Dribble Dribble With the Letter D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /d/, the phoneme represented by D. Students will develop the ability to recognize /d/ in spoken words by using a meaningful gesture to correspond with the phoneme sound (dribbling a basketball) and the letter symbol D. They will practice identifying /d/ in words and applying phoneme awareness with /d/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters. Students will apply phoneme awareness with /d/ by coloring pictures that start with the letter D.   

 

Materials:

-Primary paper and pencil

-Poster with tongue tickler (Dexter’s dog dashed after the dawdling duck.) written at the top

-Crayons

-Don and Dots by: Veronica Angel (Reading A-Z, 2005)

-Word cards: DIME, DUNK, DANCE, CAVE, DOLL, MIGHT

-Assessment worksheet identify words that start with /d/

 

Procedures:

1. Teacher says, “Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for. Our mouths move in a certain way to say certain words.  Today, we will work on studying the way our mouths move when we say /d/. We will also learn to spell /d/ with the letter D. D looks almost like a round basketball, and /d/ sounds like a dribbling basketball “/d/,/d/, /d/.”

 

2. “Let’s pretend we are dribbling a basketball, /d/, /d/, /d/” (Pantomime bouncing a ball up and down). “Notice where your teeth and lips are?” (Touching open lips) “When we say /d/, we put our lips apart, put our teeth together, and let the air blow out between teeth. Also, our tongues hit the roof of our mouth.” “Say it with me: /d/. Do you feel it?” 

    

3. “Let me show you how to find /d/ in the word tide. I’m going to stretch tide out in super slow motion and listen for the dribbling ball sound. Ttt-i-i-id. Slower: Ttt-i-i-i-ddd. There it was! I felt my lips part, my teeth go together, and my tongue touch the roof of our mouth. I can also hear /d/ in the word tide.”

 

4. “Let’s try a tongue tickler (on poster). “Dexter’s dog dashed after the dawdling duck.” Everybody say it three times together and bounce your basketball every time you hear /d/. Now say it again, and this time stretch out the /d/ in the words: “Dddexter’s dddog dddashed after the dddawdddling ddduck.” Now, let’s say the sentence one more time and break the /d/ off the words: “/D/exter’s /d/og /d/ashed after the /d/aw/d/ling /d/uck.”    

 

5. (Hand out primary paper and pencils to the students.) “We use the letter D to spell /d/. A capital D looks like half a basketball, while the lowercase d looks like a ball on a stick. Let’s write the lower case letter d. Start at the fence, draw a curved line down to the sidewalk (like a lowercase c), and then draw a straight line starting at the rooftop down to the sidewalk that connects to the c. Now you have a little d. After I put a smile on your paper, I want you to make 8 more just like it.”  

 

6. (Call on students to answer and tell how they knew the word had a /d/.) “Do you hear /d/ in dog or log? Up or down? Dive or hive? Light or dark? Look or find? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move to /d/ in some words. Dribble the basketball if you hear /d/ in these words on animals: fish, deer, bird, snake, toad, duck, tiger.  

 

7. Say: “Let’s read the book Don and Dots! Booktalk: This book is about a boy named Don that is given a pad with dots and loves them! He puts dots everywhere — on anyone or anything! Will Don’s Dad allow him to put a dot on him, too? Let’s read to find out.” Read the book and have students dribble an imaginary basketball every time they hear /d/ in the story. Ask students to name something they like that has a /d/ sound, like how Don liked dots. Lastly, have students write a sentence using invented spelling on what they like and draw a picture to represent the sentence. 

 

8. Show DIME and model how to decide if the word is dime or time: “The D tells me to dribble my basketball, /d/, so this word is ddd-iii-mmm, dime. You try some: DUNK: sunk or dunk? DANCE: bounce or dance?  CAVE: save or cave? DOLL: doll or ball? MIGHT: might or fight?

 

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to trace the letter D (both uppercase and lowercase) starting at the dot and color the pictures that begin with the D.  Call up students individually to read the phonics cue words from #8.

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Angel, Veronica & Kastner, John (Illustrator). Don and Dots.  (2005).Tucson, AZ:

Reading A-Z. (pp. 1-10).

            http://mariamroshdy.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/4/7/23471432/raz_d08_dots.pdf

 

Assessment worksheet:

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-d_WFFZB.pdf

 

Basketball gif:  http://www.animatedimages.org/img-animated-basketball-image-0007-42300.htm

 

Dumas, Carly. “Dribbling With D. 

https://sites.google.com/site/msdumasreadinglessons/home/emergent-literacy-design-dribbling-with-d 

 

Mitchell, Lauren. “D, d, d Says the Dribbling Ball”.

https://sites.google.com/site/mrsmitchellsreadinglessons/home/d-d-d-says-the-dribbling-ball

 

Murray, Bruce. Emergent Literacy Design. “Brush Your Teeth with F”.

 

 

 

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