In this lesson, students will demonstrate their ability to identify and recall the beginning consonant sound in words. Students will listen to a spoken word to make a connection between the spoken word and its beginning consonant sound. The ability to identify and recall the consonant sounds is essential for a student to blend sounds together to read words.
At this level, it is common for students to confuse the b and d, to add a fun and visual image, we ask students to imagine that the tall part of the letter b looks like the tall back of a bear with its fur sticking straight up and the round part of the letter d looks like a short round dog’s head. We add a friendly smile to the letter d to emphasize it’s a short-round dog’s head. We have found this to be an effective approach to address the confusion students encounter with the consonant sounds in the letters b and d.