Making Money with M

Emergent Literacy Design: Making Money with M

Spencer Downs

Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /m/, the phenome represented by M. Students will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a real world sound analogy (rubbing their fingers together) and the letter symbol M, practice finding /m/ in words, and apply phenome awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials: Primary paper and pencil, word cards with MAN, MEN, MADE, MAIN, NAME, and CRAB, worksheet for assessment coloring Mm and identifying pictures with /m/ (URL below), crayons, and “Millie Waits for the Mail” by Alexander Steffensmeier.

Procedure:

Say: Our written language is a secret code. We have to play detective and figure out what the letters stand for. When we say words, our mouth moves and makes different shapes. Today, we’re going to work on spotting what happens to our mouth when we say /m/. We spell /m/ with the letter M. The word mad starts with the letter M and makes the sound /m/. We can make a hand gesture of rubbing money when we hear /m/.
Say: Let’s pretend we just got a lot of money. Make the sound /m/, /m/, /m/, and rub your fingers together. When we say /m/, our lips are touching and do not come apart.
Say: let me show you how to find /m/ in the word him. I’m going to stretch him out in super slow motion and I want you to listen for the /m/ sound.. Hh-ii-mm. Slower: Hhh-iii-mmm. I heard it! I felt my lips come together, my mouth was closed, and I pushed air out. Now I know how to find the /m/ sound in him.
Let’s try a tongue tickler. “Mary’s mooing cows make many movements” .” Let’s all say it together three times. Now, let’s say it again and stretch out the /m/ at the beginning of the words. “Mmmmary’s mmmooing cows mmmake mmmmany mmmmovemmments” Try it again, and this time break it off of the word: “/m/ary’s /m/ooing cows /m/ake /m/anyand /m/ove/m/ents.”
(Have students take out primary paper and a pencil.) We use the letter m to spell the /m/ sound. Capital M looks like a mountain a hiker would climb. Let’s practice writing a lowercase m. Start just below the fence and keep a straight line all the way down to the sidewalk. Then at the fence, draw a hump like a camel’s back going up and over, and back down to the sidewalk. Then at the fence again, draw a hump again. Everybody practice writing m and I will come around to look. After I check you off, practice writing nine more m’s.
Call out words to sentence and ask them where they hear the /m/. When they get it right, ask them how they knew: Do you hear /m/ in climb or school? mop or run? same or have? hit or mit? move or wake? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth movement /m/ in some words. Make the hand gesture and mouth movement when you hear /m/. When you are done reading ask the students if they can come up with any words with the /m/.
Say: “Let’s look at a book for some examples. In Millie Waits for the Mail, Millie the cow enjoys chasing the mail carrier until something happens.” Read the book drawing out /m/. Instruct the students that when the students hear the /m/ sound they should make the rubbing money hand gesture. When the book is over, ask them for some words they heard with the /m/ sound.
Show the word MAP and model how to decide if it is map or nap. The M tells me to pretend I am holding money, /m/, so this word is mm-ap, map. You try some: MUG: mug or bug? MEN: hen or men? MADE: made or paid? MASH: hash or mash?
For assessment, pass out the worksheet. Students are to color and circle the pictures that begin with M. Call on students to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

References: Jase Phillips, Vacuum with the letter V

https://jasep18.wixsite.com/my-site/emergent-literacy

URL for worksheet:

https://www.kidspuzzlesandgames.co.uk/puzzle-sheets/alphabet-letters-puzzle-sheets/m-i-spy-puzzle

Url for “Millie Waits for the Mail”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eANs0CBYvE

Steffensmeier, Alexander. Millie Waits for the Mail. BloomsburyPublishingUSA, 2007