Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /z/. The phoneme represented by Z. The students will learn how to identify /z/ in spoken word by learning a new sound analogy (zipping your zipper) and they will learn the letter symbol for Z. They will also practice identifying /z/ and Z in practice words and texts. They will also learn to apply /z/ in their phonetic cue reading.

 

Materials: Primary paper, pencils, words cards with ZIP, ZEBRA, ZERO, and ZOO. A chart with “Zach Zips Zoey’s jacket while seeing Zebras at the Zoo”; Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /z/.

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “ Our written language can be very tricky because of the different letters and the sounds they make. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for and how they make our mouth move when we say them. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /z/. We spell /z/ with the letter Z. Z looks like a zigzag, and sounds like zipping your zipper.

2. Say: “ Now we’re going to pretend to zip our zipper as a way to help us remember or /z/ sound. Ready?. /z/ /z/ /z/. [Demonstrate zipping up zipper]. Did you feel our teeth touch when we made the /z/ sounds? Let’s try it again to make sure our teeth touch when we say the /z/ sound. /z/ /z/ /z/.

3. Say: “ Let me show you how to find the /z/ sound in fuzz. Ff-uu-uzz. Let’s try and say it slower this time to make sure we feel our teeth touch f-f-f-f-u-u-u-u-z-z-z-z. I felt my teeth touch at the end of the word so the z must be at the end. Now you try. Do you hear /z/ in zebra?

4. Say: “ Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Zach and Zoey love to go to the zoo. As they were looking at the zebras, Zach saw that Zoey’s jacket was unzipped so he zipper her jacket for so she wouldn’t be cold. Here’s our tickler: “ Zach zips Zoey’s jacket while seeing zebras at the zoo.” Everybody say it together three times. Now this time we’re going to say it together but we’re going to stretch out the /z/ sound at the beginning of each word that starts with Z. “Zzzzzzach zzzzips Zzzzzzoey’s jacket while seeing the zzzzebras at the zzzzzzoo.” Now this time we’re going to break the /z/ off the word.    “/Z/ ach /z/ips /Z/ oey’s jacket while seeing /z/ ebras at the /z/ oo.”

5. Okay, now everyone please take out your primary paper, we’re about to practice writing our lowercase z! We use the letter Z to make the /z/ sound. Capital Z looks just like the lowercase z, it’s just taller. Let’s start by writing the lowercase z. We will start right under our fence and we will walk across the fence just a little bit, then we will walk diagonally down to our sidewalk, lastly we will walk along our sidewalk’. I want everyone to try and make a lowercase z. Once I have put a check on yours, I want you to make 9 more for practice.

6. Now, we’re going to practice finding /z/ in words. Raise your hand once you know the answer and I will call on someone to share with the class. The first question is: Do you hear /z/ in buzz or rug? Man or zip? Fizz or fun? Zoom or make? Now let’s see if you can spot the mouth move for /z/ in some words. Zip your sipper if you hear /z/. Bug, fuzzy, zoo, be, hazy, and dog.

7. Say: “ Let’s look at a book called “The Zim-Zam Man” While we are reading, I want you to zip your jacket every time you hear a word that makes the /z/ sound. We’re going to count to see how many we have at the end of the story. Ready? Let’s Go!

8. Show ZIP and model how to decide if it’s Zip or Nip. Say: “ The z tells me to zip my zipper, /z/, so the word is zzzzip. Zip. Now you try some: ZOOM: zoom or boom? ZAG: zag or wag? ZAP: map or zap? ZOO: moo or zoo? ZERO: zero or hero?

9. For the assessment, Pass out worksheets with pictures and have the students color the pictures that begin with the letter z. We are going to make a letter z book to help us remember the sound that /z/ makes and so that we can easily recognize the letter Z. Then have them practice recognizing/ writing words that begin with z. Call the students up individually to go over the sight words from step 8.

 

 

References:

https://www.readinga-z.com/books/decodable-books/

https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/ib-book-z.htm

Brandy Price Henry the Painting Hound