Bowl the Ball

Objective
Associate the uppercase letter B and lowercase letter b with the /b/ sound as in bowl, ball, and bottle.
Lesson Plan
Target Words:
- ball
- bowl
- bottle
Materials:
- Whiteboard
- Ten bowling pins or plastic bottles
- Small ball
- Blue, black, and brown crayons
- Pictures cards*
- Bowl the Ball target text*
*Items included below.
State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will play a bowling game as they practice saying the /b/ sound in words that start with the letter B, such as bowling, ball, bat, bed, and basket.
Literacy Activities
Send objects up, up, and away
- Fill each plastic bottle with a small amount of water to create a homemade bowling pin.
- Attach a picture card to each bottle.
- Show the children each bottle and have them identify the picture cards.
- Help the children recognize the letter B in the word on each picture card and emphasize that the letter B makes the /b/ sound.
- Let the children take turns “bowling” using a small ball.
- As each child rolls the ball, have him or her say the /b/ sound until the ball hits a pin and knocks it over.
More Practice
Read target words
- Read the Bowl the Ball target text 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 uppercase letter B and lowercase letter b with a blue, black, or brown crayon.
- As the children write, point out the shapes that form in the letter B and b (i.e., lines and half-circles).
- Have the children attach the letters they made to the bowling pins.
- Let the children knock down the pins with the ball while saying the /b/ sound.
SEEL Target Texts
Bowl the Ball
Bump a bat.
Bump a bin.
Bump a box.
Bump a bug.
It is fun to bowl and bump a bat, bin, box, and bug!
SEEL At Home
Objective
Associate the uppercase letter B and lowercase letter b with the /b/ sound as in ball, bat, and bug.
Materials
- Five bowling pins or plastic bottles
- One small ball
- Picture cards
- Blue, black, and brown crayons
Activity: Bowl the Ball
- Fill each plastic bottle with a small amount of water to create a homemade bowling pin.
- Set up the plastic bottles like bowling pins and attach the picture cards to the bottles.
- Take turns bowling the ball to knock down the bowling pins.
- As the ball rolls toward the pins, repeat the /b/ sound.
- When the ball hits a bottle, have your child name the picture attached to it and identify the letter B in the word on the card.
- Help your child draw pictures of objects that begin with B and attach them to the bowling pins.
- Have your child write the uppercase letter B and lowercase letter b with a blue, black, or brown crayon on small pieces of paper, then attach a letter to each bowling pin.
- Have your child bowl the ball and try to knock over the pins again.
- The activity can be repeated several times.
Standards
SEEL lessons align with Common Core Standards. Please see the standards page for the code(s) associated with this lesson.

http://education.byu.edu/seel/library/
69284
Bowl the Ball