Jack Escapes the Box to Teach Mr. J”

By: Keneisha Garrett

 

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /j/, the phoneme represented by J. Students will learn to recognize /j/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (jumping rope) and the letter symbol J, practice finding /j/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /j/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Jimmy John jumped for jelly”; drawing paper and crayons; Poem from an internet source; word cards with JUMP, JELLY, JAM, COKE,MAN,  JOKE, JOY, and JUICE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /j/.

 

Procedures:

 

• Say: Our Language is a code. Our mouth moves as we say each new word. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth movements for /j/. We spell /j/ with letter F. J looks like a hook, and sounds like jumping rope.

• Ask: How many students like to jump rope? Do you all know any words that start with /j/? Let’s pretend to jump rope, /j/, /j/, /j/. [the group jumps rope here] Notice that your top row of teeth and your bottom row of teeth clutch together. When we say /j/, your teeth clamp shut like you’re biting your favorite candy and your lips perk up like a fish.

• Let me show you how to find /j/ in enjoy. I’m going to stretch enjoy out in super slow motion and listen for my jump rope. En-jjj-ooy. Slower: Ennnnn-jjjjjjj-oooooyy. There it was! I heard my jump rope sound with the /j/ in enjoy.

• Let’s try a tongue twister. “Jimmy John jumped for jelly.” Everybody say it four times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /j/ at the beginning of words. “JJJimmy JJJohn jjjumped for jjjelly.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: /j/ immy /j/ ohn /j/ umped for /j/elly.

• Here the students will use primary paper. We use letter J to spell /j/. Capital J looks like a hook. Let’s write the lowercase letter /j/. Start just below the fence with a straight line, and then put a hook in the dirt. Then go back over the fence and put a dot. Use the same dot like you’re dotting a small i. I want to see everybody’s /j/. After, I put a check on it, I want you to make ten more just like it.

• Here, I will engage students in the next activity. Do you hear /j/ in jump or hump? Jam or ram? Jelly or belly? Jeans or ball? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move in some /j/ words. Pretend to jump rope if you hear /j/: rat, John, jacket, cat, car, dog, juice, jungle, jellyfish, to, the, flower, jack-rabbit, and candy.

• Let’s look at our poem for today. Jack tells us about what happens when he escapes from his magical box. He sees many things that begins with the letter /j/. We’ll have to read to see what all he finds. First, I want you all to think of some things Jack may find. I want you all to draw it and color it. Put your head down when you are finished.

• Show JAW and model how to decide if it is jaw or saw: The J tells me to jump rope, so this word is jjj-aa-ww. You try some: JACKQET: jacket or racquet? JOG: jog or log? JEEP: jeep or beep? JAM: jam or ham?

• I have a worksheet. Students will color, circle, or check the picture words that begin with J.

 

References:

Jean Warren, “Jack-In-The-Box”,

http://ownadaycare.com/blog/teaching-preschoolers-the-letter-j-alphabet-recognition-activities

 

Education. com- I used this to get my work sheet

Link: http://www.education.com/files/658001_659000/658359/beginning-sounds-coloring-jack-in-the-box.pdf

 

 

Poem Used for Book talk:

JACK-IN-THE-BOX “Jack-in-the-box, jumped out of his box, to see what he could see. He saw some juicy jelly beans And jam for biscuits and tea. He saw some super sonic jets. He saw some jazzy jeeps. He saw a jolly jester with jingles on his feet. He saw a jet black jaguar At the Jackson Zoo. He saw jellyfish and jumping kangaroos”. 

 

Click here to return to the Handoffs index.