Rationale: Children need to have phoneme awareness in order to
read
and write words. Phoneme awareness is the ability to recognize phonemes
in
spoken language. Although recognizing vowels is difficult for children
these
need to be learned early since they are present in every word. This
lesson
will focus on a = /a/.
Materials: Class set of letter manipulatives and Elkonin boxes
Elkonin boxes and letter manipulatives (a b c d h l m n r s t) for the
overhead
A Cat Nap by Educational Insights for each child
Sentence strip with a tongue twister using /a/: “ Andrew and Alice
asked
if
Annie’s animals were
angry”
Enlarged picture of a crying baby
Page of pictures for each child including: man, cat, dog, fan, tree,
bat,
frog
Procedure:
1. Introduce lesson by stating,”Today we are going to
learn
about the letter A and the sound it makes. Every time we see an a in
our
activity today I want everyone to think of this crying baby. What sound
does
the baby make?” Class responds with “aaa aaa” “This sound is important
because
we use it a lot when we are reading and writing words.
2. Show them the tongue twister on the sentence
strip.
“Now I want us to try saying this sentence. ‘Andrew and Alice asked if
Annie’s
animals were angry.’ Very good. Now this time I want you to rub your
eyes
and cry like a baby every time we hear the sound /a/.” “Aaa-ndrew and
Aaa-lice
aaa-sked if Aaa-nies……”
3. Have everyone take out the following letter
manipulatives:
a b c d h l m n r s t and their Elkonin boxes. Set yours up on the
overhead.
Demonstrate for the children how you would spell hand using the boxes
and
manipulatives. (lay out 4 letterboxes to demonstrate) “First I hear the
/h/
so that must be h. Next is /a/ so a, then /n/ so the next letter is n
and
finally I hear /d/ so it must be a d”.
4. “Now I want everyone to get out 2 boxes and spell
the
following words with me: am, at. Very good. Now let’s take out 3 boxes
and
spell these words ran, cab, sat, had. Very good. Now I want to see if
we
can use 4 letterboxes and spell last. Great.” (Look around at the
children
after each word to see if they have it before putting the answer on the
overhead.)
5. Pass out copies of A Cat Nap. Before
reading
have a book talk with them and say “This book is about a cat that takes
a
nap in a strange place. Let’s see where this cat ends up napping.” Then
have
the children read the book silently.
6. To assess the children pass out the page of
pictures
to each child. Go over what each picture is so that the children will
not
be confused. “I am going to give you a paper with some pictures on it
and
if you here the crying child in the word then I want you to circle the
picture.”
7. Have the children break into small groups and read
the
book to you while the others are working on their picture pages. This
is
another way in which you can assess what they have learned. I would be
noting
miscues as each of them children read a section aloud to me.
Reference:
A Cat Nap. Phonics Readers
Long
Vowels. Educational Insights
Fidler, Natalie. Rub those Eyes….aaah!
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/begin/fidlerbr.html
Earl, Laura. Ashley’s Apples.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/begin/earlbr.html
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