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Bouncing the Basketball
Madeline Langley
Rationale: This lesson can be used to help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented by B. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (bouncing a basketball) and the letter symbol B, practice finding /b/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words with beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencils; sheet with “Ben bounced the brown basketball before breakfast”; drawing paper and crayons; words with cards BAKE, BOOK, LAND, CALL, BET, and, BED; sheet with tickler tale reading “Bill and Betty baked brown bread”; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /b/; The Berenstain Bears’: New Baby by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Procedures: 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for – the mouth moves we make as we say words or letters. Today, we are going to work on how to the mouth moves when making /b/. Repeat this tickler tale with me so that we can hear /b/ in different words: Bill and Betty baked brown bread. [Wait for children to repeat] What words did you hear the sound /b/ in? [Wait for children’s responses.] We spell /b/ with the letter B. B looks like two balls stacked on top of each of and /b/ sounds like a ball bouncing.
2. Now, let’s pretend that we are bouncing a basketball up and down. [Pantomime bouncing a basketball] We hear the /b/ sound when the ball hits the ground and bounces back up to us. Every time we hear the /b/ sound, let’s move our hand up and down like we are bouncing a ball. Notice that when we say /b/ our top and bottom lip touch each other and then bounce apart, just like a basketball bouncing off the ground.
3. Let me show you how to find /b/ in the word bat. I am going to stretch out bat in super slow motion and I want you to listen for the bouncing basketball. Bbb-a-a-t. Slower: Bbb-a-a-a-at. There it is! I could feel my lips touching each other and bouncing apart. I can hear the basketball /b/ in bite.
4. Now that we can hear /b/, let’s try a tongue twister (on chart). “Ben bounced basketballs before breakfast.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /b/ at the beginning of the words. “Bbben bbbounced bbbasketballs bbbefore bbbreakfast.” Try it again and this time break the /b/ off the words: “/B/en /b/ounced /b/asketballs /b/efore /b/reakfast.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencils.] We use the letter B to create the sound /b/. Capital B looks like a line with two basketballs stacked on top of each other. Let’s write the lowercase b. Start just below the rooftop and make a straight line all the way down to the sidewalk. Now bounce back up and around, hitting the fence, and landing back at the sidewalk. I want to see everyone’s b. After I put a star on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /b/ in bear or frog? Ribbon or string? Kite or bite? Dad or cab? Bike or car? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /b/ in some words. Bounce your ball if you hear /b/: The, big, brown, bear, ate, blueberries, for, breakfast.
7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book.” The Berenstain Bears’: New Baby. Booktalk: Say: “Small Bear is a young bear that lives in Bear Country. He lives with his mom and dad and loves it! One day, Small Bear noticed that his bed was getting too small. Momma Bear and Poppa Bear come up with a plan for Small Bear’s bed. What will they do with it? Let’s read to find out!” Read the book aloud once. Then reread the book and say: “I am going to read this one more time. I want you to listen for /b/ as I read. Whenever you hear /b/, I want you to bounce your basketball as high as you can.” Ask the students: “Can anyone think of any other words that begins with /b/?” Have the students draw a picture that represents their B word or invented spelling using the paper and crayons.
8. Show BED and model how to decide if it is bed or led. The B tells me to bounce by basketball, /b/, so this word is bbbb-e-d, bed. You try some: BOP: bop or mop? BANG: fang or bang? MAD: mad or bad? BAKE: bake or cake? TRUE: blue or true?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet to the class. Students will practice writing “b” by writing the first sound of the words. Students will then read the words and match the words with the appropriate picture. Call on students to come up individually and read the phonetic cue words from #8.
References:
Assessment Worksheet: http://www.morecoloringpages.com/work-sheets/fill-in-the-blank-letter-b_2969_color.html
Avant, Shelby: “Bouncing the Ball with B” http://savant1929.wixsite.com/msavantdapperdesigns/page2
Stan and Jan Berenstain, The Berenstain Bears’: New Baby. (1974)
