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Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /t/, the phoneme represented by T. Students will learn to recognize /t/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (ticking clock) and the letter symbol T, practice finding /t/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /t/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

1. Primary paper and pencil

2. Poster with “Tommy tricked Tim and took his train off the track”

3. Drawing paper and crayons

4. Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963)

5. Word cards with TOE, TALL, TEAR, TUG, TEA, and TWO

5. Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /t/ (https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf?up=1466611200)

 

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. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /t/. We spell /t/ with the letter T. T looks like one of the hands on the clock with a straight line on top, and /t/ sounds like the ticking noise clocks make.

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2. Say: Let's pretend to be one hand of the clock and tick time away, /t/, /t/, /t/. [Pantomime ticking clock] Notice where your top teeth are? (Touching lower lip). When we say /t/, we tap our tongue behind our front, top teeth.

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3. Say: Let me show you how to find /t/ in the word kite. I'm going to stretch kite out in super slow motion and listen for the ticking clock sound. Kkk-i-i-te. Slower: Kkk-i-i-i-ttt-e There it was! I felt my tongue tap behind my front, top teeth to make the ticking clock sound! The ticking clock /t/ is in kite.

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4. Say: Now let’s try a tongue tickler (on poster). Tommy is a very sneaky boy. One day, Tommy played a tick on Tim by taking his train off the track. Tim got annoyed by Tommy’s trick. Here’s our tickler: “Tommy tricked Tim and took his train off the track.” Everybody, please say the tickler three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. “Tttommy tttricked Tttim and tttook his tttrain off ttthe tttrack.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/T/ ommy /t/ ricked /T/ im and /t/ ook his /t/ rain off /t/ he /t/ rack.”

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5. (Have students take out primary paper and pencil) Say: We use letter T to spell /t/. Capital T looks like one of the hands on the clock with a straight line on top. Let's write the lowercase letter t. Start at the rooftop. Make a straight line from the rooftop down to the sidewalk. Then cross the straight line you just made at the fence. I want to see everybody's awesome t! After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it!

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6. (Call on students to answer and tell how they knew) Say:

            a. Do you hear /t/ in tub or bath?

            b. Do you hear /t/ in sad or tube?

            c. Do you hear /t/ in slim or fat?

            d. Do you hear /t/ in pot or spoon?

        Now let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words

            e. Move your arm like a ticking clock if you hear /t/: Tim, ate, two, tacos, and, five, carrots, at, the, same, time.

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7. Say: “Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about turtles on a tree just made for turtles!” Read page 39, drawing out /t/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /t/. Ask them to make up a silly name for a turtle like Totter-Tetter-Tea. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

8. Show the word TIME and model how to decide if it’s tag or lag. Say: “The T tells me to move my arm like a ticking clock, /t/, so this word is ttt-ag. You try some!” (use word cards):

            a. TOE: toe or foe?

            b. TALL: fall or tall?

            c. TEAR: tear or fear?

            d. TUG: rug or tug?

            e. TEA: tea or flea?

            f. TWO: woo or two?

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

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References:

ABCMouse, “The Letter T Song,” https://youtu.be/WDjlIdI_Wdc

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Bruce Murray, The Reading Genie, http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

 

Seuss, Dr. Seuss’s ABC, Random House, 1991

 

Super Teacher Worksheets, “Words that Start with T t,” https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf?up=1466611200

 

TwistyNoodle, “Words That Begin with the Letter T Worksheet,”  https://twistynoodle.com/trace-the-words-that-begin-with-the-letter-t-worksheet/

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Wilhite, Madison. The Ticking Clock with T. Emergent Literacy Design. https://sites.google.com/view/maddiewilhitectrd3000/emergent-literacy

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Assessment worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf?up=1466611200

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