Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /k/, the phoneme represented by K. Students will learn to recognize /k/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (using a nutcracker) and the letter symbol K, practice finding /k/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /k/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters’

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “The Kings kittens keep their kazoos in the kitchen.”; drawing paper and crayons; Hark A Shark by Bonnie Worth; word cards with KID, KEY, CAKE, KIND, BACK, SHARK; assessment worksheets identifying pictures with /k/ (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 in a specific way as we say words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /k/. We spell /k/ with the letter K. We can remember K because you could use the letter K as a nutcracker, and a nutcracker make the same sound as /k/.

 

2. Let’s pretend to crack a nut with a nutcracker, /k/, /k/, /k/. [Pantomimes cracking a nut with a nutcracker] Notice how your tongue is humped in the back of your mouth when we say /k/, we put the back of our tongue on the roof of our mouths and blow air out of our open mouths.

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3. Let me show you how to find /k/ in the word kite. I am going to stretch out kite in super slow motion and listen for my nut cracking. /K/ i-t-e. Again /k/-i-t-e. There it was! I felt my tongue humped in the back of your mouth. I can feel the nut crack /k/ in Kick, can you?

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4. Let’s try a tongue twister [on chart]. This is a story about a King and his musical kittens. The kittens love to play their kazoo, have you ever played a kazoo before? The kittens play their kazoos in the kitchen, because when the King’s chef heard their magical melodies he pours them extra milk in their bowls. Let’s hear the tongue tickler now. “The Kings kittens keep their kazoos in the kitchen.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, & this time, crack the nut when you hear /k/ in the words. “The /K/ ings /k/ ittens /k/ eep their /k/ azoos in the /k/ itchen.” Try it again, “The /K/ ings /k/ ittens /k/ eep their /k/ azoos in the /k/ itchen.”

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5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter K to spell /k/. You can crack a nut with capital K. Let’s write the lower case letter k. To write k we begin just below the ‘rooftop’ and draw a straight line all the way down to the ‘sidewalk’, then we will draw a straight diagonal line beginning at the ’fence’ and connect it to the other line, then from that point we will draw another line, just like the one we just did but backwards, until it touches the sidewalk. I want to see everybody’s k. After I tell you it is correct, I want you to practice writing k nine more times just like the first time.

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6. Call on students to answer and tell how they know: Do you hear /k/ in kelp or bear? Table or kettle? Kiwi or dragon? Fan or keep? Kennel or tent? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /k/ in some words. Do the nut-cracking gesture if you hear the /k/: Our keen, kin in Kentucky are keeping our klutzy, kids.

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7. Say: ‘Let’s look at this fun book I have for us to read. In this book in ‘The Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that’ series The Cat in the Hat tells us about sharks. Read page 39, drawing out /k/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /k/. Now I lets draw our own sharks and give them funny names, like Kep-ketter-kin, or Kibby-kon-kal. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

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8. Show KID and model how to decide if it is kid or fin: The K tells me to crack the nut, /K/, so this word is /k/ id, kid. You try some: KOALA: whale or koala? KITE: bite or kite? KANGAROO: beach or kangaroo? KABAB: kabab or frog? KILT: trip or kilt?

 

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings, color the pictures that begin with K. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step 8.

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References:

• Worth, Bonnie. Hark A Shark! New York City, Random House Publishing.

• Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/

• “Brush your teeth with F” by Dr. Bruce Murray http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html

• Assessment worksheets - http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/k-begins2.htm http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/k-ends1.htm