Emergent Literacy
Michelle Copeland
Rationale: Children must be able to understand that the different letters of the alphabet stand for phonemes. Children must be able to identify these individual sounds in words to be able to read and write. They need to have the chance to hear and identify the different phonemes in words. This lesson will help children identify the phoneme /o/ short /o/, one of the short vowels. They will learn to recognize /o/ sound in written and spoken words, and also practice finding /o/ in words.
Materials: Poster board with an octopus drawn and colored and a hole cut out for its mouth; red construction paper cut into crab shapes; a marker to write the following words on the crab cut-outs: box, taps, fog, pot, big, dog, hat, mop, red, got; drawing paper, crayons, primary paper, and pencils; Doc in the Fog (Educational Insights); chart with “Ollie the Octopus likes to eat hot crabs often.”; velcro for octopus and crabs, primary paper and pencil
Procedures:
1. Introduce lesson by telling the children that
words have many different sounds in them that are made by our mouth
moves.
To be able to read and write, we must be able to hear and know these
sounds.
2. Tell the class that the sound we are going
to learn today id the short o=/o/ sound, such as octopus and hot.
The short /o/ is made when we are really hot and we take a drink of
something
really cold. After the cold drink goes down we say /o/ as in
oooctopus
and ooolie. Lets all say /o/ together. Have octopus
and hot written on the board and have students read them out
loud
together. Today we are going to learn to write the /o/ sound by
using
the letter o. Let’s write it. Start at the fence
line.
Now, curve over and down to the sidewalk. Then, without picking
up
your pencil, curve back up to the fence line where you started.
Let
me see everybody’s o. After I see it, I want you to make
none
more just like it. Now when you see this letter in words, you
will
know to say /o/.
3. Have students try a tongue twister that is
written on the chart. “Ollie the Octopus likes to eat hot crabs
often.”
Now, say it again, and this time, stretch the /o/ when you get to it in
a word. “Ooolie the Oooctopus likes to eat hooot crabs
oooften.”
Try it again, and this time break it off the word, “/O/llie the
/O/ctopus
likes to eat h/o/t crabs /o/ften.” Good job!
4. I have written some words on each crab and
I need you to tell me if they have the short /o/ sound in them.
The
crabs will be velcroed on the tentacles of the octopus. If they
contain
the short /o/ sound, Ollie gets to eat them. I am going to point
to a word and I want you to repeat it after me. If the word has
the
short /o/ sound, then I want you to put your hand to your mouth as if
you
were eating. If it does not, remain still for me.
5. Once I have explained the game, I will model
one with and without the short /o/ sound. Class, this crab has
the
word top on it and it has the short /o/ sound, so Ollie gets to eat it
(put it in the octopus’ mouth). Now, this crab has the word lip
on
it and it does not contain the short /o/ sound, so Ollie does not get
to
eat it. Okay, does everyone understand? Good. Let’s begin.
6. Have students draw an octopus on the drawing
paper with their crayon.
7. Read Doc in the Fog and talk about what
happens
in the story. Read the story again, and have students raise their
hand when they hear the /o/ sound. Write the word on the board as
they are writing it on their octopus drawing. Have them write a
message
at the bottom using invented spelling. Display their work.
8. For assessment, have the words on a piece
of paper and distribute to each student Read the words out to them and
have them underline the ones with the short /o/ sound.
Reference: I expanded on the idea for this
lesson from Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms and from Dr. Bruce
Murray’s work, Auburn University.
Eldredge, J. Lloyd. Teaching Decoding in
Holistic Classrooms. Brigham Young University. Prentice Hall, New
Jersey, 1995.p.61.
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