Rationale
This lesson will help children to identify /k/, the phoneme represented by the letter symbol K. Students will learn to identify /k/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (kicking) and in written words by learning the symbol K. They will practice finding /k/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /k/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
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Materials
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Kicking kangaroo poster
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Alliteration “Kylie the kangaroo was not kind and kicked other kid’s keys” on chart or projected screen
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Primary paper
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Pencil
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Note cards with kid, site, kitten, keep, hiss, find
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Dr. Seuss’s ABCs
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Assessment worksheet
Procedures
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Say, “When we see words written out, it is like a secret code! The hardest part of cracking any code is figuring out what the symbol, or letters, stand for and how our mouths move to make the sounds we need. Today, we are going to discover how our mouth moves to make /k/. We use the letter K to spell /k/. K kind of looks like a kangaroo. It sounds like the kangaroo is doing a kick.”
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Have the children move to an open area and softly kick the air. If there is not enough room, have the children swing their foot while sitting. Say “let’s pretend to be a kangaroo kicking and say the sound together, /k/ /k/ /k/. Now think about your tongue. Where is it in your mouth when you say /k/? You should feel the back of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. When you say /k/ your tongue moves down. Your mouth stays open the entire time.”
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Say “let me show you how to find /k/ in the work lick. I am going to say the word in slow motion and see if I can hear the K kick. L-l-l-i-i-i-k. Let me say it even slower, l-l-l-l-l-i-i-i-i-i-kuh. There it is! I felt the back of my tongue on the roof of my mouth and then come down! Kicking /k/ is in the word lick!
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Say, “Now let me tell you a tongue tickling story. Kylie the kangaroo was in kindergarten. In Ms. Katie’s class the toys that were the most fun were the keys. Every kid in the class loved to play with them. One day while playing with the keys, Kylie was not kind and decided to kick all the other kid’s keys. We are all going to say, ‘Kylie the kangaroo was not kind and kicked the other kid’s keys’ together three times.” (on the chart) Say it three times. “Now we are going to say it one more time, but this time we will stretch out every time we hear the kicking K. (this can be difficult to stretch out, focus on separating /k/ from the rest of the word) Kkkk-ylie the kkkk-angaroo was not kkk-inf and kkk-icked the other kkk-id’s kkk-eys. This time we are going to kick every time we hear kicking K. (students can either stand up or remain seated) [kick] K-ylie the [kick] k-angaroo was not [kick] k-ind and [kick] k-icked the other [kick] k-id’s [kick] k-eys.”
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[Ask students to take out a pencil and a piece of primary paper] Say, “We use the letter K to spell /k/. Capital K looks a little bit like a kangaroo with its hand up high and its long tail. Start at the roof and draw a line straight down to the sidewalk. This makes the body of the kangaroo. Next, we need to make its arm. We need to draw a diagonal line down from the roof to the fence, touching the body. Lastly, we need to make the tail. We keep our pencil on the same spot and draw a diagonal line down from the fence to the sidewalk. (repeat instructions for lowercase k, changing only the length of the arm) I am going to come around and see everyone’s K’s! When I put a stamp on your paper, I want you to write 6 more!”
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Ask the following questions, calling on individual students to answer. Do you hear /k/ in king or prince? String or kite? Keep or take? What about love or like? Knock or hit? Say, Now let’s see if we can feel our mouth move /k/. If you hear kicking K, I want you to pretend to kick with your fingers. Had, kiss, paper, kid, check, stretch, to, kayak, kitten.”
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Say, “let’s look at a book with a lot of kicking Ks!” Read pages 27 and 28 of Dr. Seuss’s ABCs draw out the Ks. Ask students if they can think of any other words that start with K.
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Show KID on chart and model how to tell if it is kid or lid: “K tells me to kick, /k/, so I know this is /k/-i-d. Now you try some!” [show cards/powerpoint for each word] SITE: is this Kite or site? KITTEN: is this kitten or mitten? KEEP: is this keep or peep? HISS: is this kiss or hiss FIND: is this one kind or find?
Assessment
Distribute worksheet. Students color the pictures that have /k/ in them and circle the letter K in each. Individually have students demonstrate phonetic cue reading by having them read the cue words from step 8.
References
Kicking Karate with K by, Caroline Whitehead
https://cwhitehead0029.wixsite.com/cgwhitehead/emergent-literacy
Dr. Seuss’s ABCs 1963
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