State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will feed a messy munching mouse as they listen for words that start with the /m/ sound, such as mouse, munch, muffin, and macaroni.

Literacy Activities
Mouse munches on things that start with /m/

• Hold up the picture cards one at a time, and help the children identify the objects as you emphasize the /m/ sound in the words.
• Ask different children to pretend to feed the mouse puppet one of the picture cards as you make the puppet munch on the cards.
• While the children feed the mouse, have everyone say the Munching Mouse Chant.

More Practice
Repeat words with the target letter

• Have children remind you of the /m/ items the mouse ate as you write the words on a board or chart with a marker.
• Read the list to the children, emphasizing the /m/ sound (e.g., /m/ /m/ /m/ mouse), then have the children echo it back.

Clap out sounds in words 

• Invite the children to segment the word mat and clap once for each sound in the word (/m/ /a/ /t/).
• Ask the children how many times they clapped for the word mat (3).
• Have the children clap for each sound in the word mat again to reinforce the model.
• Repeat with other words that start with /m/ (e.g., mat, men, mop, mud, met).
• Point out that all of the words start with the /m/ sound.