Cookies for Carter's Class
Lesson design project for the reading stage of emergent literacy (EL): ideas for teaching letter recognition, phoneme awareness, or concepts about print.
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /k/, the phoneme represented by C. Students will learn to recognize /k/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (crunching cookies) and the letter symbol C, practice finding /k/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /k/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
Chart with tongue tickler: “Carter crunched the cookies he was carrying to class”
Primary Paper: One piece per student
Pencils
Crayons
Word cards with: CAT, CATCH, COP, COUNT, CHILD
Letter C Worksheet: https://twistynoodle.com/circle-the-words-that-begin-with-c-coloring-page/
Book: Clara Caterpillar by: Pamela Duncan Edwards
Procedures:
Say “Our written language in a secret code.” It can be tricky at times because we may not know what letters stand for. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /k/. We spell /k/ with the letter C. C looks like a cookie that you can hold and /k/ sounds like crunching the cookie
Let’s pretend we are crunching our cookie so we can find the c. /k/ /k/ /k/ /k/. Notice where your lips are (open). When we say /k/ we blow air between our teeth, and our lips do not touch!
Let me show you how to find /k/ in the word corn. I am going to stretch corn out in super slow motion and listen for the crunching cookie sound! Ccc-o-o-r-r-n-n. I could feel my mouth make the crunching sound at the beginning of the word!
Let’s try the tongue tickler that is on this poster. Carter was bringing cookies for his class, but he got hungry along the way. Here’s our tickler: “Carter crunched the cookies he was carrying to class.” Let’s say it together. Now stretch the /k/ at the beginning of every word that starts with a C. “ccccarter cccrunched the cccookies her was cccarrying to class.” This time we are going to break it off in the beginning of the word. “/c/arter /c/runched the /c/ookies he was /c/arrying to /c/lass.”
Pass our primary paper and pencil to students. Say: “We use C to spell /k/ Let’s start with writing a lowercase c first. Start to make a hook with the top touching the rooftop. Curve it all the way down and make another hook at the sidewalk. After demonstrating I will say, “I want to see everybody’s c’s once they have written 5 more!” I will then come around and put a smiley sticker on your paper when you are done!
Call on students to answer and tell how they know which they hear /k/ in. “Do you hear /k/ in cat or sat? Sound or cloud? Clock or sock?” “Now let’s see if you can make the /k/ motion. Act like you are holding a cookie to crunch in your mouth if the words I say start with a C: the, cat, was, carrying, a, curio.” .
Show COOKIE and model how to decide if it is cookie or bookie. The C tells me to crunch my cookie, /k/, so this word is cccc-ookie, cookie. Now you try: CAT: cat or rat? CATCH: catch or fetch? MOP: cop or mop? COUNT: count or pout? WILD: child or wild?
Read Clara Caterpillar aloud to the class. Have them make the “crunching cookie” motion with their hands and mouth every time they hear /k/. Say: “Now we are going to read a book called Clara Caterpillar. Clara is a caterpillar who feels sad about her boring appearance, until one day it comes in handy. Every time you hear the /k/ sound, I want you to quietly crunch your cookie”.
To keep students practicing /k/= c, I will pass out the worksheet and they will say the name of the object/animals and color the pictures that have a /k/. After they color and identify the words, they will practice tracing both the capital and lowercase letter C.
Reference:
Atherton Emily. Click you Camera with C. https://esa0006.wixsite.com/emilysdesigns/emergent-literacy
Edwards, Pamela Duncan. Clara Caterpillar. Pamela Duncan Edwards, 2001.
Letter C worksheet:
https://twistynoodle.com/circle-the-words-that-begin-with-c-coloring-page/