AAAAAAAAAAA!
Stop Crying!
Emergent Literacy Design
Laura
Slocum
Rational: It
is extremely important for children who are learning to read and spell
words to understand that letters stand for phonemes and spellings map
out the phonemes in spoken words. This lesson will
help children recognize the phoneme /a/ in spoken words. It
will also help them with writing the letter a. Short
vowels are some of the hardest phonemes to identify and this is why I
chose to teach the phoneme /a/.
Materials: Book A Cat’s Nap,
primary paper, pencil, poster with Abby and Allen ask animals for
apples, cards with the words: at, mad, went, bag, gum, hat, bat, nap, and a worksheet with
pictures on it.
Procedures: 1. Introduce the
lesson by explaining to the students that our written language is a lot
like a secret code because it is hard to tell what letters stand for.
That is why it is really important to understand how our mouths
move when we say words. Today we are going to learn
what our mouth does when we make the /a/ sound. Once
we learn what our mouth is doing when we make the /a/ sound, we will be
able to identify the /a/ sound in many words.
2. Ask
students: What does a baby sound like when they cry?
I think that a baby goes AAAAAAHHHHH! I will
ask the students to act like a baby crying when making the /a/ sound.
The word mad has the /a/ sound in it so when we hear the /a/
sound in the word lets stretch out the sound and act like a crying baby.
Did you hear the /a/ sound in the middle of the word?
3. Show
the students the poster with the tongue twister: Abby
and Allen ask animals for apples. First read the
tongue twister to the students and then have them read it with you.
Repeat it about two times. Then say now lets
stretch out he /a/ sound and act like a crying baby: AAAAAby
and AAAAAllen aaaask aaaaanimals for aaaaples. Okay
lets do it again but this time lets break it off the word. /a/
bby /a/ nd /a/ llen /a/ sk /a/ nimals for /a/ pples.
4. Have
the students take out a piece of paper and pencil. Now
explain to the students that we use the letter a to spell /a/.
First demonstrate to the students how to write the letter.
For a capital a start at the rooftop, go down the slide to the
sidewalk, then down the slide the other way, and cross at the fence.
For a lowercase a don’t start at the fence. Start
under the fence. Go up and touch the fence, then
around and touch the sidewalk, around and straight down. Once
I have seen everyone draw their lower and uppercase a, I want you to
make five more just like it. Remind the students
that this letter makes the /a/ sound.
5. Let
me show you how to find /a/ in the word black. I am
going to say the word slow and stretch each sound out so I can listen
for the crying baby. B-b-b-l-l-a-a-ck. B-b-l-l-a-a-a-a….
Did you hear the crying baby! There it is!
6. Now
explain to the students that you are going to give them two words and
they have to tell you which word has the /a/ sound in it. Just
do what I did and stretch the word out and listen for the crying baby.
Do you hear /a/ in cat or dog? Do you hear
the /a/ sound in sit or lap? Do you hear the /a/
sound in nap or sleep?
7. Now
read the book A Cat’s Nap. After you read
it the fist time, read it again and have the children act like a crying
baby every time they hear /a/. List all the words
that have /a/ in them on the board. When you are
done reading the book, have the children draw a picture of a cat and
write about their picture using invented spelling.
8. For
the assessment, give the students a worksheet with pictures on it.
Go over each picture with the children and tell them to circle
all the pictures that have /a/.
References:
Earl, Laura.
Abby’s Alligator at: http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/begin/earlel.html.
The
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