Icky,
Iggy, Iguana
Beginning Reading
By: Caroline Burr
Rationale:
In order for children to be fluent readers, they must be able to
recognize short vowels and their pronunciations. An understanding of short
vowels is very important for phonemic awareness. This lesson is created to give
students a better understanding of the correspondence i=/i/. Through creative
techniques and memorable activities, the students will leave this lesson with a
better understanding of how to include the phoneme /i/ in their verbal and
written language.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencils
Elkonian boxes and letters
Chart with tongue twister: Icky, Iggy, Iguana
lives in his Igloo.
Picture with a popsicle and “Icky” hands
List of words: 2- is, if, 3- lip, big, tip, 4-
mist, fist, twig 5- twist, crisp review word: pet, click
Popsicle sticks for decoding
Class set of the Tin Man- Fix It
Handout with pictures: pig, mit, wall, leaf,
bridge, truck
Procedure:
1.
Introduce this
lesson by explaining that it is important for us to understand the different
sound that each letter in the alphabet makes. When we know the sounds of the
letters, it is easier for us to decode words that we do not know as well as
makes it easier for us to spell and speak. Today we are going to learn an
exciting and memorable way to remember the correspondence /i/.
Have you ever eaten a Popsicle and didn't like the way your hands feel
after your done eating it. More than likely when you felt the stickiness on your
hands, you said ICKK. This is the sound the short i makes in certain words that
we say everyday. Lets pretend that you have just eaten a Popsicle, I want
everyone to make the noise ICCKK and shake your hand as if you are trying to get
something off of your hands. (Do this three times so the students understand the
shape their mouth makes when they are making the short i sound)
2.
Now we are going
to read this tongue twister together as a class.
I am going to read it aloud first and then you are going to read it with
me. Icky Iggy Iguana lives in his igloo. Now when we read it together, we are
going to listen for the short i sound. When we say the tongue twister together,
I want you to pretend like you have something sticky on your hands that you want
to get off. As we say the sentence, shake your hands so I know that you are
hearing the /i/ in the sentence. Great job! Now we are going to say the tongue
twister again and stress the /i/ when we hear it. For example when I say the
words Icky, if I want to stress the /i/ I would say “iiiiicky”. Don't forget to
pretend like you have something sticky on your hand when you hear /i/. (IIIIcky
IIIggy iiiiguana liiiives iiiin an iiiiigloo).
3.
Now I am going to
say a set of words aloud and you are going to raise your hand and tell me which
word you hear /i/. For example: Do you hear the /i/ in sit or sat? You hear /i/
in the word SIT. (siiiit) Now do you hear the /i/ in the words: bit or but? Pig
or bag? Snip or set? Hill or hole?
4.
Now we are going
to learn how to write the letter i in upper and lower case. It is important to
know how to write this letter so we can visualize what it looks like when we are
reading and when we have to write sentences that have /i/ correspondence. First
we are going to start with the lower case letter. First take your pencil and
place it on the fence dotted line. Draw a line straight down and stop at the
sidewalk. After you have drawn a straight line, place a small dot on top of the
fence. You have written your first lower case i. I want you to each raise your
hand when you have finished, after I have checked your writing, please write 9
more just like the first one. Now we are going to practice writing the upper
case i. Place your pen on the rooftop and draw a line that is sideways on the
rooftop. Next, I want you to place your pencil in the middle of the line that
you have drawn and draw a straight line all the way down to the sidewalk.
Finally, just like you did on the rooftop, draw another line that is sideways on
the sidewalk. Great work! You have just drawn an upper case I. After I have
checked your work, please draw nine more just like the first one.
5.
Now we are going
to have a letterbox lesson, Write the letters that the students are going to
need on the board and have them pick them out of the box and place them where
they can see each letter easily. As a teacher, you need to have a set of letters
and boxes so you can model to the students what the boxes represent and how to
spell words that contain /i/. “We are going to be learning how to spell words
that contain /i/. Each of your boxes will have only one sound. Watch as I spell
the word BIG. I need three boxes for the three individual sounds. I am going to
say the word slowly so I can hear the different letters. When I hear the /i/
sound I am going to make sure i make the hand gesture like something is stuck on
my hand. I am going to put the b in the first box, the i in the second box (make
the icky hand gesture), and the g in the final box. You have just learned how to
spell the word BIG. Lets have you try to spell some words and check them as a
class. 2- is, if, 3- lip, big, tip,
4- mist, fist, twig 5- twist, crisp *Teachers don't forget to tell the students
how many boxes they need before they start spelling the word.
6.
Now we are going
to practice reading words that contain /i/ in the book Tin Man Fix It. First I
am going to tell you a little about the book before we start reading. This is a
book about Tim the tin man who is helping his friend Jim plant a garden. Sid
comes and runs into Tim making him fall apart. To find out if they can put Tim
back together, we are going to have to read the book. You are going to each read
this book silently. If you are coming across some trouble, first try to decode
the word using your Popsicle stick, and if you are still struggling raise your
hand and I will come assist you.
7.
For the
assessment call the children back to your table and have them read a new tongue
twister. Observe them read the sentence and assess their ability to decode the
tongue twister of the phoneme /i/. Note the children that are still struggling
with this particular phoneme, so they can get extra assistance and practice
throughout the year.
References:
Hale, Laura Iggy is Icky
Sticky,
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/innov/halebr.htm
(1990). Phonics Reader Short Vowel, Tin Man Fix-It. Carson, CA (USA):
Educational Insights.