​Mrs. Alker's Lesson Designs

 

Rationale: The lesson will help children identify /z/. This phoneme is represented by Z. Students will be able to recognize /z/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (a buzzing bee) and the letter symbol z. Students will able to practice 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 “A Zebra Zipped a Zillion Zippers”

4)Word cards: ZIP, JAG, ZOO, FLIP, ZERO, ZOOM

5)Dr. Seuss's ABC book (Random House, 1963) 6)assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /z/

 

Procedures: 

1. Say: “Our written language is a secret code mapped out by letters. Learning what each letter stands for and says 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 ways our mouth moves with the sound /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/. Everybody try it. See how your tongue touched the top of your mouth. Did you felt the vibrations each time? That’s what we do when we say the letter /z/.”

 

3. Say: “Now I am going show you how to find /z/ in the word Zip. I’m going to stretch out zip out in super slow motion and listen for the vibrations. Zzz-i-p. Slower: Zzzz-i-i-i-p-p. I felt the vibrations and I felt my tongue at the top of my mouth! I can feel the /z/ in zip. Can you?”

 

4. Say: “Now let’s try a tongue twister together(chart)! “A Zebra Zipped a Zillion Zippers”. Everybody say it together. That was really good, but this time let’s try and stretch out the /z/ at the beginning of each word. “A zzzebra zzzipped a zzzillion zzzippers”. Now let's try this again and this time I want you to try to break off the /z/ in each word, “A /z/ ebra /z/ ipped a /z/ illion /z/ ippers.” 

 

5. (Prompt students to take out primary paper and pencil). “We use the letter Z to spell /z/. I want you to 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. Then 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 exchange papers with your neighbor.”

 

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 see if you can spot the mouth move /z/ in some words. Make sure you zigzag and buzz through the air if you hear /z/: zip, wiz, maze, tie, rat, jazz, craze, sky, fizz

 

7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Does everyone know who Dr. Seuss is? He is a famous author and writes funny books! In this book were going to read, 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 on the wall for everyone to see.

 

8. Show the word 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. While the students on working on step 8, students will be called up individually to read the phonectic cue cards. 

 

 

References:

Ms. Cooleys-Buzz like a Bee with the letter /z/: http://jnc0013.wix.com/cool-reads#!/c10fk

Buzz around with Z: https://sites.google.com/site/janelsresearchbasedlessonplans/home/buzz-around-with-z

 

Assignment worksheet:

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/z-begins2.htm