom.
8. Say: Now while showing NET model how to decide if it is net or wet; The N tells me to revv my jet ski, /n/, so this word is nnn-et, net. Now let the children try. NAP: nap or trap? NECK: neck or beck? NEST: nest or rest? NINE: nine or fine?
9. Say: We will use a worksheet for practice. Students will practice matching the word to the picture that begins with the letter n. After they complete this have each student show how they matched each word. For assessment, I will call each student individually to read the phonetic cue cards from step #8.
Reference:
Cate Behl Tick Tock it's Time for T
https://ceb0131.wixsite.com/my-site/emergent-literacy
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Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/alphabet/catpic-letter-n_NNEST.pdf
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