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Emergent Literacy Design 

Lesson name: D for dinosaur 

“Dinosaur dan dances dangerously”

 

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /d/, the phoneme represented by D. Students will learn to recognize /d/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (a dinosaur) and the letter symbol D, practice finding /d/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /d/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters. 

 

Materials: primary paper and pencil; my picture of the letter Dthat looks like a Dinosaur; tongue tickler “Dinosaur dan dances dangerously”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Suess’s ABC; word cards with DOG, DAN, FATE, HEN, DIP, FISH, DORK; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /d/. 

 

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 /d/. We spell /d/ with the letter D. Dlooks like my dinosaur D (show picture of Dinosaur D), and /d/ sounds like a dinosaur making a loud sound when they walk around. 

2. Let’s pretend to stomp around like a dinosaur, /d/, /d/, /d/. (Pantomime walking around like a dinosaur). Notice where the tip of your tongue hits the back of your top teeth. When we say /d/ the tip of our tongue hits the back of our top teeth/ roof of our mouth. 

3. Let me show you how to find /d/ in the word hand. I’m going to stretch handin a super slow motion and listen for my stomping dinosaur. Hhh-a-a-a-nd. Slower: Hhh – a- a -a -nnn – d. There it was! I felt the tip of my tongue touch the back of my top teeth. Our dinosaur is stomping in hand. 

4. Let’s try s tongue tickler (on chart). Dan is a dinosaur and he likes to dance. Dinosaurs are very big. So, when Dan gets to dancing, watch out. It gets dangerous. Here’s our tickler “Dinosaur dan dances dangerously.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /d/ at the beginning of the words. “Ddddinosaur dddan dddances dddangerously.” Try it again and this time break it off the word. “/d/inoasaur /d/an /d/ances /d/angerously.” 

5. Have students take out primary paper and pencil. We use letter D to spell /d/. Capital D looks like the body of a dinosaur (show dinosaur D picture). Let’s write the lowercase letter d.Start at the rooftop and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk. Then put your pencil on the line you drew where it meets the fence and act like you are writing a lower case c.There is your lower case d! (or page 226 of Making Sight Words says “make a little c, then a little d). After I put a sticker by your letter, everyone make nine more! 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /d/ in danor fan?Sipor dip? Dateor fate?Down or clown?Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move when we say /d/ in some words. Stomp like a dinosaur in place if you hear /d/: “The doctor took daisy out on a date and brought her daffodils.” 

7. Say: Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Suess tells us about a crazy duck-dog!! He also tells us that doughnuts start with D! Read this page drawing out /d/. Ask the children if they can think of words that start with /d/, tell them to make up something crazy like a “duck-dog.” Tell the children to write their crazy thing they came up with with invented spelling, and draw a picture. 

8. Show the picture of your D the dinosaur. Have them make their own “D the dinosaur.” 

 

 

1. Words:DOG, DAN, FATE, HEN, DIP, FISH, DORK ; Show DOG and model how to decide if it is dog or fog. The D tells me to stomp loud like a dinosaur /d/ (pantomime stomping like a dinosaur), so this word is ddd-dog. You try some: dan or fan, date or fate, denor hen,slip or dip,dishor fish, forkor dork?

2. Assessment: For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with D. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

References: 

Assessment: https://easypeasylearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Letter-D-Worksheet-Set.pdf(only the sheet that has the students color whatever picture starts with D)

Further information/lesson: https://laurenbryant2.wixsite.com/mysite-2/emergent-literacy

Other: WordsMurray, Bruce A. Making Sight Words: Teaching Word Recognition from Phoneme Awareness to Fluency: How to Help Children Read Words Effortlessly without Memorization. Linus Publications, 2012.