Jumping for joy with j!
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /j/, the phoneme represented by J. Students will learn to recognize /j/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (jumping rope) and the letter symbol J, practicing finding /j/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /j/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “John got juice and jelly on his jacket when Judy jumped on him”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’ ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with JET, COKE, JAM, JUMP, MADE, and BOY; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /j/ (URL below).
Procedures:
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Say: Sometimes it can be hard for us to figure out what the letters in our language stand for -- the mouth moves we make when we say words. Today we are going to be learning the mouth movement for /j/. We spell /j/ with the letter J. The letter J looks like a hook, and /j/ sounds like jumping rope.
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How many of you like to jump rope? Let’s pretend we are jumping rope together! /j/, /j/, /j/. [Twirl hands like you are jumping rope] Did you notice how your tongue raises but your lips are open? When we say /j/, your lips pucker almost like a fish’s mouth!
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Let me show you how to identify /j/ in the word jam. I’m going to stretch it out in super slow motion and listen for that sound of the jump rope. Jjj-a-a-am. Slower: Jjjjj-a-a-a-mmm. There we go! I could feel my tongue rise and my lips pucker. Jump rope /j/ is in jam!
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Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]! John’s favorite after school snack is jelly on toast with a big glass of juice. He came home to eat his snack, but today he had to eat with his little sister, Judy. Judy likes to jump on John to play with him, so here is our tickler: “John got juice and jelly on his jacket when Judy jumped on him.” Let’s say it three times together! Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /j/ at the beginning of the words. “Jjjohn jjjuice jjjelly jjjacket Jjjudy jjjumped.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/j/ ohn /j/ uice /j/ elly /j/ acket /j/ udy /j/ umped.
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[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter J to spell /j/. Capital J looks like a hook. Let’s write the lowercase letter j. Start just below the fence with a straight line, then put a hook in the dirt. Then go back over the fence and put a dot. I want to see everyone’s j. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
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Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /j/ in jump or lump? Run or jog? Jeans or pants? Jelly or Kelly? Rail or jail? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /j/ in some words. Jump rope if you hear /j/: Jeremy, went, jogging, with, Jordan, every, day, in, June.
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Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about Jerry Jordan’s jelly jar!” Read the J page in the book. Ask students if they can think of other words with /j/. Ask them to write out their favorite /j/ word. Then have each student write their word with invented spelling and draw a picture representing their word! Display their work.
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Show JET and model how to decide if it is jet or wet: The J tells me to jump rope, /j/, so this word is jjj-et, jet. You try some: COKE: joke or coke? JAM: jam or ram? JUMP: bump or jump? MADE: jade or made? BOY: boy or joy?
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For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with J. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from #8.
References:
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/images-changed/kindergarten/j-as-begins2.gif
Garrett, Keneisha; Emergent Literacy Design: Jack Escapes the Box to Teach Mr. J.
http://ktg0004.wixsite.com/keneisha-garrett-au/about-us
Murray, Bruce; Emergent Literacy Design: Brush Your Teeth with F.
https://murraba.wixsite.com/lessondesigns2018/emergent-literacy
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