Emergent Literacy Design:
Quack Like a Duck with Q!
Madison Keith
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /q/, the phoneme represented by Q.
Students will learn to recognize /q/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (the sound that a duck makes) and the letter symbol Q, practice finding /q/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /q/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing between different images and deciphering which has the /q/ sound.
Materials: Primary primary paper and pencil; paper with cut out representation of the letter Q and the sideways Q that looks like a duck; Chart with tongue tickler “Queen Quinn loves quiet quilts”; Letter Qq worksheet (attached below); Letter Q Book by Tim Weibel (attached below); crayons; cards with the words SQUEAK, SQUISH, QUICK, WHEN, BALL, WRECK.
Procedures:
Say: Today we are talking about the letter Q. This is Q (point at cut out representation of the letter). Our written language is a secret code. If you tilt your head, Q looks like a duck’s head and bill. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for. First, lets think about how our mouth moves when we say /q/.
Let’s pretend like we are ducks and quack! /q/uack /q/uack /q/uack. Notice how we make the /q/ sound in the back of our mouths? When we say /q/ we blow air from the back of our mouth whilst making our mouth in a circle shape.
When we say /q/, it sounds like a quacking duck. To help us remember, lets flap our arms like a duck when we say make the /q/ sound. Try it!
Now we’re going to say a silly sentence. (point at tongue tickler.) Repeat after me to practice. Every time you hear the /q/ sound, flap your arms like a duck. Try it again, and stretch out each /q/ sound. “Qqqueen Qqquinn loves qqquiet qqquilts.” Next, break off the /q/ sound from the rest of the word. I’ll show you /q/ueen /q/uinn loves /q/uiet /q/uilts.
Pass out the primary paper and pencils then explain that we use the letter q to spell /q/. Lets practice writing capital Q’s. Start at the rooftop and make a circle that touches the sidewalk. Then, put a kickstand at the bottom of the O, making it Q. Try it! Now let’s draw lowercase /q/. begin below the fence, drawing a smaller circle and a hook at the bottom. Like a /g/ but backwards! Try it!
Call on students to answer which word has the /q/ sound. Do you hear /q/ in quilt or stilt? In quack or smack? In queen or seen? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /q/ in some words. (Present flashcards) Flap your wings like a duck when you hear /q/ SQUEAK, SQUISH, QUICK, WHEN, BALL, WRECK.
Give a book talk- Letter Q Book “In this book, there is a queen. This queen does not like loud ducks that quack. The queen becomes very angry at the duck. Will they become friends? Will the duck every stop quaking? Read the book to find out! Every time you hear me read the /q/ sound, flap your arms like a duck!”
Hand out the letter q worksheet and say “I want you to color the picture of each object that begins with the letter /q/. Say it out loud and flap like a duck for each time you say the /q/ sound.
Assessment:
Students will be assessed through my observation throughout the lesson as they read the short book, identify which flashcards have the /q/ sound, and the /q/ matching worksheet at the end of the lesson. Call on three individual students to report which picture they matched that begins with Q. Pictures that are matched correctly will demonstrate their knowledge on the /q/ sound.
Sources:
Letter Qq worksheet: http://sioncoltd.com/letter-q-preschool-worksheets.html/best-solutions-of-letter-q-preschool-worksheets-for-your-format-sample
Letter Q Book: file: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/letter-q.html