Telling the Time with the Ticking Timer"T"
Rationale:
This lesson will help children identify the phoneme /t/, a sound that is represented by the letter T. Working through the lesson will enable the student to recognize the phoneme /t/ in spoken words by learning a expressive representation (telling the time with the ticking timer), practicing finding /t/ in the word, and learning a tongue tickler filled with /t/. The student will also learn to discern the letter /t/ in phonetic cue reading by differentiating rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
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Picture of a Ticking Timer
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Chart with the tongue tickler: “Tommy tricked Tim and took his train off the track.”
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Primary Paper: bring one piece for each student
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Pencils: one for each student
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Word cards: TAG, TOE, TIP, TANK, TALL, TASK
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The Assessment Worksheets: Identifies words with /t/
Procedures:
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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 letter T. T looks like a cross (without the top), and /t/ sounds like a ticking timer.
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Let’s pretend to be a ticking timer, /t/, /t/, /t/. [Pantomime ticking timer] Notice where your top teeth are?(Touching lower lip). When we say /t/, we push our tongue on the very top of our mouth and then pull it down as we push air out.
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Let me show you how to find /t/ in the word talk. I’m going to stretch talk out in super slow motion and listen for my ticking timer. Ttt-a-a-alk. Slower: Ttt-a-a-a-lk. There it was! I felt my teeth touch my lip and blow air. Ticking Timer /t/ is in talk.
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Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Tommy has a friend named Tim. Tommy tricked Tim and took his train. Here’s our tickler: “Tommy tricked Tim and took his train off the track.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time stretch the /t/ at the beginning of the words. “Ttttommy tttricked Ttttim and tttook his ttttrain off the 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 the /t/rack.”
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[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter T to spell /t/. Capital T looks like a cross. Let’s write the lowercase letter t. Start at the rooftop. Make a straight line all the way from the rooftop to the sidewalk. Then cross it at the fence. I want to see everybody/s t. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
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Then play The Letter T song to reiterate everything they just learned and let them follow along with the motions.
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Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /t/ in tire or wheel? teeth or smile? to or go? tackor sore? two or more? Say: “Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /t/ in some words. Tick the timer if you hear /t/: tear, bug, blue, tie, try, far, ball, tree, torn, fall
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Give out handout of Twinkle Twinkle. Say: “Let’s sing and read the song ‘Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.’ Now let’s slow it down, the first line. Draw out /t/. Then ask them to draw the nighttime or a star and have them write, “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star,” with invented spelling. Display their work.
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Show TAG and model how to decide if it is tag or bag. The T tells me the timer is ticking, /t/, so this word is tttt-ag. You try some: TOE: toe or row? TIP: tip or zip? TANK: tank or bank? TALL: tall or mall? TASK: task or mask?
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For the assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students can find and color the pictures that begin with T. While coloring, call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #9.
References:
Madison Wilihite, The Ticking Clock with T
https://sites.google.com/view/maddiewilhitectrd3000/emergent-literacy
The Letter T Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yl9p--gElU
Twinkle Twinkle Printout
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/MMLLTB.pdf
Assessment Worksheet
https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-t_WFNTM.pdf?up=1466611200
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