BOUNCING A BASKETBALL WITH B
BY: GRACE RIDDLE

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented by B. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken aloud words by learning a sound analogy (bouncing ball) and the letter symbol B, practice finding /b/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing words that rhyme from beginning letters.

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby”; construction paper and colored pencils, word cards with BIG, BED, BALL, BAKE, BAD; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /b/. (https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-b_WFFMM.pdf? up=1466611200)

Procedures:

1. Say: Words are like a secret code that only we can understand! The tricky part is learning what letters stand for and how the mouth moves as we say words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /b/. We spell /b/ with letter B. B looks like a basketball and /b/ sounds like bouncing a ball.

2. Let’s pretend to bounce a basketball. [Do the motion of bouncing a basketball, say the sound /b/, /b/, /b/.] Do you notice that when you make the sound /b/, your lips come together to make the noise? When you say B your lips touch!

3. Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word banana. I’m going to say table very slowly to listen and feel for my bouncing basketball. Now try M-ar-b-le. Slower, mmm-aaar-b-llle. There was the basketball! I felt my lips come together and found /b/ for Basketball in marBle.

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler (http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/materials/ticklers/) . Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby. Everybody say it along with me (Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara’s baby). Now everybody say it on your own and break off the /b/ from the word. /b/ ill and /b/ etty /b/ aked /b/ rown /b/ read for /b/ arbara’s /b/ aby.

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil.] We use letter B to spell /b/. Let’s write a lowercase b. I want everyone to start just below the rooftop and go straight down to the sidewalk. Then, make a backwards c up to the fence. I want to see everyone write a lowercase b. After I put a smile on it, I want you to male nine more just like it.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew. Say I want you guys to tell me what word you hear the /b/ : Do you hear /b/ in ball or shoe? blue or yellow? bad or sad? big or small? back or foot? Say: Lets see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Act like you are bouncing a basketball if you hear /b/: the, bad, bad, wolf, blew, the big, brown, house, down.

7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book! Dr. Seuss tells us about some things that start with the letter B: barber, baby, bubbles, and a bumblebee. Ask students: What are some other things you can think of that start with the letter B? Have students cut out a basketball using construction paper and decorate it with markers.

8. Show the word BALL and model how to decide if it’s BALL or TALL. The B tells me to bounce my basketball, /b/, so this word is bbb-all. Ball. Say now I want you all to try finding with word uses the /b/ like Bouncing Ball (using word cards): a. Bill or Tom? BILL b. Bake or cake? BAKE c. Bug or wag? BUG d. Bag or yarn? BAG

9. For assessment, hand out the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with B. Call students to your desk individually to read the phonetic cue words we read over as a class from step #8.

Reference: ABC, Dr. Seuss (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnVweSI9s6k) Assessment worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-b_WFFMM.pdf?u p=1466611200 Bouncing a basketball with B, Megan Schrock (https://meganschrock.wixsite.com/mysite/emergent-literacy)