Abe the Snake
Beginning Reading
By: Mary Haley Byrne
Rationale:
Phoneme recognition is the key to learning how to read and write, and learning
how important phonemes are in spoken language and the connection between letters
and sounds. The goal of this lesson is to teach children the grapheme A
and its corresponding phoneme a_e
= /A/. They will do so by saying the phoneme in a tongue tickler, participating
in activities including listening for words with the phoneme, reading and
spelling words with the phoneme in a letter box lesson, reading a decodable book
called Jane and Babe, and completing
a worksheet.
Materials:
chart with "Abe the snake hates the cake," white board and markers, Elkonin
letter boxes (one per student and one on smart board), set of letters: a, t, e,
h, m, k, b, l, s, v, r, a copy of Jane
and Babe for each student, primary paper and pencil, worksheet for each
student, construction paper, glue
Procedures:
1. Say: Today, we are going to learn the sound /A/. Remember we learned that
sometimes the letter A can say "ahhhh," like in
cat or
map. But, today we are going to learn
another sound that a can make. A
can sometimes say its name, /A/, like in
snake or
Jake.
2. Say: Now let's try a silly tongue twister like the one on this chart, "Abe
the snake hates the cake." Now you try it with me! [Repeat the tongue twister as
a class three times]. Now we will say it again but this time we are going to
stretch out all of the words so we can hear the /A/ sound. I am going to
demonstrate it: "AAAAbe the snaaaaake haaaates the caaaake." Now you try it with
me! [Say it three times as a class].
3. Say: First thing we are going to do is see if we hear A
say its name in some words. I will show you first. Lets see if it is in
late...
laaaaaate. I heard A
say its name! Laaaaate. Now let's
see if it is in the word mat...
maaaaat. I don't hear the A say its
name! Now we are going to do it together. When you hear the A
say its name you are going to throw your hands up and say "Ayyy! There it
is!" If you do not hear it say its name, then say "Naaah! Not there!" Do you
hear A say its name in
mate?
Scat?
Smash?
Plate?
Flask?
4. Say: Now let's spell words like the ones we just heard with an A
that says its name! Many words give us clues when an A
says its name. One clue is when a word has an A and an E at the end, like
this [write a_e on the white board].
The blank means that a consonant goes there in a word. For example, I am going
to write plane, like an airplane
[write it on the white board]. Does everyone see the
a_e? [Circle the –ane
ending] What consonant is in the blank spot [gesture to the
a_e written on the board]. Good! It
is N!
5. Say: Now we are going to use our letterboxes to spell more /A/ words. I am
going to do one first. I want to spell the word
skate in my letterboxes. "She likes
to skate on her driveway." First
think I am going to do is break up the word and count the sounds: /s//k//A//t/.
I hear four sounds! So, I need four boxes for my word
skate. The first sound I hear is the
/s/, so I am going to put that in the first box. Now I am going to stretch the
word out again: ssss-kkkk-AAAA-tttt. I hear the /k/ sound nest, so I am going to
put it in the next box. Ok, ssss-kkkk-AAAA-tttt. Next I hear
A say its name, so that goes in
the next box. There is still one more sound so I am going to say it again: ssss-kkkk-AAAA-tttt.
The /t/ goes in the next box! Now I know that a silent
E
at the end helps A
say its sound, so I am going to put that outside the box. The last thing I
am going to do is read the word, like this: ssss-kkkk-AAAA-tttt… skate! My word
is skate! Now I am going to give you
some words to spell: 2 – [ate], 3 – [hate, make], 4 – [blame, slave, brave].
[After they have had a change to make a word, go over it as a class]
6. Say: Now that we can hear and spell the sound /A/, we are going to read a
book called Jane and Babe. This book
is about Babe, who is a lion at the zoo, and Jane who is the zookeeper. They are
friends and play together. The problem is that Babe lives in a zoo. Lets read
and find out if Jane and Babe can still be friends! [Read the book and allow the
students the opportunity to retell the story]
7. Say: I am passing out a piece of paper and a pencil so you can write a
message. I want you to write about your favorite animal at the zoo. If you do
not know how to spell a word just do the best you can.
8. Pass out the worksheet and go over the instructions. Say: The first thing you
need to do on this worksheet is to cut the pictures and words on the dotted
line. [Wait for everyone to do this] Next I want you to hold the picture long
ways and glue the picture that says "short a" on one side, and the one that says
"long a" on the other side. Look at how I am doing this [demonstrate with
document camera] Look at each picture and find out if the A in the word says its
name or if it doesn't. Let's do one together. Look at this picture of this bat.
Do you hear the A say its name? Good job! It goes under "short a." What about
this picture of the cake? Does it say /A/? Excellent! It goes under "long a."
You are going to do the same thing with the words. Alright get started! [Walk
around the room to help them with any questions they have]
9. For assessment: the teacher can take up their worksheets to ensure the
students comprehend the lesson. The teacher can also assess the students by
taking notes of the student's responses and if they answer the questions
correctly during the activities.
References:
Super Teacher Worksheets. "Sorting: Long A, Short A."
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-vowels/sort-longa-shorta.pdf
Roberts, Brittany. "Ate Not At."
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/robertsbr.html
Pearman, Jeannie. "Race to Say /A/."
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/pearmanbr.html