top of page

My Macaroni is Mmm Mmm Good!

Students will be able to identify /m/, the phoneme represented by M. They will learn to recognize /m/ in spoken and written form. Students will be able to do this by learning a meaningful representation when hearing the sound and will practice finding the symbol M in written words. They will also be able to apply phoneme awareness with /m/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials

  • Note card with a picture of macaroni and the word Macaroni on it

  • Primary paper and pencil

  • The saying “Mary Mac’s mother makes macaroni most Monday’s” written on chart paper with a picture of macaroni

  • Tongue tickler chart

  • Book: Mouse Mess

    • Riley Asplind, Linnea. Mouse Mess. Blue Sky Press, c 1997.  

  •  Work sheet with pictures of items 

  • Colored pencils or crayons  

  • Computer/Wordle

Procedure:

  1. Introduce: “Every letter makes a special sound and that sound makes our mouths move in a funny way. Today we are going to talk about the letter M and the way it makes our mouths move.” 

  2. (Have ready a card with macaroni picture and word on it) “My favorite food is Macaroni (hold up card) and whenever I eat it I can’t help but rub my tummy and say ‘Mmmmm that’s good!’ I want everyone to think of something that you love to eat and practice saying ‘mmmmmm’ with me…. That was great!”

  3. “We can tell when a word has the letter M in it because our mouths press shut and we push air from our throats. Like in the word mmmess”   

  4. (Take out chart with tongue tickler) Now I am going to tell you a story and every time you hear /m/ rub your tummy. ‘Sara is going over to Mary Macs house for dinner. She doesn’t know what to expect! Is Mary Macs momma going to cook spaghetti? Chicken? Maybe a cake? Then she remembers, Mary Mac’s mother makes macaroni most Mondays!’ That last sentence had a lot of m sounds didn’t it? ‘Mmmary Mmmacs mmmmother mmmakes mmmacaroni mmmost MMMondays!’ I want everyone to try and say the last sentence with me slowly ‘Mary Mac’s mother makes macaroni most Mondays’… it tickles your tongue doesn’t it! Now lets try saying our tongue tickler a little faster ‘Mary Mac’s mother makes macaroni most Mondays’… good job! 

  5. (Have students take out primary paper and pencil) “Now lets practice writing the letter M. I will show you how to write both the upper and lower case M. I want everyone to watch me very carefully. You draw a line from the bottom all the way up to the top, then we go back down, then back up, and back down again. I want everyone to write 5 capital M’s I will walk around to help… Okay great job everyone now I am going to show you the lower case M. Everyone watch closely again. We are going to draw two little humps from the bottom of the paper to the middle line. I want everyone to write 5 lower case M’s and I will walk around again to help.... okay good job!”

  6.  “I am going to say a few words and I want you to rub your tummy when you here /m/ in it. Let me show you a practice one. Cookie, I don’t think I hear /m/ in cookie so I am not going to rub my tummy, but if I say milk, I do hear /m/ in milk so I will rub my tummy. Now lets try some all-together muffin…Good job we do here /m/ in muffin. Snake…. Right there’s no /m/ in snake, Chip… right again there is no /m/ in chip. Monkey… That’s right! We do here /m/ in monkey.

  7. Introduce Mouse Mess: “A little mouse sleeps in his house until he hears the steps on the stairs. He gets up to get something to eat. He finds so much good food to eat but when he’s done eating he notices the big mess he’s made! Is he going to clean it up before anyone sees? We will have to read to find out! While I am reading I want you to listen for the /m/ sounds every time you here the /m/ sound rub your tummy!” Read the story and stop every once in a while to discuss the sounds they here

  8. Assessment: distribute a worksheet that has pictures of different objects, have the students color the pictures that have the /m/ sound in them. Then have your students write down 5 things that have /m/.

  9. After class enter in each thing that your students wrote into a wordle, go over it the next class and hang it in your room.

Reference:                                                                                                                         

Book: Riley Asplind, Linnea. Mouse Mess. Blue Sky Press, c 1997. 

Picture: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bg8Qqg-E1yI/VuhhDudz2eI/AAAAAAAAG2w/MjD42KAAyQsaYk_yuJrfCDX27oQzAUYYA/s1600/MAcNCheese.jpg 

Related design to: Erd, Jackie. “My Moms Muffins! (Mmm, Mmm, Good!).” Retrieved September 18, 2016 from

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/guides/erdel.html

Click here to return to Entries Index 

bottom of page