The Itchy Stinky Pig!
Rationale: In learning to read, a child must have knowledge in two main
areas: letter recognition and phonemic awareness. Also, short vowels are
the hardest to learn because, unlike long vowels, short vowels do not have
the sound of saying their name. This lesson will teach the phoneme /i/
and model how to recognize it not only in spoken words, but also in written
words as well. This lesson will also practice the different reactions with
/i/.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil, letter boxes and letters (i, p,
Ii, s, t, r, 1,1, n, g), Tin Man. Fix-It (Dr. Bruce’s room), index cards
with letterbox words from this book written on them, bowl and words to
be drawn.
Procedure:
1. We all know the letters that make up the alphabet, the hard part
is learning and
remembering the mouth moves for each letter. Today we will review
the letter i and
talk about its short vowel sound (/i/).
2. “We have all sung the song The Itsy Bitsy Spider! Well, today
we will say The Itchy
Stinky Pig! We replace spider with pig because the letter i in pig
says /i/ instead of the /i/ in spider. Everyone say itchy stinky pig with
me and listen to the /i/ sound as you say it.”
3. Let’s start with three boxes and the word ‘pig’. Remember each box
gets only one phoneme.
Do you hear the three phonemes? Right, /p/ /i/ /g/. Now we will get a little
bit trickery, with the word ‘pick’. We still only need three letterboxes
because of the three phonemes in pick, /p/ /i/ /k/.”
4. “I will get out the letterboxes and the letters: i, h, s, t, r,
p, 1,1, n, g, and m. When I
say the words you spell them out in the appropriate letterboxes. We
will start with 2 boxes and the word, ‘in’, and finish up with 5 letterboxes
with words such as ‘sprint’.” I will observe the student as I continue
to have him spell out these words: his, tin, trim, grin, spill and print.
5. We are going to draw words out of the bowl and practice reading
them, saying them, and then you are going to write them down on your paper.
6. “We are about to read Tin Man Fix-It. Tim is a tin man who
has a friend named Jim. Jim is good at fixing things. While Tim and Jim
are planting a garden, Tim gets hurt. Let’s see how Tim got hurt
and if Jim can fix him! As we read, look for the words with the /i/ sound.
7. “Let’s all write a sentence about one of our friends!
Include at least one word with the /i/ sound.”
References:
Murray, B. A. and Lesniak, T. The Letterbox Lesson: a hands-on approach
for leaching decoding. The Reading
Teacher, 52, 644-50.
Tin Man Fix-It. Carson, CA, Educational Insights.
Ginger Howell
Beginning Reading
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