"Rub a Dub Ducky"

 "Beginning to Read"
Amy Graffam

Rationale:

 In order for students to be skillful readers, they have to build their sight vocabulary. As educators, we must teach common
correspondences explicitly to children. Children will become better decoders, which will make them better readers. In this lesson
we will cover the correspondence /u/ (short u). The students will learn the correspondence with a meaningful representation. After
this lesson, I hope students will identify and pronounce /u/ when shown u and be able to read words that have the letter u in them.

Materials:

Student copies of Fuzz and the Buzz (Written By Sheila Cushman, Edited By Pat Millie, Illustrated By Patti Briles, and Published by
Educational Insights in 1990); student copies of Elkonin letterboxes and cutout letters b, g, m, n, p, r, s, t, and u; chalkboard and
chalk; student primary paper and pencils; word cards (with bug, horse, hot, book, sun, boat, duck, and small written on them); and
assessment sheets (which are attached at the end of this lesson) for the entire class.

Procedures:

1. Introduce the /u/ correspondence and how to spot it in written text. "Class, today we are going to work with the letter u in written
text. Can anyone tell me what our mouth does when we say /u/? Good, it opens up with our tongue sitting still. Does anyone know
any words that contain the /u/ sound in them? (Make a list of all the words they say even if they are incorrect on the chalkboard)
Good! duck, sun, bump, jug, dug, junk, tug, luck, etc." Make sure there are a lot of words so the students can do the next activity.

2. Underline the /u/ grapheme in each word on the chalkboard. "Now, class we are going to underline the letter u in all of our words
because they make the /u/ sound. (Model this) As for the word sun, we will underline the letter u in sun because the letter u makes
the sound /u/. Class I want each person to get a turn at coming up to the chalkboard and underlining the letter u in each word."
Make sure each student gets a chance to go up and underline a letter in a word. Some students may find that there is not a letter u
in the word so they come to their own conclusion that it is not a correct word with the /u/ sound.

3. Now I will write a tongue twister on the board so the students will be able to visualize the actual letter in its setting (Uncle was
upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up). Practice saying the tongue twister with the class. "Now let's say this tongue
twister listening for the /u/ sound in the words. (Say tongue twister) Did anyone notice how many times we said the /u/ sound?
Good! 7. Class can anyone tell me a word that contains the /u/ sound in it? Wonderful Job! Uncle. Are there anymore? Great!
Umbrella. Okay, class let's say this tongue twister all together stretching the /u/ sound in the words they are in. (Model it)
UUUUUUUUUncle was uuuuuuuuuupset becauuuuuuuuse he was uuuuuuuuunable to puuuuuuuuuut his uuuuuuuuuumbrella
uuuuuuuuup. Now, I want you all to say it just like I did." Students will repeat the tongue twister.

4. "Now we will play a game with different words. I will show you a word on these cards and if it has the mouth move of /u/ sound
on it I want you to say, "Rub a Dub Ducky". If it does not have a /u/ sound in it I want you to say, "Boat". (Model this) For example, if
I showed a card with cup, you would say, "Rub a Dub Ducky". But if I said car, you would say, "Boat"." Make sure everyone
understands what we are doing and have the class respond to what you show them. Show them each of the cards and wait for a
response.

5. Now draw the Elkonin boxes on the board so as teachers you can model how to do a letterbox lesson to the class (Patterson).
"Class we are going to do a letterbox lesson using the /u/ sound.

    a. All students need to get out their Elkonin boxes, which they have made previously to this lesson. The words they will use are: (2)
       up (3) rub, bug, sun, gum (4) stub, and bust. (The (2,3,4) mean the number of letterboxes you need) The letters they will need are: b,
        g, m, n, p, r, s, t, and u. Say, "Class the only letters you need on your desk are b, g, m, n, p, r, s, t, and u. All others need to be put
        away."
    b. Remind the students to turn their letters on the lower case side and that each box can hold only one mouth move.
    c. Model one example on the board. "Class, I want you all to look up here on the board. I am going to ask you to spell a word using
        the number of letterboxes I tell you in your boxes, then you try to spell it remembering to use the way your mouth moves. For
        example, If I said spell cup you would sound out the letters and put the first letter c in the first box because it makes a /c/ sound,
        then the second sound is /u/ so we would put the letter u, and the last box we hear the sound /p/ so we would put the letter p. So
        the way we spell cup is c u p." Now have the class spell, on their own the words listed above. Give a few minutes and then go over
        that word on the board asking students to come up and show it. After I have gone through all of the words tell the class to put
        away everything and read the words on the board as I write them. "Now, class I want you to put everything away and look at me. I
        am going to spell a word and I will pick on one person to tell me what it says by reading it." Continue with all of the words.

6. Now the whole class will read the book Fuzz and the Buzz. Give a book talk about this book before reading it so you can get the
students interested in the book. Have the class read by themselves first and once read through once place the students in groups
of three. While in the groups, have each student read the book once out loud and then go around the group so each student is able
to read once through. As the teacher, you need to walk around and observe the students reading to see which ones still need the
extra help working on the correspondence.

7. Assessment: Give each student the assessment sheet, which is attached at the end of this lesson plan. Read over all the
directions and model the example questions to the class. While some of the students are doing this assessment I will pull each
student in the class to read a couple pages from the book Fuzz and the Buzz to see how well they are doing.

References:

Patterson, Leann. "Lucky Ducky" http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/pattersonbr.html.

Wallingsford, Darby. "Rub a Dub in the Tub" http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/wallingsfordbr.html.

Murray, B. A. and T. Lesniak. (1999). "The letterbox lesson: A hands-on approach to teaching decoding." The Reading Teacher, 52,
644-650.

"Wallach and Wallach's Tongue Twisters"
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/twisters.html.

Cushman, Sheila. "Fuzz and the Buzz." Carson, CA: Educational Insights, 1990.
 

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Name: ___________________________   Date: _________________________

Part I

Directions: Read the sentences very slowly and carefully. Underline the words that contain the /u/ sound.

Example: Sarah got stuck in the tube.

1. Bubba ate the snake in the hot sun.

2. The duck jumped into the tub.

3. The rug got wet from the water in the tub.

4. The buck ate the grass on Sunday.

5. We walked to the hut while chewing some gum.

Part II

Directions: Circle the pictures that contain the /u/ sound in them.