Materials:  one large chart with tongue twister;  "What treat did the man eat while waiting on his seat?" each student needs a copy of Lee and the Team, each student needs a pencil and primary paper, lyrics to A Day at the Beach by Alyssa Williams, each student needs a dry erase board and dry erase marker.

Procedure:
1. We are going to use reading hints to allow these young readers to figure out words that seem to be difficult for them.  Today we are going to learn some new tricks to help us remember that ea= /E/ says its name "EEEEE".
2. Have you ever made a loud shriek noise?  Like when you scream.  When you do you probably make the /E/ sound.  Now that is a good way to remember what sound long E makes.  Another way to remember it is that it says its name, EEEE.  Also when e and a are together they usually say /E/.  Everybody say "EEEE" together.  "EEEE", great job!
3. Now I have a tongue twister for you.  "What treat did the man eat while waiting on his seat?"" Everybody say it together.  Now we are going to say it again and hold out our /E/ sound when we come to a word that has that sound. "What tr-ea-ea-eat did the man ea-ea-eat while waiting on his sea-ea-ea-eat."  Great job!  I want everybody to look at our tongue twister chart and notice again what sound our /E/ makes.
4. Now we are going to take out our primary paper and practice making the letters E and A.  To make a capital E we are going to start at the roof and go down to touch the sidewalk.  Then we are going to go back up to the roof and connect our line on the roof and move our pencils to the right.  Same thing with the line on the fence and on the sidewalk.  To make a lower case a we are going to start right under the fence, go up and touch the fence, then around and touch the sidewalk, around and straight.  (I picked capital E and lower case a to give an example of capital and lower case letters.  Also to spell the word "Eat" if it was at the beginning of the sentence.)  Now I am going to walk around and make sure everyone is making the right motions on their paper.  When I come around and check you off for correctly writing you E and a, I want you to make a whole row of the letter the same way.
5. Now we are going to recite our poem and see how many words we can pick out with the long E sound.

A Day at the
    Beach

I went to the
    beach
to eat a peach.
And while I was
      there,
I took a seat.
I saw a fish leap
and a shell that
     was neat.

Now lets read the poem again but slower and exaggerate our long E sound that we find in these words.  "A Day at the Bea-ea-ea-each.  I went to the bea-ea-ea-each, to ea-ea-eat a pea-ea-each.  And while I was there I took a sea-ea-eat.  I saw a fish lea-ea-eap and a shell that was nea-ea-eat.
6. Now everyone needs to take out their dry erase boards and dry erase marker.  I want you to write down as many words as you can think of that have the letter ea in them.  Remember that the word can start with ea like "eat", it can come in the middle of the word like most of our words in our poem, "treat."  At least come up with 10 words and before you can show me that you are finished make sure you review the sounds that your words are making.  Remember that we are looking for the long E sound that says "EEEE".  I will walk around the room and make sure that you are getting the hang of it.  (The teacher should now look for student’s comprehension on finding the letters ea in a word and also he "EEEE" sound.)
7. Today we are going to read a new book that goes along with our sound of the day.  What is our sound of the day?  Right!  "EEEEE".  We are going to read Lee and the Team.  What words do you recognize in the title of our book that has the "EEEE" sound?  You are right.  Lee, Team.  Which word has the ea spelling?  You are right, Team.  I want you to begin reading this book to yourself and remember our strategies that we learned today if you get stuck on a word.  After you have completed reading your book I want you to pick a partner and you two should take turns reading it to each other.  I will walk around while you are reading with your partner to make sure everyone is making the proper "EEEE" sound.

Assessment:  The teacher will evaluate their letter writing skills and also listen to the students as they are verbally sounding out the words together.  Also assess the students when they are reading in-groups.  Make sure that they are not missing more than one word per page.  When the students finish reading their book with their partner they are to go back to their dry erase boards and think of more words to add to their list.
 
 
 
 

Reference:
Eldredge, J. Lloyd.  (1995).  Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms.  Prentice-Hall.  1995.  Page 107.
Lee and the Team
Mink, Shay.  http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/minkbr.html
Williams, Alyssa.  http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/williamsbr.html
Murray, Bruce.  http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie.html