Review your chosen sound of the week with students
Pronounce the sound as a class and pay attention to how it is formed with the mouth
Explain that you will be creating silly names with the sound of the week
You are going to make the first sound in your name the sound of the week!
Give examples, such as: “What would Katie’s name sound like with our sound /b/ at the front? It would be Batie!”
For names that start with consonants, you can switch the initial sound (for example: Charlie-Barlie) but for names beginning with vowels, you may wish to just add the consonant at the beginning (Allison-Ballison)
Go around the circle and have each student say their new name
If they are having difficulty, ask the rest of the class to help
Do your usual attendance procedure or sing an attendance song, but call on students with their new names
English Language Learners/ESL:
- Provide students with support in determining their "silly name" - Make sure to practice any attendance song in advance before expecting students to sing it independently
LD/Reading & Writing Difficulties:
- Provide students with support in determining their "silly name"
Evidence: Yopp, H. K. & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54, 130-143.
The goal of Silly Sound Attendance: Building Phonemic Awareness is to introduce a new sound and motivate students to play with the sounds in words by creating silly names.
What You Need
5 minutes - Class reviews the sound of the week - Teacher models how to put the sound of the week at the beginning of each student's name - Each student says their new silly name - Class sings the attendance song using the silly names
What You Do
Direct instruction: - while reviewing the sound of the week Modeling: - while showing the class how to add the sound of the week to their name Facilitator: - while students create their silly name and sing the attendance song
Whole class: - throughout the activity
- Make notes on which students are easily able to identify the sound of the week and put it at the beginning of their name, and which have difficulty
- Encourage students to make other "silly words" by putting the sound of the week at the beginning of the word a. For example: "Now it's time for lunch! How could we make that into a silly word using our sound of the week? Remember, our sound of the week is /b/...thats right, bunch!"
- Create silly tongue twisters or songs made from "silly words" a. For example: "Beter biper bicked a beck of bickled beppers!"