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Make Muffins with Mom, Mmm!

Emergent Literacy Design

By Augusta Yearout

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Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M. Students will recognize /m/ in spoken words by learning a hand gesture (rubbing tummy - “mmm”) and the letter symbol M, practice finding /m/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters. Students will also learn a sound analogy for /m/ by looking at an image of a hummingbird.

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Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Mary and Mom make many muffins”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963) ; slides with image and animated sound analogy (Humminghird - Mm-m-m); word cards with MAP, MUD, PART, MIND, MUST, GIRL, and MAIL; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /m/ (URL below).

 

Procedures:

1. Say: Our written language is a written code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for — the mouth moves as we make as we say words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the moth move /m/. We spell /m/ with the letter M. M looks like a mountain with two peaks! The word 'mushroom' starts with the letter M, we can hear the Mm sound at the beginning of the word. A hummingbird says Mm-m-m, like a humming sound. Can you hum? (refer to image), and /m/ is the sound we make when we rub our tummies when we eat something yummy. Mmm!

2. Let’s pretend we just ate something delicious, /m/. [Pantomime rubbing tummy] Notice where your lips are? (pressed together). When we say /m/, we press our lips together and block the air from leaving our mouth.

3. Let me show you how to find the /m/ in the word lemon. I am going to stretch lemon out in super slow motion and listen for the “Mmm” sound we make when rubbing our tummies [show hand gesture again]. Lll-ee-mm-on. Slower: Lll-e-e-m-m-m-o-n. There it was! I felt my lips press together and trap the air inside my mouth. Our /m/ sound [rub tummy] is in lemon! It is important to give examples and review to make students understand before building new knowledge.

4.  Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Mary and her mom make breakfast for their family. Mary might make muffins this morning. Mary’s mom buys muffin mix to make. Mary and her mom make the muffins. Here is our tickler: “Mary and Mom make many muffins, mmm!” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time stretch the /m/ at the beginning of the words. “Mmmary and Mmmommm mmmake mmmany mmmuffins.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/m/ary and /m/o/m/ /m/ake /m/any /m/uffins.”

5. [Have students take out primary paper and a pencil]. We use the letter M to spell /m/. Like the sound of a hummingbird, Mm-m-m. Capital M looks like this, lowercase m looks like this [show powerpoint slide with letter drawing animation]. M stands for mushroom. Let’s start by writing uppercase M. First I will show you an example. Start at the rooftop and draw a line straight down all the way to the sidewalk. Capital M looks like two mountain peaks. Let’s write lowercase m, which looks like two mountain peaks, but the peaks go to the fence instead of the rooftop. Draw a line down, a rounded hump to the fence and back to the sidewalk. Next, make the same peak again. That is how you write a lower-case m! I want to see everyone’s m’s. After I give you a smile mark, I want you to make 9 more like it.

6.  Call on students to answer and tell how they know: Do you hear /m/ in dirt or mud? Mean or nice? Light or dim? Calm or wild? Damp or dry? Top or bottom? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /m/ in some words. Rub your tummy if you hear /m/: The tiny mouse moves through the huge mansion.

7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seus tells us about many mumbling mice making music!” Read page 30, drawing out /m/. Ask children if they can think of any other words with /m/. Ask them to make up a sentence about the mice doing something besides making music (that has /m/) and have them draw a picture of the mice doing so. (Example, the mice can be mopping the floor).

8. Show MUG and model how to decide if it is mug or rug: The M tells me to rub my tummy, /m/, so this word is mmm-ug. You try some: MIX: mix or fix? MIND: find or mind? LARK: mark or lark? MAKE: bake or make?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students trace the uppercase and lowercase letter M and color the pictures that begin with M. Call students individually to read the phonic cue words from step #8.

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Reference:

Anna Ried Dove, Mr. Monkey Says MMM. https://annareiddove.wixsite.com/mysite

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Assessment Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-m_WFMNB.pdf

 

Seuss, . (1963). Dr. Seuss's A B C. Toronto: Random House.

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Letter Animations: Hummingbird GIF