Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road with Mr. Tiiiiiiin Man

Rationale:  The importance of understanding that letters match on to the sounds of spoken words (phonemes) is a hard concept for young children to grasp.  Helping children to realize and make this connection of the alphabetic principle will help them to become better spellers and readers.  This lesson will help prepare children to identify /i/ (short i).  With practice, children will become familiar and comfortable with identifying /i/ in spoken words by practicing how to make the letter symbol, as well as creating and identifying the phoneme.  By practicing how to identify /i/ in words, students will gain confidence in their alphabetic insights and capabilities.    

Materials: 

Letterboxes with at least six Elkonin boxes (one per student)  *Words:  it, is, big, swing, list, drink, print, sprint

Projector

Letterbox with at least six Elkonin boxes that will be able to be displayed on a projector so the teacher can demonstrate so the whole class can see

Letters – i, t, s, b, g, w, n, l, d, r, k, p  --   (pre-sort them and put them in baggies so the children will just have to pick up a pre-made baggie with all of the necessary letters in it)

Book: Tin Man Fix-It by Sheila Cushman (Educational Insights)  (one copy per student)

Pencils

Primary Writing Paper

Spelling Quiz sheets for Lesson Words (one per student)

Spelling Quiz Answer Sheet (1 copy)

3.  Tell the students:  “Today, we are going to help the Tin Man skip down the yellow brick road.  He wants us to read him a sentence and he told me to remind you that every time you hear the /i/ sound, move your arms so that he can skip down the yellow brick road.  Here is our sentence:  ‘There is an icky iguana inside the igloo.'  Now that we’ve heard it once, I want everyone to practice saying it as a group slowly, three times. Alright, if you think that with this sentence, we can help the Tin Man skip down the yellow brick road because we heard the /i/ sound in this sentence, raise your hand.  You did!  That’s awesome.  Let’s all say it together but this time, I want everyone to stretch out that /i/ sound and pump our arms to help the Tin Man make it to the end of the brick road!  'There iiiiiiis an iiiiiicky iiiiiiguana iiiiiinside the iiiiigloo.'  Great job everybody!  Now, what I want to do is to say this sentence one more time and count each time you hear the /i/ sound.  How many did you hear?  5?  That is correct.  Let’s say the sentence together and as we hear that sound, I’ll write the words with the /i/ sound in it on the board.”

4.  I will now have the students do a comparison of words.  I will say two words, and  have them repeat both back as a class, and with the word that they hear the /i/ sound in, they must create the “running Tin Man” gesture.  SAY:  "Alright class, now we are going to play the comparison game.  This is how it is going to work.  I am going to say two words aloud and in one of those words is the /i/ sound that we have been practicing.  After I have said both words, I want you to repeat both of them back to me, but only pump your arms on the word that has the /i/ sound in it.  OK?  Any questions?  Well, let's begin!"

                  It or Animal

                  In or Goat

                  Push or Is

                  Sit or Bite

                  Hit or Hop

                  Plan or Kick

                  Bring or Rest   

                  List or See

                  Have or String

                  Sting or Hello

                  Grow or Shrink

6.  Say:  “Now let’s help our friend the Tin Man get to the end of the yellow brick road.  I am going to say aloud some words and we are each going to spell them independently on our own letterboxes.  I will be walking around and if you have trouble, quietly raise your hand.  Be sure not to disturb your neighbor, because they are trying to concentrate hard on their work.  After a few minutes of each word, I am going to show what I came up with, and if you don’t have the same that I do, don’t be shy or embarrassed.  Just raise your hand and we will all go over the sounds of the word out loud as a class.”
                        *** Say each word, one at a time.  Walk around the room for a few minutes, and answer any questions, then come back and display the correct letterbox lesson on the projector.  Answer any questions the students have.  Then move on to the next word until completed.  Words:  it, is, big, swing, list, drink, print, sprint.
                                    SAY:  “Boys and girls, here is your first word.  It has two sounds so I want you to pull out two letterboxes.  I want you to listen carefully to the sounds of the word that you hear.  Do not look at anyone else’s work; this is independent!  O.K., your first word is it.  It.  It is very cold outside.  It.”  (Wait a few minutes, walk around the room, and answer any questions.  Come back and display the word.)

7.  Now turn on the projector and display each word.  Have the students read aloud the word you spelt in the letterbox.  Words:  it, is, big, swing, list, drink, print, sprint.  SAY: “Alright boys and girls, here is the word. We have two letterboxes which means that there are two different sounds.  Can someone read me this word?”  (Call on a student.)  “Excellent job.  I heard an /i/ sound and I heard a /t/ sound, so I chose to put down the letters i and t, which spells it.  Does anyone have any questions?” (Continue doing this same procedure from steps 6 and 7 with the rest of your word list.)

11.  For assessment:  I will give a spelling quiz of a few words that we used in the letterbox lesson plus a few new words with the /i/ sound.  There will be blank spaces ( _ _ _ _) for each word so that students can have some guidance with matching the correct phonemes and graphemes for words.  I will take up the quiz to see how students are doing and understanding the material. 

Reference:

Cushman, Sheila.  Tin Man Fix-It.  Carson, CA:  Educational Insights.  1990.

I-I-Iggy the I-I-Iguana by Mandy Williamson. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/explor/williamsonbr.html