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Buzzing Bee Z

Emergent Literacy | Kellie Vosteen

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Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /z/, the phoneme represented by Z. Students will recognize /z/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (a buzzing bee) and the letter symbol Z, practice finding /z/ in spoken words, and apply phoneme awareness with /z/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words by beginning letters.

 

Materials:

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: When I walked outside this morning, I noticed some beautiful flowers over to my right. They were pink and smelled so wonderful! But, before I could take another step forward, the biggest bee I’ve ever seen came buzzing past my face! (Pantomime a buzzing bee with jerky hand motions and sounds of /z/.) Did you hear the buzzing sound that bee made? Today we are learning which letter makes the /z/ sound, and how we can be like detectives, noticing when /z/ is in words that we hear and say.

  2. /z/ is shown with the letter Z. Z looks sort of like the zig zag path of a buzzing bee. Let’s draw a Z in the air and pretend our fingers are a buzzing bee. I’ll do it once and you repeat after me. (Draw a Z in the air with fingers. Make the /z/ sound 3 times, once with each straight line. Allow students to repeat process several times.)

  3. Do you feel where your tongue is when you say /z/? It’s right against your bottom teeth! Let’s show our zig zag buzzing bee one more time to feel where your tongue is in your mouth. Repeat after me (repeat process from #2).

  4. Now I’ll show you how to find /z/ in the word cozy. I’m going to stretch out the word and listen for the sound of Buzzing Bee Z. C-o-o-o-zy. Hm. Let’s try it slower. C-o-o-z-z-z-y. There it was! I felt my tongue touch my lower teeth and blow air through. Buzzing Bee Z is in the word, cozy.

  5. Let’s try a tongue tickler. Zuri took a trip to the zoo where she saw elephants, ostriches, and zebras. Her absolute favorite animal was the zebras, so she watched them all day long. Here’s our tickler: “Zuri zoned in on zebras at the zoo.” (Establish a rhythmic way for students to say this.) Let’s say that three times together. Now we’ll say it again, but stretch out the /z/ at the beginning of words that have that sound: “Zzzzuri zzzzoned in on zzzzebras at the zzzzoo.” Okay, let’s try it again and break off the /z/ at the beginning of the words: “/z/ uri /z/ oned in on /z/ ebras at the /z/ oo.”

  6. [Have students take out primary paper and pencils] Z is the letter we use to spell /z/. We drew Z in the air earlier with Buzzing Bee Z. (Repeat process of pantomime from #2.) Both capital and lowercase z look like the zig zag of a buzzing bee. Now we will write lowercase z on paper. Begin by making a line that goes across the fence, left to right. Leave your pencil there and make a diagonal line that ends on the sidewalk right underneath where your pencil started. Lastly, make a line going across the sidewalk, left to right. I want to see everyone’s z. Once I have put a smiley face on your z, I want you to write 9 more just like it.

  7. Call on students to answer and say how they knew. Do you hear /z/ in zinc or work? bus or buzz? jelly or dizzy? zip or lip? Say: let’s see if you can spot the mouth move to /z/ in some words. When I read this sentence, use only your hand to zig and zag like a bee when you hear a word with /z/. The, zombie, zigs, and, zags, to, zap, Zoe’s, backpack, zipper.

  8. Say: let’s look at a new book. Everyone in this book is going somewhere in different ways. Some travel by helicopter, skateboard, or bike. All of these vehicles make different noises when they move. I’ll read some of the noises we hear. (Read page 1 of Zip, Whizz, Zoom! by Stephanie Calmenson, drawing out the /z/.) Those are some funny sounds! How many more made-up sounds can you name that use Buzzing Bee /z/? Call on students to hear their made up sounds that include /z/.

  9. Show zoo and model how to decide whether it is zoo or boo. Say: The z I know is like a Buzzing Bee /z/. So that word is z-z-z-z-oo, zoo. Now you can try some: zeal: meal or zeal? kit: kit or zit? zoom: room or zoom? zest: zest or nest? map: zap or map?

  10. Distribute the worksheets for assessment. Students will draw a line that connects pictures of zebras to other pictures beginning with Z. During this individual assessment, call individual students up to read phonetic cue words in #9.

 

Reference: Bruce Murray on teaching phonemes, “Making Friends with Phonemes” http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/lessons/phon/

Assessment worksheet: https://www.kidzone.ws/images-changed/kindergarten/z-as-begins1.gif

Bee GIF: https://www.buzzbrightpr.com/uploads/2/2/0/8/22084674/editor/bee-animated-gif-17.gif?250 

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