Smush that Ugly U Bug!
Beginning Reading
Rationale:
To become successful readers, students must learn to identify
letters and the sounds that those letters make. The children
will learn the correspondence u=/u/. The students will
learn meaningful representation of the letter and have plenty of
practice with written and spoken words which contain u=/u/.
Students will learn to recognize the phoneme in spoken as well
as written words by learning a meaningful representation (Smush
That Ugly U Bug!) and the letter symbols U and
u. Students will
practice identifying the phonemes in spoken words and phonetic
cue reading words. They will then further their understanding of
this phoneme through a letterbox lesson.
Materials:
Poster with tongue tickler, small toy bug for each student,
Elkonin letterboxes for each student, plastic letters (d,u,g,s,h,r,b,n,k,l,c,c,t,p,m,p,z,z)
for each student, document camera, word list typed out (dug,
bug, shrug, dunk, slug, crunch, hunt, lunch, plump, bust), book
Fuzz and Buzz to read to class, 1 copy per 2 students
of decodable book The Mutt and the Bug for assessment in a small
group, worksheet on /u/ sound for each student.
Procedures:
1. Say: Today we are going to talk about the sound /u/. You say
this sound when you see something yucky--like a bug. "uuu. .
.there's a yucky bug over there!" We spell this using the letter
u. (give each student
a small toy bug to stay on their desks).
2. Say: So we said that we use the sound /u/ when we see
something yucky. Let's think about how our mouth is moving while
we are saying "uuuu". My tongue is touching the bottom of my
mouth and I am opening my mouth just a little bit and pushing
the air out "uuu…uuu". Now try making that u sound with me. When
you make the /u/ sound I want you to pretend you are squishing
that yucky
u bug with your
finger. (Demonstrate smushing a bug with your finger and saying
the /u/ sound) "uuu…uuu"
3. Say: Good work smushing those ugly U
bugs now let me show you how to find the /u/ in a word.
I am going to use the word umbrella . I am going to say the word and then I
am going to stretch it out so that I really hear that /n/ sound.
Umbrella. Uuuu-mbrella Yeah
I heard my yucky U
in umpire. Now let's try it together with the word
umpire and
funny.
4. Now, let's try a funny tongue tickler to practice our yucky
U's (poster).
Ursula put up her
umbrella before she went under the rain. Let's say it
together. [Repeat tongue tickler together]. Now let's stretch
out those ugly
U's so that we can
really hear them. /U/rsula
put /u/p her /u/mbrella before she went /u/nder the rain.
5. Next, as a class, go over cue words to see if they are
hearing the phoneme. Say:
I am going to read some words. If you hear our yucky /u/
sound anywhere in any of these words I want you to squish that
yucky bug like we practiced. Show the students
ugly [written out on
card] and model how to decide if it has the /u/ sound or not.
Uuu-gly. The /u/
sound I hear tells me to squish that yucky U.
Ready?
Do you hear /u/ in up or
down? In pretty or ugly? In bored or fun? In sun or cloud? In
munch or eat?
6. Next, draw the Elkonin letterboxes on the board for teacher
to use during this part of the lesson. Give each student a
letterbox and letter tiles. "We are going to practice
spelling words with the
u sound. Look
at the board and see how there are five spaces for five mouth
moves. Right now, I am going to spell the word grump.
The first box is for the first sound in
grump, the /g/. The second box is for the second sound,
the /r/. The third box is for the third sound in grump
the /u/. Remember how the /u/ sound makes the sound we say
when we see a bug (Uh, yucky
u). The fourth
sound is the /m/, and the last one is the /p/. Now, you can
practice with the following words: (3)-dug, bug (4)-shrug, dunk,
slug, hunt, lunch, bust (5)-crunch, plump (Call the words out
and walk around making notes on the progress of each child, be
sure to go over each word so that student see and hear the
correct pronunciation and spelling. Make sure and tell the
students when you make the change to words with more phonemes)
Say the word, count the sounds, make the number of boxes on the
board, and have the students tell you the sound they hear.
7. Get out the typed list of all the words just spelled in the
letterbox lesson and put them on the document camera. Start with
the model word and show the student how to read the words. Read
all the words from the letterbox lesson. For example: "To read the word grump I
am going to start with that first letter g and say gggg and
then I continue to look at the next letter and I will continue
to read the word... rrr-uuu-mm-p. ggg-rrrr-uuu-mmm-p.
grump I sound out each of the parts of the word to read the
word 'grump'.
8. Read Fuzz and the
Buzz. Say: "We are
going to read the book Fuzz and the Buzz .This book is about a bear named
Fuzz. Fuzz likes to be
outside and he especially likes to shake the trees.
But he forgets that there are other animals
that live in the trees. When
he shakes one tree an animal gets upset and lets Fuzz know.
What kind of animal do you think this could
be? We will have to read to
find out!
As we listen to the
story if you hear a word that has our yucky /u/ sound I want
you to smush that yucky U bug". I will only pick a few
pages on which to listen for the sound on so that students do
not get frustrated. After reading, talk about a few of the words
that you hear the /u/ sound in and write them out on the board
for the students to see.
9. For assessment, students will come to the small group area in
groups of 3-4 students. In this group students will read the
printable and decodable book
The Mutt and the Bug
(teacher will have one copy per 2 students, can be printed from
website listed in references.) The teacher should have the
students read at least one page aloud noting miscues in order to
keep a running record of students' progress. Once she has heard
each student read aloud alone, the teacher may have the students
buddy read the rest of the book listening as the groups read and
continuing to note miscues. As the teacher works with small
groups other students may be further assessed using a worksheet
of short /u/ words.
References:
Julia Lightsey, Uh,
Squish that Yucky U Bug!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invitations/lightseybr.htm
The Mutt and the Bug.
http://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=338. Online,
printable, decodable books.
Worksheet.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/letters/shortu.shtml.