Zip up your Jacket with Z

 

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Emergent Literacy Design

Rebecca Friday

 

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

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; drawing paper and crayons; Word cards with ZEBRA, ZAG, ZIG, ZOO; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /z/ (URL below). 

 

Procedures: 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for – the mouth moves as we say words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth when we say /z/. We spell /z/ with letter Z. Z looks like a zipper, and /z/ sounds like zipping up your jacket. 

 

2. Let’s pretend that we are zipping up our jacket, /z/, /z/, /z/. [Pantomime zipping up your jacket] Notice what your mouth does when you are saying that sound. When we are saying /z/, we put our top and bottom teeth together with your tongue touching the back of your bottom teeth and blow out air.   

 

3. We are going to learn how to find /z/ in the word graze. We are going to stretch graze out in slow motion. Make sure to listen for the zipper. Ggg-rrr-aaa-zzz-eee. There you go! Did you feel your teeth touching? 

 

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler. Zoe went to the zoo. It was a cold and windy day at the zoo, so she zipped her jacket. While there, she saw a Zebra. Zoe and the zebra became friends and zigzagged through the zoo. Here is our tickler: “Zoe and the Zebra zigzagged through the zoo.” Everyone says it together three times. Great! This time when we say it, we are going to stretch out /z/ at the beginning of the words. “Zzzoe, and, the, Zzzebra, ZzzigZzzagged, through, the, Zzzoo.” We are going to do it one more time. This time we are going to break it off the word: /z/ oe z /ebra /z/ ig /z/ agged /z/ oo. 

 

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter Z to spell /z/. We are going to write the uppercase letter Z and the lowercase z. Let’s start with the lowercase z. We are going to stay at the fence and move a bit to the right. Next, we are going to make a diagonal line down left to the sidewalk. Finally, we are going to move a small line along the sidewalk back to the right. Alright class, I would like all of you to try it on your own paper. I am going to come around and put a smiley on all of your papers when you are done. Terrific work! We are going to learn how to write the uppercase letter Z. It is just like the lowercase z, but we are going to start at the rooftop and move to the right just a bit. Next, we are going to go all the way down to the sidewalk and go back right. Alright I want you all to practice it on your primary paper. I am going to walk around and put a star on your paper this time. 

 

6. We are going to run through a series of words, and I want someone to tell me which word they hear /z/. Do you hear /z/ in dog or zebra? Eggs or zoo? Zap or drop? Zip or chip? Excellent job! Now I am going to read a phrase and whenever you hear /z/ I want you to pretend you are zipping up your jacket. Zelda wanted to see the zebra named Zap, so she zipped to the zoo. 

 

7. Ok class, we are now going to look at our alphabet book Z is for Moose. This book will help you recognize the different letters and their sounds. When we reach the letter z we are not only going to say /z/, but we are going to pretend like we are zipping up our jacket. Can any of you come up with a silly animal that starts with a Z? We are going to draw our own silly animals on the piece of paper you have at your table. 

 

8. Put ZEBRA up on the board and show how decide if it is zebra or horse. The Z is going to tell you to zip up your jacket, /z/. The word is zzzzz-ebra, zebra. Now I am going to let you practice this on your own. ZAG: Tag or Zag? ZIG: Zig or Fig? ZOO: Shoe or Zoo? 

 

9. To ensure that my students understand /z/, I am going to pass out the worksheet and have them circle whichever word has /z/. Then allow them to come up to the Elmo and show to the rest of the class their answer.

 

Reference: Kelly Bingham and Paulo Zelinsky, Z is for moose. 

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Assessment Worksheet: https://www.enchantedlearning.com/phonics/mc/z/index.shtml