﻿ Blowing Big Bubbles With B

Blowing Big Bubbles With B

By: Holly Cartwright

Emergent Literacy Design


This lesson will help students recognize the /b/ phoneme which is represented by B. Students will learn to recognize /b/ in spoken word by learning meaningful representation (Blowing big bubbles). Students will also learn to recognize B as a symbol. The students will practice finding /b/ in words and will apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in the phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words rom beginning letters.  


          Primary paper, pencil, chart with "Benjamin blows big bubbles"; Blowing Bubbles by Juliet Partridge (Cambridge Storybooks 2002); drawing paper and crayons; word cards: Bob, black, blue, bike, bat, sand, and now; assessment worksheet with /b/ (url listed in resources).


·        Say: "Our language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what each letter stands for in the alphabet. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move for /b/. We spell /b/ with the letter B. /b/ sounds like a basketball bouncing on the ground.

·        Let's pretend we are bouncing a basketball, /b/ /b/ /b/ /b/ (act as if you are bouncing a basketball). Notice what your lips are doing (Lips are together and then they come apart).

·        Let me show you how to find the b in break. I'm going to stretch out break in super slow motion and listen for my bouncing basketball. B b b b rrrr eeeaaaa kkkkk. There it was! I felt my lips come apart. I can feel the bouncing basketball /b/ in break.

·        Let's try a tongue tickler on my poster. "Bad boy Benjamin blows big bubbles on his brother's bed." Let's all say it three times together. Now let's say it together but this time we will stretch out the /b/ at the beginning of the words. "Bbbad bbboy Bbbenjamin bbblows bbbig bbbubbles on his bbbrother's bbbed." Let's try it again and this time break /b/ off the word: "/b/ad /b/oy /b/enjamin /b/lows /b/ig /b/ubbles on his /b/rother's /b/ed."


·        Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you /b/ in bear or fish? Trash or bash? Blue or red? Let's see if you can spot my mouth move /b/ in some words. Bounce your basketball if you hear /b/ in: bar, take, help, brave, brain, love.

·        Play what's in my bag game? The students will choose objects out of my bag and have to decide whether the object starts with a /b/. If the student hears a /b/ sound, they bounce their basketball.

·        Okay we are going to play What's in My Bag. Each one of you will come choose and object out of my bag. If you think the word begins without /b/ sound I want you to bounce your basketball. Ready? Let's get started! (have various objects: domino, ball, blue crayon, Pictures of a bat, bike, a marble, etc.)

·        Read Blowing Bubbles. Every time the students hear the /b/ at the beginning of a word they will bounce their basketballs.

·        Okay boys and girls today we are going to read a story about a girl who has a really fun summer day blowing bubbles! Let's read to find out what happens.

·        After the reading is finished the students will think of their own letter B word and draw a picture of it. "Boys and girls I want you to come up with your own word that starts with our letter B. Then I want you to draw and color a picture of it. (Have model ready to show them) If you need help please raise your hand."

·        For the assessment distribute the worksheet. The students will draw a line from each picture to the matching word. They will then be able to color the pictures.


Internet: Click on the link below for resources

Hodo, Killian Blowing Bubblegum With B  

Collins, Virginia Bad Baby B


Blowing Bubbles by Juliet Partridge; ABC Books, 2002.

Worksheet: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/matchwordsandpix/b.shtml

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