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Chewing Like A Chipmunk with Ch

Kendall Woody 

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Rationale:

This lesson will help children identify /ch/, the phoneme represented by the letters c and h. The lesson will enable students to recognize /ch/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (chewing like a chipmunk) and the letter symbols c and h, practice finding /ch/ in words, and learning a tongue tickler filled with /ch/. Students will also apply phoneme awareness with /ch/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters. 

 

Materials:

 

Procedures: 

  1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /ch/. When we spell /ch/ we spell it with the letters cand h. Think of a chipmunk chewing his food; /ch/ sounds like the chewing. 

  2. Let’s pretend to chew some food. /ch/, /ch/, /ch/. [Pantomime chewing food] Notice where your top teeth are? They are pushing down on your bottom teeth exactly like you are chewing a piece of food. When we say /ch/, we briefly touch our tongue to the roof of our mouth and blow air between our top and bottom teeth. 

  3. Now I am going to show you how to find /ch/ in the word chip. I will stretch the word out slowly and I want you to listen for the chewing sound. “chh—ii—pp.” Slower, “chhhh—iii—ppp.” There it was! I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth while my teeth were pressed together and I blew air. That means that chewing /ch/ is in the word chip.  

  4. Let’s try the tongue tickler on the chart: “Charlie the chipmunk chews chocolate in his cheeks.” Now let’s say it together. Stretch out the /ch/ at the beginning of every word that starts with Ch. “Chhharlie the chhhipmunk chhhews chhhocolate in his chhheeks.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/Ch/arlie the /ch/ipmunk /ch/ews /ch/ocolate in his /ch/eeks.” 

  5. Pass out primary paper and a pencil to each student. Say, “We use the letters c and h to spell /ch/. Let’s start with writing lowercase c by making a small half-circle. Next, we’ll write a lowercase h next to it. Start by drawing a straight line down, and then go to the middle of your line and draw a curved line down. I want to see everyone’s ch. After I put a check next to yours, I want you to make nine more just like it.”

  6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew. Say, “I am going to say two words to you and I want you to tell me which one you hear /ch/ in. Do you hear /ch/ in chair or hair? wild or child? Chess or dress? Stew or chew? Now let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /ch/ in some words. Chew your food if you hear /ch/: The, charming, little, child, ran, into, the, chair, and, hurt, his, chin. 

  7. Say: “Now we are going to read our /ch/ book, Chip the Chimp. In this book, Chip the chimp is a chess champion. One day, another chimp comes and says that he is also a chess champion. He asks Chip to play a game of chess with him to see who wins. Do you think Chip will be able to beat him? You will have to read to find out. 

  8. Show CHIP and model how to decide if it is chip or dip: “The ch tells me to chew my food, /ch/, /ch/, /ch/, so this word is chhh-ip, chip. Now you try some: WIN: win or chin? CHOP: chop or hop? HAT: hat or chat? CHUG: chug or bug? 

  9. To assess the students on ch = /ch/, pass out the worksheet and have students color the pictures with a /ch/ sound. Call on students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8. 

 

 

References:

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