“Say
aahhh….said the
doctor”
By:
Brittany Bailey
Beginning
Reading Stage
Rationale: Children need
explicit, systematic phonics instruction
in order to successfully learn to read. This lesson will teach
o=/o/, as
in “Say aaahhh, said the doctor”. 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 phoneme awareness through the instruction of a
short
vowel sound.
Materials:
-tongue twister poster
(Olly the octopus likes the opera.)
-word poster (lot,
stop, spot, flop, top, mop)
-primary paper (one
piece for each student)
-pencil (one for
each student)
-Elkonin boxes (The
teacher and all students should have an Elkonin box with four boxes in
it.)
-plastic letterbox
letters (The teacher and all students will need a set.) Letters
needed: o,t,l,s,p,f,m
-picture of a
person saying “Ahhh” for a doctor
-book: Hop
on Pop by Dr. Seuss
Procedures:
1. “Today we’re going to
learn about
/o/. Can anyone think of a word with /o/ in it? Good
job! I
can think of a few…October, olive, operation. Let’s
make the /o/ sound together.
2. "I’m sure all of you
been to
the doctor's office once or twice, right?” What sound do you make
when the
doctor puts a popsicle stick in your mouth?" That's right,
o=/o/! Well, today we are going to pretend like we are at the
doctor's
office. I am going to be the doctor and you all are going to be
my
patients. I am going to say, 'Open up and say /o/
and I want you all to make the o=/o/ just as
you would if you were at the doctor’s office. Good job!
3. “I’m going to say
some words, and
you tell me which ones have o=/o/ in them. Do you hear /o/ in tip
or top...hop
or hip...pop or pal…lift or loft? Good job!
4. Hand out Elkonin
boxes and
letterbox letter sets to each child. Model how to make a word
with a
letterbox. (“Watch how I do this. I’m going to spell the
word ‘top.’
There are three sounds in top /t/, /o/, /p/. I put the letter t
in the
first box because the first sound is /t/. I put the letter o in
the
second box because the second sound is /o/. I put the letter p in
the
third box because /p/ is the last sound in top.”)
5. Good job, that’s t-o-p. Now I want you to try
a few on your own:
-lot [3]
-stop [4]
-spot [4]
-flop [4]
-top [3]
-mop [3]
6. Let’s
try to see if we can find the letter
o in some of these words in this silly tongue twister. “Olly
the
octopus like the opera.” Everybody say it out loud
together.
Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /o/ at the beginning of
each word
that starts with o and think about the sound you make when you
open wide
and say “Aaah”. “Ooooolly the oooctopus likes the ooooopera.”
Try it again, and this time break the /o/ off each word. “/o/ lly
the
/o/ ctopus likes the /o/ pera.” Great Job!
Now do you
hear the /o/ in mop or map?
7. I think that everyone knows
how to make
the letter o, but let’s write several together on our (primary)
paper. Start just below the fence. First little c, then
close it
up! Good, now make five more on your paper for practice. Great job! I
will walk
around and make sure everyone made his or her letter o
correctly.
8. Now,
I'm going to read Hop on Pop aloud,
and I want you to lift your Popsicle stick every time you hear /o/."
Assessment: Students will be
assessed on both
the recognizing o= /o/ in spoken words, as well as during the letterbox
lesson. Students will also be provided with a worksheet with
pictures
that have things with the /o/ phoneme in them, such as an
octopus. (Some
of the objects will not have this phoneme in them). Ask the
children to
circle the pictures that have the doctor (o=/o/) sound in them with a
pencil.
Works Cited:
Kerns, Megan.
Open
Wide and “
Say Aaah”.
Fullilove, Casey.
“Open
Up and Say /o/!”.
Dr. Seuss. Hop on Pop.
1963. Random
House.
Murray, Bruce. Teaching
Letter
Recognition.
Murray, Bruce A. and
Theresa Lesniak (1999).
“Teaching