Emergent Literacy

Girls Giggle with G

Sadie Shell

Emergent Literacy

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /g/, the phoneme represented by G. Students will learn to recognize /g/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (hands to mouth to stop giggling) and the letter symbol G, practice finding /g/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /g/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

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Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Gary Gopher Gobbles Grapes"; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with GAS, GOT, LIFT, GIVE, GREW, and MATE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /g/ (URL below).

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Procedures:

 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /g/. We spell /g/ with letter G. G looks like a giggling girl, and /g/ sounds like the G when you giggle really hard.

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2. Let's pretend that we’re very giggly girls, /g/, /g/, /g/. [Dramatize the G when you demonstrate a giggle] Notice where your tongue is? (Point to the back of your mouth). When we say /g/, we touch our tongue to the back part of the roof of our mouth.

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3. Let me show you how to find /g/ in the word bag. I'm going to stretch bag out in super slow motion and listen for. B-a-a-a-gggg. Slower: B-a-a-a-gggg. There it was! I felt my tongue on the roof of my mouth. Giggling /g/ is in bag.

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4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. “Gary the gopher is a grumpy guy. The thing that makes Gary grin is grapes. Gary gobbles grapes up, a gallon at a time. When the grapes are gone, grumpy Gary goes underground." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /g/ at the beginning of the words. "Gggary the gggopher is a gggrumpy gguy." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/g/ ary /g/ opher /g/ rumpy /g/ uy.

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5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter G to spell /g/. Capital G looks like a smile. Let's write the lowercase letter g. Start just below the fence. Start to make a little c up below the fence, then draw a line on the open side of the c, dropping down below the sidewalk, then scoop back up towards the sidewalk. I want to see everybody's g. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.

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6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /g/ in take or give? apple or grape? bag or tote? game or work? red or green? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /g/ in some words. Giggle like girls if you hear /g/: The, green, bug, grew, pink, wings.

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7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a goat and a guy with googoo goggles!" Read page 16, drawing out /g/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /g/. Ask them to make up a silly invention like googoo goggles. Then have each student write their silly invention with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly invention. Display their work.

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8. Show GAS and model how to decide if it is gas or pass: The G tells me to giggle, /g/, so this word is ggg-as, gas. You try some: GOT: got or pot? GIFT: gift or lift? GREW: grew or drew? NEITHER: fork or pork? GATE: gate or mate?

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9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students circle the pictures that begin with G. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

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Reference:

Hannah Louise Perkinson. https://hannahlouiseperkin.wixsite.com/bomblessondesigns/emergent-literacy-guide

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Assessment worksheet: https://www.education.com/download/worksheet/87927/alphabet-phonics-g.pdf

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