The Amazing Apes Ate Acorns
A Beginning Reading
By: Madi Pennington
Rationale:
This lesson is designed to teach
children about the long vowel correspondence
a_e = /A/. In order for children to
have a full grasp on reading they need to be able to comprehend short and long
vowels. With the use of a letterbox lesson, children will learn how to
recognize, spell words and read using a decodable text containing
a_e = /A/. Children also learn
visually the /A/ by cupping their hand next to their ear and say Eh? What's that
you say?
Materials:
Picture of an old man cupping his
ear; the cover-up caterpillar; large Elkonin boxes for modeling, individual
Elkonin boxes for each student, a poster with the word
shake on it,
letter titles for all students and
teachers: a, p, e, t, k, c, h, s, f, r, m, b, l, d; list of spelling
words on board that reads ape, cat,
take, chase, frame, blade, scrape (cat
is your short a review word); the decodable text: Race for Cake, Poster with
tongue twister "The Amazing Apes ate Acorns" and assessment worksheet
Procedures:
1. Say: In
order to be the best readers we can be we need to know how to pronounce the
letters we learn. We are going to be talking about the long A and the silent
e that make the long A sound. We have
already learned about the short A in words like cat and nap. To help you learn
the long A sound I have a friend with me, (show picture of old man), his name is
Lane. Say this with me /A/. See it sort of sounds like an old man cupping his
ear to hear you better. I have a tongue twister that will help us with the long
A. The Amazing Apes Ate Acorns. Let's say it slow /The/ /A//A//A/m/a/a/a/z/i/n/g/
/A//A//A/p/e/s/ /A/A/A/t/e/ /G//r//a//a//a//p//e//s/. The long A comes with a
spelling a_e (write this on the board).
The e on the end is silent to help you know that it is a long A word. The blank
after the a means that there will be
a silent e at the end of the word and
another letter in between these 2 vowels.
2. Say: Let's
see if we can hear the spelling of /A/ in a few words. Let's say /A/ name again
to be sure to listen for it. Your tongue stays on the bottom of your mouth with
your mouth open and your lips move slightly. I like to cup my ear also to help
me remember what I'm listening for. I'll show you what it looks like using the
word cake. Did you hear the /A/ and
did you see my mouth movements? Now let us try it with the word
pie. Hmm, I definitely didn't hear it
that time and the movements weren't the same. Ok, now it's yalls turn. If you
hear the /A/ cup your hand over your ear and if you don't say that's not it. Is
it in plate, cup, pond, lake, tape, glue?
3. Say: Let's
look at the word scrape. "I do not
like to scrape the ice off of my car in the winter." In this sentence the word
scrape means to remove something.
We are going to spell scrape with the letterboxes. In order to do so we need to
first figure out how many phonemes the word scrape has. I will stretch it out to
help me count: /s/c/r/A/p/e/. Ok I will need 5 boxes because the
e is silent on the end and we put it
in a special place. I heard the long A we have been listening for so I will put
it in the fourth box and my silent e
will be placed here, outside the last box. The word starts with a /s/, so I need
an s
to put in the first box. Now
let's say it slow /s/c/r/a/p/e/, I think I heard a /c/ so I'll put a
c right after the
s. Let's fill in the other letters.
Ok say it slow /s/c/r/a/p/e/.I think I heard a /r/, so I will put an
r right before the /A/.
Now we have one more box to fill in, let's see we have an (point to the
letters as you say them) /s/c/r/a/p/e/. The missing one must be /p/.
Now let's see
how we would read a tough word.
(Get out the poster with the word shake
on it) Let's start with the a_e; this is what makes the /A/. Let's put the
beginning letters with it: s-h-a_e, /shA/. Now I'll put that part together with
the last sound, /shA-k/. Oh that word is
shake. "As in I like to shake my pompom at the football games.
(Make sure to use the cover-up
caterpillar to chuck the word up).
4. Say: Now
it is your turn to spell some words with your letterboxes. Let's start out with
an easy word like ape. An ape is a
primate or a monkey, "I went and saw the movie Planet of the Apes and it was all
about really smart monkeys." What do you think goes in the first box? (Respond
to the answer or answers given). How about the second box? How about our special
friend the silent e? Did you remember
to put him outside the boxes? I'll be checking your letterboxes as I walk around
the room. Great job everyone. Ok for the next word we will need three
letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound and put it in the first box. Then
listen for that /A/ and don't forget to put our silent
e friend outside the boxes.
Ok your word is
take; I like to take banana pudding
with me on a picnic. (Allow time for children to complete the rest of the words:
chase, frame, blade while you walk
around and observe).
5. Say: Now
let's practice reading the words you have just spelled. Let's read them together
first and then we will take turns reading a word. (Make sure everyone reads at
least one word).
6. Say: You
all have done a wonderful job with reading and spelling our new words for /A/:
a_e. Now we are going to read a fun book called
Race for Cake. This story is about a
boy named Ben and a girl named Jess. Their mom is making a cake and it smells
really yummy. They decide to have a race to see who can get to the cake first.
Then something happens to Ben. Let's read on to see what happened to Ben and to
see who gets to the cake first. I want you to get with a partner and take turns
reading the book. I'll be walking around listening to you read. After everyone
is finished we will reread the book and talk about what happens as a class.
7. Say: You
each have done a great job with your reading a spelling of /A/: a_e. We are
going to do a worksheet. Here we have some words and I want you to color the
words that have the /A/ blue and on words that you don't hear the /A/ I want you
to color those words pink. Remember that
the /A/ goes with a_e. Read all the words first and then make your decision.
(After all worksheet are complete collect them and evaluate their progress).
Resources
Murray, G.
(2006) Race for Cake. Reading Genie:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Noie Yancey,
Oh, Oh, My Knee Hurts:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invitations/yanceybr.htm
Assessment
Worksheet:
http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/html/phonics_worksheet_v2-21.html