Catch
the Sneezing /a/
Emergent
Literacy
Amanda
Lyle
In order for children
to begin the reading process successfully, they must be able to connect
letters
with phonemes and identify phonemes in spoken words. Vowel sounds are
very
important phonemes to master during the emergent stage of reading. In
this
lesson, students will learn to identify /a/ (short a).
They will be challenged to learn a meaningful way to symbolize
the /a/ in spoken words and find /a/ within written words. They will
also
practice writing the letter symbol for a providing
the opportunity for practice in identifying the /a/ in written and
spoken
language.
Materials:
Picture
cards for: cat,
alligator, rat, hat, apple, and clam; Sentence strip with tongue
twister:
“Andrew and Alice asked if Annie’s active animals were angry”; Primary
paper
and pencil; Word cards:
mouse/ rat, jelly/ jam, cat/ dog, basket/ bowl,
people/
animals; Pat’s Jam (Educational Insights); Assessment sheet
with: cab,
dig, hand, cow, flag, check, bat, bed, ran, log, bag, stick, cat, sun,
van,
dog, jam, met, ham, red.
Procedure:
1. Introduce
the lesson to the students by
describing the alphabet as a secret code that we must learn. We will
start by
learning what mouth moves are made as we say each word. Today we will
be
working on the mouth move for short a.
Just as we will work on spotting the short a
sound, we will also work on writing the letter that makes the sound.
2. Ask
students: What sound do you make when you sneeze? Demonstrate the
Aaaaaaaaaaachoo while holding hands up to the nose to represent
sneezing. Now
let me hear all of you make the /a/ sound as you pretend to sneeze.
Let’s see
if we can use our sneezing sound as we say some words with /a/ in them
such as
s-a-a-a-a-a-t. Demonstrate sneezing motion while saying sat.
3. Let’s try
finding the sneezing /a/ while
naming the picture on each card. C-a-a-a-a-a-t, A-a-a-a-a-lligator,
R-a-a-a-a-a-t, H-a-a-a-a-a-t, A-a-a-a-a-pple, and Cl-a-a-a-a-a-m.
4. Let’s all try sneezing a tongue twister. “Andrew and Alice asked if Annie’s active animals were angry.” Have the tongue twister written on a sentence strip to read aloud once to the class while modeling the sneezing /a/. A-a-a-a-a-ndrew a-a-a-a-a-nd, A-a-a-a-a-lice, a-a-a-a-a-sked if A-a-a-a-a-nnie’s a-a-a-a-a-ctive a-a-a-a-a-nimals were a-a-a-a-a-ngry. Class together should read the tongue twister while making the mouth moves and gestures of /a/. They should do it a second time breaking it off the word: /a/ lice /a/ sked if /a/ nnie’s /a/ ctive /a/ nimals were /a/ ngry.
5. Ask students to
please get out primary paper
and pencil. We can use letter a to spell /a/. Let’s write it on our
paper
together. For lower case a, start under the fence. Go up and touch the
fence,
then around and touch the sidewalk, around and straight down. After I
look at
your /a/ and put a star on your paper, I would like for each of you to
finish
the row of a’s.
6. Ok class, we are
now going to pretend that my
friend, Pat, is allergic to anything with the /a/ in the name. It makes
him
sneeze. What sound do we make when we sneeze? That’s
right…A-a-a-a-a-a-choo.
Now, I have a few cards with words on the front and back. I want the
class to
tell me which one Pat is allergic to by paying close attention to which
word
has the sneezing /a/. Do call and response with class for the following
cards:
mouse, rat; jelly, jam; cat, dog; basket, bowl; people, animals. I want
everyone to make your sneezing /a/ hands when you hear the word that
makes Pat
sneeze.
7. Today class
we will read a book about my
friend Pat called, “Pat’s Jam.” I said earlier that my friend Pat is
allergic
to words with /a/. Do you think that the title of the book could mean
that Pat is
allergic to jam? Let’s read it and find out. Listen carefully as I read
it to
you. Discuss with the students what the book really was about and ask
if anyone
heard any words with sneezing /a/ throughout the book. Let’s now read
the book
again and pretend that it is about Pat being allergic to the sneezing
/a/. Now
as I read everyone should listen and make the sneezing /a/ motion each
time you
hear a word that will make our friend Pat sneeze.
8. For
assessment, each student will have a sheet
with pictures and words similar to the exercise for what makes Pat
sneeze. The
students will be asked to circle which words have the sneezing/a/ in
them. They
will then choose one sneezing /a/ word to draw a picture for on the
back of the
paper. Students will be asked to come up and show the class their
sneezing /a/
picture. They will lead the class in sneezing out the /a/ in the word
as they
name their picture.
Reference:
Cushman,
Shelia. Pat's
Mark Matthews-
Alphabetic Acting http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/connect/mathewsel.html
Laura Earl- Abby’s Alligator http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/begin/earlel.html