Miss Whitehead's Reading Lesson Plans
Emergent Literacy Design
Kicking Karate with K
Rationale
This lesson will help children identify /k/, the phoneme represented by K. Students will learn to recognize /k/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (cracking board) and the letter symbol K, practicing finding /k/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /k/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials
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Poster that says, "Kenny wasn't kind in Kindergarten when he kicked Kate in the kitchen."
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Primary paper
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K is for Kissing Cool Kangaroo by Giles Andreae (Orchard Books 2009)
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crayons
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notecards with the KID, KIND, MITTIN, KING, KEEP, HISS, and TIN
Procedures
1. Say, “When English is written out, it is like a top-secret code. Reading words is just understanding the secret code! The hardest part is learning what letters stand for and how our mouths move when we say words. Today we are going to discover how the mouth mouths for /k/. We spell /k/ with the letter K. K looks like someone doing karate with his arm and leg out. /k/ makes a sound like the cracking of the karate board.”
2. Move children to an open space where they would have room to gently kick the air. If you do not have space, let them use their fingers to kick the air. Say, “Let’s pretend to kick the karate board /k/, /k/, /k/. [gently kick air]. Notice where you tongue is when you make this sound. The back of your tongue is touching the top of your mouth. Your mouth is open the whole time, but it gets bigger when you move your tongue away from the top of your mouth.
3. Say: “Let me show you how to find /k/ in the word bike. I am going to stretch bike out in super slow motion and listen for the board to crack. B-I-I-I-k. Slower. Buuhh- I-I-I-I-I- Kuh. There it is! I felt my mouth get wider and my tongue to lower from the top of my mouth. Cracking /k/ is in bike.”
4. Say, “Let’s try a Tongue Tickler. [on chart] Kate loved kindergarten with Mrs. Karen! She especially loved to clean the kitchen after snack time. One day, a bully named Kenney was in a bad mood and kicked Kate! Kenney wasn’t kind in kindergarten when he kicked Kate in the kitchen. Everybody say it three times together.” Say it together 3 times. “Now let’s say it one more time and stretch out the /k/ at the beginning of the words. (It can be difficult to streatch out stop phonemes) Kkkeenney wasn’t kkkind in kkkindergarten when he kkicked KKKate in the kkkitchen. Try it again, but this time break /k/ off of the word. /K/ enney wasn’t /k/ ind in /k/ indergarten when he /k/ icked /K/ ate in the /k/ itchen
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. “We use letter K to spell /k/. Capital K looks like an adult kicking karate. Start your pencil and the roof and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk. This is the body. To draw the arm, go back to the roof and move to the right a little bit. Draw a diagonal line from the roof to the fence post and touch the body. To draw the leg, keep your pencil at the same spot on the fence post, and draw a diagonal line down to the sidewalk.” (Repeat instructions for lowercase k except the arm is shorter and starts at the fence post and meets the body and leg in between the fence post and sidewalk.) I want everyone to show me their K’s! When I put a sticker on it, I want you to write 9 more just like it.
6. Ask the following questions and call on students to answer why they believe their answer is correct. Do you here /k/ in keep or steal? Key or door? Mean or Kind? King or Prince? Hug or Kiss? Say: “Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /k/ in some words. Karate kick with your fingers if you hear /k/. The, kind, King, had, to, kayak, down, the, stream, to kiss, the, kitten.
7. Say: “Let’s look at the that has wild animals in it. Some of these animals are far away in Australia!” Read page 13 of K is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo, and draw out the /k/. Ask the students if they can think of any other words that start with /k/. Let them name the kangaroo on their worksheet with a name that starts with /k/. They can color the kangaroo, and display their work.
8. Show KID and model how to decide if it is kid or lid: The K tells me to kick the board, /k/, so this word is KKK-id, kid. You try some: KIND: kind or find? MITTEN: kitten or mitten? KING: king or ring? HISS: kiss or hiss? KEEP: keep or jeep? TIN: kin or tin?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with K. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
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References
Cracking Nuts with "K" by Anna Piper
Andreae, Giles and Guy Parker-Rees. K Is For Kissing Kangeroo. Orchard 2009
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Click here to go to Developments Reading Index
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