Emergent Literacy
Megan Murphy
Rationale:
The students need to realize that their mouth makes different moves
to make different sounds. The students need to have letter recognition
in order to be able to read written words. In order to have letter
recognition of the letter a, the students need to be able to create the
letter a. Through this lesson, the students will be able to recognize
that the letter a makes the /a/ sound in spoken words. They will
be able to remember the correspondence a=/a/ through a meaningful
tongue twister. The students will also be able to recognize the letter
a in written language and they will be able to create the letter a.
Materials:
The book Zac the Rat found on www.Starfall.com,
primary paper, pencil, laminated picture of an apple with the letter a
written
on it attached to a Popsicle stick., worksheet with pictures of rat, dog,
cat, bird, mat, hat, goat, plate, sad (face), happy (face).
Procedures:
1. With every sound we make, our mouth makes a different move.
Each mouth movement is called a phoneme. Today we are going to talk
about the mouth movement that makes the sound /a/. The /a/ sound
stands for the short a. When we make the /a/ sound we open our mouth
wider then when we say the /A/ sound. After today, we will be able
to recognize the /a/ sound in spoken words and written words.
2. The students will be asked to think of the last time they heard
a baby cry. They will be asked to recall what sound the baby was
making while they were crying. The sound a baby makes when they are
crying is the same sound the short a makes, /a/. "Now I want you
guys to make the sound of a crying baby."
3. I am going to tell you guys a really funny sentence that will help
us to remember the /a/ sound. The fat cat sat looking at a rat with
a black hat on a mat. Now letâs say the sentence together.
This time, every time we say a word with the /a/ sound I want us to drag
out the /a/ sound like this: The faaaat caaaat saaaat looking aaaaaat
a raaaaat with a blaaaack haaaaat on a maaaaat. Now I want to hear
you drag out the /a/ sound.
4. The students will be asked to take out their primary paper and pencils.
"Now that we know the sound /a/, we need to practice how to represent it
with our written language. I am going to show you how to create the
letter a. First you start right under the fence, and then
you create a circle and come back up to the fence. Once you have
gotten back under the fence, you draw a line back down to the road.
Now I want you to make a row of as. Raise your hand when you
are through and I will come by and check them.
5. Now we are going to go through some words, and I want you to raise
up your apple when you hear the /a/ sound in these words. I will
give you an example. Do I hear /a/ in rat or mouse? I hear
it in rat, so I am going to hold up my apple! Do you hear /a/ in
bat
or bait? Snap or snail? Glad or
happy?
Mad
or upset?
6. The teacher will read Zac the Rat and encourage the students
to raise up their apple when they hear a word with the /a/ sound.
After the first time the book is read through, the students will participate
in a grand discussion about the book. The teacher will then reread
the book, and the students will be asked to help her make a list on the
board of all the words in the book with /a/ sound.
7. The students will be assessed using a picture worksheet. The
pictures on the worksheet will be of a rat, dog, cat, bird, mat, hat, goat,
plate, sad (face), happy (face).
References:
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/index/load.htm?f
(Zac the Rat text)
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/stewartel.html
(The Reading Genie Website)