The Lively Letters cards (p, b, t, d, a, and o) may be printed, cut, and used in sample reading and spelling tasks, working with real words including pat, pot, dot, top, tap, tab, and bat, and nonsesne words including bod, dob, tob, bot, bop, bap. and dap. The story cues for the sample letters are below. |
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p – Quiet Lip Puffing Sound “What are we doing when we make this sound? (Instructor continues to produce sound, over-exaggerating the bursting action of the lips.) That’s right! We’re using our lips – we put them together. Put your hand in front of your mouth. Do you feel air coming out? Does it come out slow, or is it puffing out? Right, it’s puffing out! (Instructor points to lips and flicks finger away as in an explosion of air.) We could call this a ‘lip puffing sound.’ Is your voice on or off? Oh, this must be a quiet sound. (Show the picture) See? The line with the lips comes first in this letter. The circle is at the top to remind us of the tall mother who’s always very quiet so her baby can sleep.” |
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b – Noisy Lip Puffing Sound “Did you know that the ‘p’ sound has a noisy partner? We still put our lips together and puff out the air, but this time we turn our voices on while we do it. Let’s try it, and see what sound it makes! (Point to lips, turn on voice, and slowly start to form /b/ sound with a loud voice, trying to elicit the same sound from the student.) See how your voice is on with that sound? (Show the picture.) The line with the closed lips still comes first, so as soon as you see that put your lips together! See how this circle is down low, though? That’s the little baby, and babies are very noisy, aren’t they? That reminds us to turn our voices on!” |
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t – Quiet Tongue Dancing Sound |
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d – Noisy Tongue Dancing Sound “Did you know that ‘t’ has a noisy partner? You’re still going to tap your tongue up there, but this time, put your voice on. What sound does it make? D-d-d-d (tap on table noisily at same time). (Show picture.) This is our noisy tongue dancing sound. He’s still a tongue tapping up there, but he likes to make a lot of noise! The first thing you see when you look at this guy is his big tummy, which he likes to tap on like it’s a noisy drum – d-d-d-d! When you see that circle first, tap on it like a drum –d-d-d-d!” |
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Short vowel a – The Apple “The vowels are Super Stars, because if you didn’t have vowels, you couldn’t make any words. The vowels know this and make their sounds louder and longer than everyone! This is our first ‘Super-Star’ vowel. (Show picture.) What kind of fruit does this look like? Yes, an apple. Let’s hold a big apple in our hands (pretend to do this). If you were going to eat an apple, would you take tiny bites like this? (make tiny nibblling sounds) Or a huge bite? (Agree to huge.) Let’s open our mouths wide to take a huge bite while we start to say ‘apple.’ Ready? Aaaaaaaa—STOP! That’s it! That’s the sound the apple makes! The mouth on the apple is open wide, too. Aaaaaaa!” |
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Short vowel o – Cute Baby (2 versions) “Here’s another ‘Super Star’ vowel. (Show picture.) This is a very cute letter sound. [Boston accent] See this cute, little baby? When people see that cute, little, round baby face they say, ‘O (Aw…), isn’t she cute?’ (Tip head to the side when saying this.) That’s what we’ll say when we see this cute, little baby. See how the baby’s mouth is round? Make your mouth round when you say ‘o.’ |
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Short vowel o – Cute Baby (2 versions) [standard dialect] Look at this cute, little baby! Her mother is getting ready to feed her with a spoon. She never ate from a spoon before! Her mother holds the spoon like this (pretend to hold spoon) and says, ‘Open up wide and say, ‘O (ah).’ Can you open your mouth wide and say, ‘o?’” |
Reading with TLC - Lively Letters - Sample
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