Ms. Cooley's Cool Reads
Buzz like a bee with the letter /z/
Rationale: The lesson will help children identify /z/, the phoneme represented by Z. Students will learn to recognize /z/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (a buzzing bee) and the letter symbol z, practicing finding /z/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /z/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: 1) Primary paper and pencil;2) crayons and drawing paper; 3)chart paper with “Zebras Zip and Zoom around the Zoo” on it; 4)Word cards: ZIP, JAG, ZOO, FLIP, ZERO, ZOOM; 5)Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); 6)assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /z/
Procedures:
1. Say: “Our written language is a secret code. Learning what letters stand for and say can be a little tricky. By moving our mouths as we say each word, we can find out what each letter stands for. Today, we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /z/. We spell /z/ with the letter Z. Have you ever heard bees buzz with the letter Z? The letter Z sounds just like a buzzing bee.
2. Say: “Let’s pretend we are like bees buzzing through a field for some honey, /z/, /z/, /z/. See how your tongue touched the top of your mouth and you felt the vibrations. That’s what we do when we say the letter /z/.”
3. Say: “Now I’ll show you how to find /z/ in the word Zip. I’m going to stretch out zip out in slow motion and listen for the vibrations. Zzz-i-p. Slower: Zzzz-i-i-i-p-p. I heard the vibrations! I felt my tongue at the top of my mouth! I can feel the /z/ in zip!”
4. Say: “Now let’s try a tongue twister together(chart)! “Zebras Zip and Zoom around the Zoo”. Okay, that was really good, but this time let’s try and stretch out the /z/ at the beginning of each word. “Zzzebras zzzip and zzzoom around the zzzzoo” This time, let’s try and break the /z/ off the word. “/Z/ ebras /z/ ip and /z/ oom around the /z/ oo.”
5. (Prompt students to take out primary paper and pencil). “We use the letter Z to spell /z/. Let’s practice drawing the letter /z/. We are going to use this special paper and make a zig-zag just like a bee does when they buzzing around. Start with your pencil on the rooftop. I want you to draw a straight line for the roof. Make a straight line going across the rooftop then take your pencil and make the “zig-zag” from the end of your roof to the beginning of the sidewalk. Now finish by drawing a straight line for the sidewalk. Your side walk will look just like the line you drew for your roof. Do you see how your /z/ makes a zig-zag? The big Z you just wrote is called a capital Z. Now we’re going to practice writing a lowercase z, which is just a smaller version of the one you just wrote. What you’re going to do is start at the fence at make a straight line to the right. Then you’re going to draw a line across and to the bottom where the sidewalk is. Then you’re going to draw another straight line just like the one on the fence. When you’re done, I want to see everyone’s. After I’ve checked your work, I want you to try to write it nine more times!”
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they know the correct answer. Say: “Do you hear /z/ in zap or pap? zoo or boo? zig or jig? Say: “Let’s practice this tongue tickler: “Zebras zipped a zillion zippers. Now can you feel your tongue at the roof of your mouth when you say those words?
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature
whose name starts with Z. Can you guess what it will be?" Read page 36, drawing out /z/. Ask
children if they can think of other words with /z/. Ask them to make up a silly
creature name like Zitter-zetter-zett, or Zoober-zipper-zang. Then have each student
write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly
creature. Display their work.
8. Show ZOOM and model how to decipher whether it is zoom or room. Say “The /z/ tells me to buzzzzz like a bee, so this word is z-z-zoom. How about you try some? Zag: zag or bag?, Red: zed or red?, Zeal: zeal or real? Zen: zen or pen?”
9. For assessment, have students complete the worksheet found in the given link. Students must select the picture that begins with the letter Z and color the pictures that begin with Z. Students are to be called up individually to read the phonetic cue words from step 8 while they are working on the worksheet.
References
“Buzz like a bee with the letter Z” by Lauren Nix
https://sites.google.com/site/mylessondesigns/home
Assessment worksheet: