State and Model the Objective

Tell the children that they will pretend to feed brown bugs to Baby Black Bat and say the /b/ sound when they see the letter B in words such as big, bag, and brown.

Literacy Activities
Collect brown bugs

• Attach cardboard to the Baby Black Bat graphic (see below) to make it stand up and then cut out the mouth.
• Attach a plastic baggie behind Baby Black Bat's mouth (optional) and place “big brown bugs” (bunched up brown paper) around the classroom.
• Write the uppercase letter B and the lowercase letter b on the whiteboard, then write the following sentence in big letters for the children to see:
  • “Find a big brown bug for Baby Black Bat!”
• Point out every letter B and b in the sentence then teach it to the children as a chant, pointing to each word as it is said, and have the children clap on every word beginning with a letter B or b.
• Choose a small group of children to collect two or three big brown bugs in a blue bag (optional) while everyone else says the chant.
• Have the children say, “/b/, /b/, bite the brown bug!” as they feed the bugs to Baby Black Bat.

More Practice
Read target words

• Read the Black Bats Eat Bugs target text (see below) to the children.
• Have the children circle every letter B and b with a brown, black, or blue crayon.
• Read the text again and have the children say the /b/ sound each time you come to a letter B or b.

Write the target letter

• Help the children write the letters B and b on small pieces of paper.
• As they write, point out the shapes included in the letters B and b (i.e., lines and half-circles).
• Have the children pretend that the B and b papers are bugs to feed to the Baby Black Bat.
• Have the children produce the /b/ sound each time they feed the letter B to the bat.