Oscar the Ostrich and Octavius the Octopus
Beginning Reading
Rationale: Children
must recognize that every letter has a sound associated with it. In order to
read, children must blend words beginning with the vowel sound and then the
body. In this lesson, students will be learning short o.
They will learn ways to remember that o=/o/, then practice by reading a
decodable book.
Materials:
Six boxes per student for letterbox lesson
Picture of the letter O with octopus
legs coming out of it
Poster with "Oscar the Ostrich and Octavius the Octopus"
Decodable book Doc in the Fog for
each student from Auburn.
Cards with phoneme awareness words printed: top/tip,
fog/fig, lock/land, frog/free, doc/duck
Procedures:
1. Introduce the letter O by asking
students what your mouth looks like when you say /o/. Let students make the
sound.
2. Have all of the students say /o/ and feel the shape of their mouth as they
say the sound. Ask, "What words have this letter in it?" Have the students
feel their mouths as they say the word "top".
3. Show the students the picture of the octopus with the tongue tickler written
on it. Read it aloud at a regular pace first, then slowly. The third
time exaggerate the /o/ sound on each word. O-o-o-oscar the O-o-o-strich and
O-o-o-octavius the O-o-o-ctopus. Have all of the students say it with you.
Repeat.
4. Say, "Now we are going to work on recognizing the letter /o/ on words.
I am going to say two words and I want you to tell me which word you hear the
letter o in. Do you hear /o/ in top or tip, fog or fig, land or lock, frog or free, dock or duck?
Great job!"
5. Say, "Since everyone did such a great job at recognizing which words have the
/o/ sound we are going to practice spelling some words that have the letter /o/
in them. Everyone get your squares out and place them flat on your desk.
Line up all of the letters neatly so you can see them. Be sure to only put
one sound in each box." Model the word strong on the board. S-t-r-o-n-g.
(one phoneme in each box). The students should work individually on spelling the
words. [words: 3-got, hog, rob 4-frog, smog, block, stop, flop 5-strong] Say,
"Raise your hand once you think you have the word spelled out so I can check it.
Write all the words on the board and have the students say them after they have
spelled them all out."
6. Say, "We will now read the book Doc in
the Fog. In this book, Doc does some magic to turn tops into dolls and
dolls into mops! Uh-oh, what happens when Doc messes with the fog?"
7. Have the students read in pairs. Each student should read one
page then let the other read the next page. Encourage the students to help
each other with words.
Assessment: Have
all of the students, individually, use the index cards created to determine
which words have the sound o =/o/ in them. They will read these to the teacher
for her to hear where they need work.
References:
Victoria Barron.
Ollie the Ostrich and Oliver the
Octopus.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/caravans/barronbr.htm
King, Michaela. Oscar
the Ostrich loves Olive.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/journeys/kingbr.htm