Rationale:

This lesson will help children identify /w/, the phoneme represented by W. Students will learn to recognize /w/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (willy the wiggly worm) and the letter symbol W, practice finding /w/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /w/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

• Primary paper and pencil

• The book Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley

• Laminated sheet with tongue tickler: “Walter Wiggles With Willy the Wandering Worm.”

• Word cards with WIN, WET, WALK, WART, WATER, WANT

• Assessment worksheet/identifying pictures with /w/

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “Sometimes it can be tricky to figure out what sounds words make when there are so many letters in the alphabet. A good way to figure out how those sounds is to look at how a person’s mouth moves to say /w/. The sound /w/ is spelled with the letter W. We hear this sound when we talk about Willy the Wandering Worm. When you see a worm wander around, you may say to yourself ‘wiggle, wiggle’ as you watch the worm wiggle to get to where he is going. Our mouths make a circular shape when we say ‘wiggle, wiggle’ and watch Willy the Wandering Worm!”

2. Say: “Let’s all make the /w/ sound and look at our neighbors to see what shape our mouth makes when we say it. Our mouths form a circle when we make the /w/ sound!”

3. Say: “Let me show you how to find /w/ in the word WALK. I’m going to stretch WALK out in super slow motion so we can listen for a Wiggle. “Www- a-l-k”. Slower: “Wwww-a-l-k” There it was! I felt my mouth make a circle and make a wiggle. I can feel the wiggle /w/ in WALK.

4. Say: “Let’s say a tongue tickler: have you ever seen a worm on the ground? If you have, you know that worms wiggle to get around. Whenever my friend Walter sees one, he can’t help himself from wiggling too! Let’s say, ‘Walter wiggles with willy the wandering worm.’ Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and make sure to emphasize the /w/ at the beginning of the words. ‘Wwwalter Wwwiggles Wwwith Wwwilly the Wwwandering Wwworm’. Try it again and this time break the /w/ sound off the word: ‘/w/alter /w/iggles /w/ith /w/illy the /w/andering /w/orm’”

5. Have students take out primary paper and a pencil. Say: “I am going to show everyone how to write the letter W that makes the sound /w/. First, start at the rooftop and slant down to the sidewalk, then back up to the rooftop, another slant to the sidewalk, and then one more slant up to the rooftop. I want you to try it yourselves and I will walk around and star your work. Once I draw a star on your paper, I want you to write nine more W’s to practice.”

6. Call on students to explain the following: Do you hear /w/ in WIN or PIN? In SET or WET? In WALK or TALK?

7. Say: “Let’s see if you can spot your mouth move for a /w/ sound in this sentence. If you hear a /w/, wiggle like Willy the Worm! ‘Wanda washes windows with warm water’”

8. Say: “Let’s look at a book with a lot of /w/ sounds! This is the story of Mrs. Wishy Washy and all of the animals she must wash on her farm. What kinds of animals do you think she has? Do you think she will be able to wash them all? While we read to find out more about the story, listen for the /w/ sound and carefully practice making the sound by forming a circle with your mouth and wiggling along!”

9. Distribute the assessment worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with /w/.

 

References:

Lauren Romano, Wilson Says Woof

https://sites.google.com/site/msromanosrockinlessons/home/wilson-says-woof-with-w

Lauren Thomas, Wemberly worried when Will went wacky

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/thomaslel.htm

Kori Smith, Riding the Ambulance with W

http://korismith334.wixsite.com/kindergartenkids/emergent-literacy

 

Assessment Worksheet

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/w-begins1.htm