Open Up and Say /o/!
Casey Fullilove

Rationale:  The goal of this activity is to help the student recognize the phoneme /o/ in spoken and written words.  By becoming phonemically aware, students will be able to decode and eventually blend the vocal gestures and letters to read and speak words.  This activity will promote blending and phoneme awareness through the instruction of a short vowel sound.

 
Materials:
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
Doc in the Fog
Letterbox
Letter tiles: m, d, s, t, p, b, b, l, c, c, k, h, r, u, e, o, i.
Popsicle sticks

Procedure:
1. Expain why new idea is valuable:
"Do you know why it is important for us to learn about the letter o and the sound /o/?  It is important to be able to recognize each sound in a word so that we can read and spell the word.  Do you understand why it is important?  Why else is recognizing the sounds in words important?"
2.  Background knowledge: 
"Raise your hand if you have ever been to the doctor's office.  What do you do at the doctor's office?"  "That's right!  Let's all take our Popsicle sticks and pretend like we are at the doctor's office.  What does the doctor tell us to do when he is holding one of these?"  "That's right!  He says, 'Open up and say /o/!'  Good job!  Let's all practice this.  Lightly place your stick on the front of your tongue and say /o/.  Donot put the stick too deep in your mouth because you'll choke!  And  choking does not make the right sound does it?  Okay, let's practice."
3.  Explain concept:
"Okay, now that we have had the practice saying /o/, let's apply what we did to words.  We are going to do some activities with o says /o/.
4. Model:
"I'm going to say two words and I want you to tell me which word you hear /o/ in.  If I said stop and step, which one do I hear /o/ in?  That's right!                          Stop."  We are going to practice identifying the /o/ sound, as well making and reading words with the sound /o/."
 5.  Practice:
 "Do you hear the sound /o/ in:
octopus or platypus?
helicopter or airplane?
opposite or same?
ship or shop?
Good or Job?..... Good job!"
 "Now we are going to practice spelling and reading words using our letterbox.  First I am going to ask you to make a word such as flop.  You will place each letter that represents the sound you hear in a box.  So /f/- /l/-/o/-/p/, I hear /f/ first.  So let's put the letter that makes the sound /f/ in the first box, F.  Now let's do /l/ /o/ and /p/.  Great! That's l, o, and p.  Now you try!"

mud [3]                stop [4]                 shred [4]                    
ship [3]                 blob [4]                spot [4]                                               
lot [3]                   clock [4]               stomp [5]         

 
“Now I will put the tiles together to make words and you will read them to me.” Place f, l, o, p tiles together to make the word flop.  “I will read this word to you; this is flop.”  The teacher will go through the list of words and have the student read each word aloud.     

6.  Whole Text:
"Now, I'm going to read Hop on Pop, and I want you to lift your Popsicle stick every time you hear /o/."
 "Great, now you will read Doc in the Fog to me.  Doc is a magician; do you like magic?  We’ll have to read to see what great magic tricks Doc has in store for us!"

Assessment:  Students will be assessed on both the recognizing of /o/ in spoken words, as well as during the letterbox lesson.  Students will also be provided with a worksheet with different items on it and they will circle the things that have the sound /o/ in their name.

References:
Bright, Amy.  "Olly says /o/ at the Doctors." 2004. http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/begin/brightbr.html

Chauvin, Chandler.  "Doc Says Open Up." 2004. http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/begin/chauvinel.html

Dr. Seuss. Hop on Pop. 1963. Random House.

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