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

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencils; chart with “Gus’s grumpy goat gives gummies”; drawing paper and crayons; (Grumpy Goat Helquist, 2013); word cards with GOAT, GRUMPY, GOT, FREE, and FLOAT; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /g/.

 

Procedures: 1. Say:  Our language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for- the syllable breakup as we say words. Today we are going to work on moving with the syllables in our words /g/. We spell /g/ with the letter G. G sounds like the gargling of water in our mouth. 

 

2. Let’s pretend to gargle water in your mouth, /g/,/g/, /g/. [ Pantomime gargling water] Notice how your mouth is moving? (pointing at the throat). When we say /g/, our mouths move in a closed open form like our mouth does when gargling water so it doesn't come out. 

 

3. Let me show you how to find /g/ in the word WAGON. I’m going to stretch out a wagon in a super slow motion and listen for the water gargling. Www-a-g-on. Slower: Www-a-a-g-g-on. There it was! I felt my mouth gargle back and forth as I went through every syllable. gargle /g/ is in the /g/. 

 

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler [on the chart]. Gus has a goat, a big grumpy animal. The goat has been grumpy since the good ole days, but Gus got him some gummies. Now he feels glad again. Here’s our tickler: “Gus’s grumpy goat gives gummies.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, this time, stretch the /g/ at the beginning of the words. “Gggus’s gggrumpy ggoat ggives ggummies.” Try it again and this time break it off the word: “/g/ us’s /g/ rumpy /g/ oat /g/ ives /g/ ummies.”

 

5. [ Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter G to spell /g/. Capital G looks like a swoosh of water. Let’s write the lowercase letter g. Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little o from the roof to floor then straighten it out all the way past the sidewalk. Then curve it under the sidewalk (in a lower-case j form). I want to see everybody’s g. After I put a star next to it, I want you to make nine more just like it. 

 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /g/ in foot or give? Gap or full? Give or take? Goat or frog? Dog or cat? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /g/ in some words. Wash your hands if you hear /g/. The good, giving, cat, got, gummies, in, his, goodies. 

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7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Brett Helquist tells us about a grumpy goat who is just mean to the other farm animals! Read page 3, drawing out /g/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /g/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like gummy-gilly- goat-glob. Then have everyone write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their creature. Display their work*

 

8. Show GOT and model how to decide if it is got or lot. The g makes me gargle my water, /g/, so this word is gggg-ot, got. You try some: FREE: free or glee? FLOAT: float or goat? GRUMPY: grumpy or lumpy? MOAT: moat or goat? 

 

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the picture that begins with the letter G. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words for step #8. 

 

Reference to further book options: 

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

 

worksheet assignment: https://twistynoodle.com/circle-the-words-that-begin-with-g-coloring-page/