Beginning Reading
Kiri McFarland
  Bob and the Frogs Hop on Logs
    
frog
Rationale: Children need to be instructed and exposed to phoneme awareness in order to have an understanding of our written and spoken language. For children to become fluent readers, they must learn to break down the alphabetic code.  As teachers we need to teach children different correspondences they will come across when reading.  This lesson is designed to help children review the o=/o/ correspondence.  The children will learn this correspondence by reading and writing words with o=/o/.

Materials: A large cut out of Bob (teacher made), one frog cut out for each child (from resource book), several logs with words written on them (from resource book), copies of Doc in the Fog (Educational Insights), word wall including words with the o=/o/ correspondence, chart with "Bob and the frogs hop on logs, dance in clogs, and raise hogs," primary paper, pencils, assessment worksheet.

Procedure:
1.    Introduce the lesson by explaining to children that we need to find out which letters stand for which sounds to understand our writing code. "Today we are going to learn what sound we sometimes hear when we see the letter o. We want to be able to spot this letter and sound in many words."
2.    "Have you ever been to the doctor to get your throat checked? When the doctor looks in your throat, you have to say, 'AHHHH'. This is the sound you hear from /o/. Let me show you how to spot /o/ in a word. We do this by stretching the word out to see if we hear 'AHHHH'. I will do the word fox, fo-o-o-ox. Did you hear the 'AHHHH' in the middle of the word?  Good. Now let's try to do it together." Give children words such as mop, log, sock, box, etc.
3.    "Next we are going to try a tongue twister." Read the chart. "Bob and the frogs hop on logs, dance in clogs, and raise hogs. Okay, now everyone read it together." Children read chart. "This time, when we hear the /o/ sound, let's stretch it out. Bo-o-o-ob and the fro-o-o-ogs ho-o-o-op o-o-o-on lo-o-o-ogs, dance in clo-o-o-ogs, and raise ho-o-o-ogs. Good job. Now let's break away the /o/ sound like this ­ B /o/ b and the fr /o/ gs     h /o/ p     /o/ n     l /o/ gs. Try it with me. Well done."
4.    Now we are going to play a game. Each one of you has a frog and I have Bob. There are many logs taped to the back wall. Each log has a word written on it.  One at a time, you are going to take your frog and put it on a log that has a word with o=/o/ written on it. When you place your frog on the log, you will read your word to the class. I will show you how by placing Bob on a log." Teacher models game.
5.    "You all did a good job of stretching out the words to find the words with o=/o/. Now let's repeat our tongue twister again. Each time you hear o=/o/, raise your hand." Read the tongue twister slowly.
6.    Have children read through words on word wall to determine which words have o=/o/ correspondence.
7.    Have children read Doc in the Fog and add any new words to word wall.
8.    To assess the children, the teacher should hand out a worksheet with 5 to 8 sentences. Each sentence should contain many words with o=/o/ correspondence. The students should circle the words in each sentence that contain this correspondence.

References: Eldredge, J. Lloyd. Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Ohio: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1995. (149)
                    http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/illum/evansbr.html

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