Miss Molly the Mouse

Emergent Reader

Phoneme Awareness

By: Rebecca Smith


Rationale:  In order for children to learn how to read, it is crucial that they be able to identify letters and the sounds that they make.  The letter-sound correspondence will be the basis of reading and so that is why it is so important for teachers to go over and specifically teach each letter of the alphabet.  The students should learn the letter or the grapheme along with the sound or the phoneme.  For this lesson I will be teaching the letter m.  We will go over the sound that the letter m makes as well as what the lower and upper case letters look like so that the children can identify the m in reading and know what sound corresponds to it.  My goal for today is to make sure that each student can write the upper and lower case forms of the letter m as well as know the phoneme that corresponds to it.  I want them to be able to identify m in written form as well as be able to identify objects that begin with the letter m.  Each letter is crucial to the success of a child’s reading, so it is important for students to learn this letter and accomplish this goal to move forward.


Materials: 1. A large picture of Miss Molly the Mouse (if a puppet of a mouse can be found that would be even better)

2. Pencils

3. Primary Paper

4. A board for the teacher to demonstrate on

5. Blank drawing paper

6. A sheet with different objects on it, some that begin with /m/ and some that do not.

Ex: a mouse, a table, a muffin, a cookie, a monkey, a moose, a car, a mountiain, etc.

7. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie



1. Explain Why:

            -I would say to the students, “We have been learning different letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make.  Today we will continue that and learn a new  letter.  Does anyone know why it is important to learn all the letters and the sounds they make?”  If they do not provide it, I will lead them to – “because it helps us learn to read, or because it will make us better readers.”


2. Review

            -We would first review all the letters that we have studied so far, the letters leading up to the letter m.

            -To do this, I would go through the alphabet, in order, calling upon different students, with their hands raised, asking to hear the letter and what sound it makes.  “Emily, what is that first letter on your list of the alphabet?” “A”  “Good, and what sound does it make?” “/a/ and sometimes /A/.”  And so it would continue.

            -When we finished with the letter l I would ask the students what letter they thought we were going to learn about next.  Hopefully they will provide m.


3.  Explain How:

            -To begin the lesson of the letter m I will explain to the students how we will move through the lesson.

            -“I have a friend that will help us to learn the sound that m makes, then we will learn how to write the letter m and then we will try to find different things that start with the letter m."


4. Model:

            -“Today I am going to introduce you to my friend Miss Molly the Mouse.  Miss Molly is going to help us learn more about the letter m.  Does anyone know what sound it makes?  mmmmm.   That is the sound you make when your mom is making cookies that smell really good, you would say, mmmmm.  Put your lips together and try to push through with the mmmm sound.  Let’s all say it, and rub your tummy when you do it, like you smell those cookies.  I have a sentence that we will all learn that has a lot of mmm sounds in it, so I want you to listen to my sentence first, and then we will all repeat it together.  Each time we hear the mmmm sound, rub your tummy.  Miss Molly the Mouse made many M and M muffins.”  Then the students and I would all go through the sentence several times, rubbing our stomachs to helps us remember the phoneme of mmm.


5. Simple Practice:

            -We will learn how to write the letter m, both capital and lower case.

            -“Now get out your writing paper and your pencil.  We will learn how to write the letter m, starting with the lower case.  Start at the fence, go straight down to the dirt, then go back up that straight line and near the top of your line go out and touch the fence and make a little hill, go down to the dirt and then make another little hill just like you did before.”

            -I will be modeling this on the board, so students can follow along with what I have done. 

            -I will then ask the students to write the letter m out ten times.  While they are doing this I will walk around and make sure everyone knows what it should look like.

            -“Great job, now let’s learn how to make an upper case M.  Ok, we will start at the sky and draw a straight line to the dirt.  Now draw a line from the sky all the way to the dirt that is diagonal.  Then make another diagonal line up to the sky going in the other direction.  Once you reach the sky this time, draw a straight line down and you are finished!”

            -Once again I will be modeling and then asking the students to write M ten times and I will be checking their work as they go.

            -“Now that you understand what the letter m looks like, I want you to draw me something that starts with the mmmm sound.  So get out your blank paper and your pencil and try to think of something that starts with mmmm.  If you can’t think of something you can try to draw Miss Molly, but try to think of something else.”


6.  Whole Texts:

            -Since the children are really just learning their letters, it would be hard for them to read very much.  So I will just write a few short, but connected sentences up on the board that include the m sound.  We will read these together as a class.

            -At some point, either now or later on in the day I will read to them, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. 


7.  Assessment:

-I will provide a sheet of paper that has ten pictures on it.  Some of the pictures will be things that start with the m sound, and some will not.  Since these children are very young I will ask them to look over the sheet and anything they see that they believe starts with the m  sound to color, but leave the others blank.  If you have colored pictures, you can just ask for them to circle them, not color them.

-I will also ask the students to write me a sentence with one word that has the m sound in it.  In this way the students will be using invented spelling, thinking of words with that sound and practicing writing.

            -I will use this sheet to assess how well the students understand the letter m, and the sound it makes.



Abby Alligator by: Lindsey Mizzell



Sally the Silly Snake by: Erin Carey



MMMM MMMM Good by: Gina Thomas


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