Rationale: This lesson will aid children in identifying /t/, the phoneme represented by T. Students will learn to recognize /t/ in spoken words through a series of different things; First, by learning a meaningful representation (tick tock on a clock) and the letter symbol T, then by practicing finding /t/ in words, and applying phoneme awareness with /t/ in phonetic cue reading.

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Tim’s Tall Clock goes Tick Tock Tick Tock"; blank drawing paper and crayons or markers; Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with TALL, TICK, TURN, TOM, LEAN, and MAKE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures of things that start with /t/ (URL below).

 

Procedures:

1. We begin by saying: Our language is very much like a big secret! They way we crack the big secret and get in on the action is by learning what letters stand for- phonemes. The trickiest part of phoneme awareness 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 movement that comes along with /t/. We spell /t/ with letter T. T looks like a tall clock, and /t/ sounds like the ticking of the tall tall clock.

 

2. Let's pretend to be Tim’s tall ticking clock, /t/, /t/, /t/. [Pantomime ticking sounds] Do you notice where your tongue might be? (Touching roof of mouth). When we say /t/, we blow air between our tongue and roof of mouth. This creates /t/.

 

3. Now I will show you how to find /t/ in the word went. I'm going to stretch went out in super slow motion and listen for the ticking of the clock. Www-e-e-ent. Slower: Www-e-e-e-nnn-t There it was! I felt my tounge touch the roof of my mouth and blow air. I can feel the ticking clock /t/ in went.

 

4. Let's try a tongue tickler (from chart)."Tim’s Tall Clock goes Tick Tock Tick Tock." Let’s all say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. "Tttim’s ttttall clock goes tttick ttttock tttick tttock." Try it again, and this time break the /t/ off of the beginning of the word: "/t/ ed's /t/ all clock goes /t/ ick /t/ ock.h

 

5. (Students should now take out primary paper and a pencil). We use letter T to spell /t/. Capital T looks like a tall grandfather clock. Now let's write the lowercase letter t. Start right at the rooftop. Continue straight all the way down until you reach the sidewalk. Then, cross it at the fence and you’ve written t. I would like to look at everyone’s t’s and if they are good, I will give you a check mark. Once I give you a check mark, please write ten more t’s.

 

6. Next, call on students to answer the following questions and explain their reasoning: Do you hear /t/ in heavy or light? foot or hand? straight or down? Lift or drop? store or school  Say: Now let's see if you can spot my mouth movement for /t/ in certain words. Tick your finger like a clock if and when you hear me say /t/: The, tiny, tough, pup, tracked, too, much, dirt, in, Tim’s, townhome.

 

7. Say: "Now let's look at the Alphabet book by Dr. Seuss! He tells us about a bunch of crazy turtles that are stuck somewhere high up off the ground that starts with T. Can you guess where the turtles are stuck?" then, draw out T. Have students come up with places the turtles might could be stuck, draw pictures of the places, and then display their drawings in the classroom.

 

8. Show TOP and model how to decide if it is top or hop: The T tells me to tick tock the clock, /t/ /t/ /t/, so this word is ttt-op, not hop. You try some: TIN: win or tin? KEEP: keep or jeep? TREE: tree or free? TURN: turn or burn? TAKE: lake or take?

 

9. For an assessment, handout the T worksheet. Students are to trace the lower and upper case T’s, and color the images that start with T. Assessment will then take place individually, having the student do #8 with teacher.

 

Handout

 

Related Lesson:TICK, TICK, TICK, goes the TICKING clock with T