Icky-Sticky Mess

Beginning Reading

Ginny Bell

 

Rationale

            A child must be able to recognize phonemes in words for them to learn to read. Beginner readers need to be taught how to break up the alphabetic code. They need to learn about phonemes and how phonemes are sounds that our mouths make when we talk. They need to understand the connection between phonemes and letters as well as be able to identify the sounds that each letter makes. By learning about phonemes and letter correspondences, beginning readers can become fluent readers. Teaching children the short vowels may be difficult for a child to understand, and through this lesson children will be given help in identifying the correspondence i = /i/, one of the short vowels. They will learn to recognize /i/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation and a letter symbol, and then practice finding /i/ in words.

 

Materials

            -class set of cards with a picture of icky-sticky gum

            -primary paper and pencils

            -class set of letterboxes and letters (d, i, g, p, n, k, t, w, s, l, m, t, r, & b)

            -class set of Tin Man Fix-It by Sheila Cushman

            -assessment train sheet

 

Procedure

  1. Begin by introducing to the students the concept that letters make different sounds and that we need to be able to match letters to the sounds that they make in order to become good readers.
    1. TODAY WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE /i/ SOUND. THE LETTER ‘I’ CAN MAKE THE /i/ SOUND IN WORDS.
  2. Give each student a card with icky-sticky gum on it. Introduce to the students that the ‘I’ we hear in words makes the sound you hear in icky-sticky gum.
    1. WHEN YOU FIND A LOWE R CASE ‘I’ IN A WORD BY ITSELF IT CAN MAKE THE /i/ SOUND. NOW I WANT YOU TO SAY THE /i/ SOUND. GOOD! NOW, WHO HAS BEEN WALKING DOWN THE ROAD AND FOR SOME REASON YOUR FOOT SEEMS TO STICK TO THE GROUND? WAS IT BECAUSE YOU STEPPED IN SOME GUM? WHENEVER I STEP IN GUM IT IS VERY ICKY-STICKY! DO YOU HEAR THE /i/ SOUND IN ICKY-STICKY?
  3. Have a list of words and ask the students which ones they hear the /I/ sound in.
    1. EVERYONE TRY MAKING THE /i/ SOUND THAT YOU HEAR IN ICKY-STICKY. SINCE YOU ARE ALL SO GOOD AT MAKING THAT SOUND, HOLD UP YOUR ICKY-STICKY GUM CARD IF YOU HEAR /i/ IN SIT OR DOG? LOG OR TIN? CLIP OR READ? SEAT OR SPRING?
  4. Pass out primary paper and pencils. Have the students practice writing the letter ‘I’ by themselves.
    1. WE CAN USE THE LETTER ‘I’ TO SPELL /i/. LET’S PRACTICE WRITING IT. (I will demonstrate on the board as they make their own I’s) START AT THE FENCE LINE AND DRAW A TREE STANDING STRAIGHT AND TALL. THEN GO UP AND PUT THE SUN OVER THE TREE. I AM GOING TO COME SEE ALL OF THE WONDERFUL I’S YOU MADE AND ONCE I DO MAKE A WHOLE ROW OF I’S JUST LIKE IT. NOW WHEN WE COME ACROSS AN ‘I’ ALL BY ITSELF IN A WORD WE WILL ALL KNOW THAT IT MAKES THE /i/ SOUND NOW.
  5. Now start a letterbox lesson and demonstrate with the class how to use them to spell words. 3 phonemes: dig, pin, kid; 4 phonemes: twig, slim, sink, tilt; 5 phonemes: string, print, blimp
    1. SINCE YOU ALL HAVE DONE SUCH A WONDERFUL JOB MAKING THE LETTER ‘I’ WE ARE NOW GOING TO SPELL SOME WORDS WITH THE /i/ SOUND. CAN ANYONE THINK OF WORDS THAT HAVE THE /i/ SOUND? GET YOUR LETTERBOXES OUT AND YOUR LETTERS AND WE ARE GOING TO PUT EACH SOUND OF THE WORD I SAY IN A DIFFERENT BOX. FIRST WE ARE GOING TO SPELL THE WORD SIP. S-S-S-I-I-I-P-P-P. IT ALWAYS HELPS ME TO SAY THE WORD SLOWLY A FEW TIMES SO I CAN TELL HOW MANY SOUNDS THE WORD HAS. THE FIRST SOUND I HEAR IS /s/ SO I WILL PUT AN ‘S’ IN THE FIRST BOX. THEN I HEAR AN /i/ SOUND AND I KNOW WHAT LETTER THE /i/ SOUND MAKES. SO I WILL PUT AN ‘I’ IN THE SECOND BOX. NOW THE LAST SOUND I HEAR IS /p/ AND A ‘P’ MAKES THE /p/ SOUND, SO I WILL PUT A ‘P’ IN THE THIRD BOX. NOW LETS SEE IF YOU ALL CAN SPELL THESE WORDS WITH THE /i/ SOUND IN THEM. WE WILL START WITH WORDS THAT HAVE 3 SOUNDS.
  6. Have the students get into small groups and distribute a copy of Tin Man Fix-It to each student. Introduce the book and have the children read them on their own. Get the groups to make a list of all the words that have the /i/ sound in it once everyone is done.
    1. TODAY WE ARE GOING TO READ TIN MAN FIX-IT. THIS BOOK IS ABOUT A TIN MAN NAMED TIM AND THIS GOOD FRIEND JIM. TIM AND JIM THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A BEAUTIFUL DAY TO WORK IN THE YARD UNTIL SOMEONE MADE THEM THINK THEY SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN. SID, WHO WAS A BIG KID, CAME FLYING DOWN THE HILL ON HIS SKATEBOARD WHEN HE LOST CONTROL AND HIT TIM! TIM DID NOT HOLD UP WELL WHEN HE WAS HIT AND FELL INTO A MILLION PIECES. LET’S FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO TIM! (Have the students read the book now) I AM GOING TO GIVE EACH GROUP A PIECE OF PAPER AND I WANT YOU TO WRITE 5 WORDS THAT YOU FOUND IN THIS BOOK THAT HAVE THE /i/ SOUND. THEN ONCE EVERYONE IS DONE WE WILL GET TOGETHER AND SHOW THEM TO THE CLASS.
  7. For assessment pass out the train sheet with five trains ranging from 3 to 5 blanks. Read 5 words and have the students write the sounds they hear in the train blanks. Explain that we use a train because when we talk we pronounce words as smoothly as a train moves. (sit, lip, sink, disk, and drift)
    1. NOW I AM GOING TO READ YOU FIVE WORDS. I WANT YOU TO SPELL THE WORDS IN THE BOXES ON YOUR SHEET OF PAPER. DON’T FORGET TO PUT ONLY ONE SOUND IN EACH BOX. (after they finish) NOW THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED EACH TRAIN WE DON’T NEED TO SAY THE WORDS SLOWLY LIKE WE DID WHEN WE WERE SOUNDING THEM OUT. NOW WE ARE ABLE TO SAY THEM SMOOTHLY LIKE A TRAIN GLIDES ALONG THE TRACK. SO NOW WE DON’T NEED TO SAY S-S-S-I-I-I-T-T-T ANYMORE, NOEW WE CAN SAY SIT.

 

References:

Murray, B.A. and Lesniak, T. (1999). The Letterbox Lesson: a hands-on approach for teaching decoding. The Reading Teacher, 644-650.

 

Eldredge, Lloyd J. (1995). Teaching Decoding in Holostics Classrooms. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

 

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