Emergent Literacy | Reading Designs

Learning N in the Stables with the Horses

Emergent Literacy Design

By: Reilly Davis

Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /n/, the phoneme represented by N. Students will be able to recognize /n/ in spoken words by learning an analogy (neigh of a horse) and the letter symbol N. They will practice finding /n/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /n/ to understand the difference between rhyming words and beginning letters.

Materials:

Primary paper,
Pencils
Dot Color Markers
Drawing paper and crayons,
“Eating the Alphabet” by Lois Elhert,
Flashcards with words written out on them (nose, name, neat, next, nest)
Worksheet to assess phoneme awareness by identifying pictures that start with the letter N, practice sheet for writing the letter N.

Procedures:

“In class today, we are going to learn the letter “N.” This letter is special and has its own sound. You hear the letter probably more than you think. We are going to learn how to sound out the letter N, as well as write it on paper, and then eventually recognize it in our words.”

“Let’s pretend to neigh like a horse. /n/, /n/, /n/n. Notice where your tongue is? (touching top teeth). When we say /n/, we touch our tongue to the roof of our mouths.”

“Let me show you how to find /n/ in the word tent. I’m going to sound it out very slowly and listen for the neigh sound.. Name. Nnnname. N-ame. There it is! I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth.”

“Now let’s try a tongue tickler-- Nelly was a night nurse in the noisey neonatal unit at the hospital. She wore navy scrubs and used needles during each night shift. Here’s our tickler: Nelly the night nurse wears navy scrubs. Repeat after me! Nelly the night nurse wears navy scrubs. Now let’s stretch it out similar to how we did with the word tent. Like this: Nnnellly the nnnnight nnnurse wears nnnnavy scrubs. Now it is time to break up the N sound from the word. Like this: N-elly the n-ight n-urse wears n-avy srubs.”

***Give students some primary paper and a pencil to begin learning how to write the letter N*** . “We are going to use paper and pencil to learn how to write the letter N which we just learned makes the nnnn sound. I am going to demonstrate how to write the letter and then I will give you time to practice on your own paper.” ** (will physically demonstrate this whole section on the board for students to see)** “ To start, draw a straight line down from the top of the fence all the way down to the sidewalk. Then you will move back up to the top of the fence and draw a diagonal line to the right down to the side walk. Then from that second side walk line at the bottom, you will draw a straight line up to the fence.” (physically demonstrating on the board for students to see). “Now I want to see you draw 4 ‘N/s’ on your paper.”

***Show the word nose and have students tell whether it’s nose or toes.**** “This word is nose because we hear the /n/ sound like we hear in neigh from a horse. “Let’s try some more. Is this word name or fame? Name because we hear the ‘n’ sound again. We’ll try some more and think about them in your head. Nice or lice? Neat or treat?”

****This time call on students and ask them how they knew****. “Do you hear /n/ in neighbor or roommate? time or noon? Same or Name? Now let’s see if you remember how we know what /n/ sound makes.. If you hear /n/ in the word, say neighhh like a horse! Nancy named her noisy cat Nails. ****Determine whether or not the students know when to say neighhh. If they do not, try another, such as “Nancy’s neighbor never naps.” *****

“Now we are going to read an alphabet book! This book “Eating the Alphabet” by Louis Elhert. Each page has a letter of the alphabet and it has a food beginning with that letter.” Read the page with the letter N and have the students come up with a funny tongue tickler including a food with the letter N. An example: Need noodles now! *****Then have the students share with a partner which food they picked and why.*****

“Let’s do a coloring activity now! Can you think of any other words that you know that have /n/? There are lots of things that start with n, for example: nose, neck, nachos, napkins, etc. Think of as many words as you can that start with N. While you're thinking, I am going to pass out this color sheet and we are going to use the dot markers to color it!!”

****Give student practice sheet and have them work on #5 on their own. Goal of the worksheet is to have them trace the letter N, then color in the N, and then have them show the class their letter *****

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References: https://elizabethkatewelch.wixsite.com/my-site-2/emergent-literacy-design

Practice worksheet : https://twistynoodle.com/letter-n-dot-painting-2-coloring-page/

Book: Ehlert, Lois. “Eating the Alphabet.” Boston ; New York : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [1989].

https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Alphabet-Lois-Ehlert/dp/015201036X