Ahhhh….I’m Sleepy!
Emergent Literacy
By
Rationale:
Children need to understand the alphabetic principle that letters stand
for
phonemes and spellings maps out phonemes in spoken words. This is
important in
learning to read and spell. Children have to recognize phonemes in
spoken word
context. Short vowels are the most difficult phoneme to identify. This
lesson
will help children to identify o = / o / (short o) correspondences.
They will
learn to recognize / o / in spoken and written words through
representation of
the sound.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil; chart paper with “Oliver loves omelets in
October and
Oscar gave him an olive;” Class set of cards with one side a yawning
person or
face and the other side with a smiling person or face; picture page
consisting
of: mop, cat, pot, map, dog, frog, fog,
stop sign, hat; scissors; glue stick; construction paper; Stickers
Procedures:
1.
Introduce the lesson by explaining that
written words
are a special code. The most
special part is learning what letters stand for
and how the mouth moves when saying different words. Today we
are going to work
on /o/. We are going to spot /o/ in all kinds of words and from now on
you will
be able to spot /o/ in other words yourself.
2.
Ask students: Have you ever been so
sleepy before that
when you yawned, you made the / o / sound? That’s the mouth movement
that we
are looking for in words today. Let’s pretend to yawn and say /o/ all
together.
{Modeling for them: Everyone “yawns”
and put their hands close to, but not
touching their mouths} When we yawn, our mouths make the shape
of an o and it
makes the sound of /o/ as well.
3.
Let’s
try a tongue twister from the chart. “Oliver
loves omelets in October and Oscar gave him an olive.” Everybody say it
two
times together. Now the last time we say it, I want you to stretch the
/ o / at
the beginning of those words and pretend to “yawn” at the / o /. “
Oooliver
loves ooomelets in Oooctber and Oooscar gave him an ooolive.” Try it
one more
time and this time try to separate the /o/ from the rest of the word:
“/o/
liver loves /o/ melets in /o/ ctober and /o/ scar gave him an /o/ live.”
4. {Give each
student primary paper and a pencil} We can
also use the letter o to spell /o/. Let’s practice. Starting at the
fence.
First make a little c and close it up. I want to see everybody’s o when
they
have practiced. After I put a sticker on it, I want you to make five
more just
like it. So the next time you see o in a word all by itself, that’s the
hint to
say /o/.
5.
Call on students to answer: Do you
hear /o/ in dog or
cat? Fog or sun? Sock or shoe? Frog or snake? {Pass out a card to each
student}
Say: Let’s see if you can notice the mouth movement /o/ in some words.
Show the
yawning side if you hear the /o/ and the smiling side if you don’t. {Give each
word of the tongue twister slowly one by one} Oliver, loves,
omelets, and, Oscar,
gave, him, an, omelet.
6.
Read the tongue twister to the students
again. Have
the students to brainstorm more words that have the /o/ sound. List the
words
on the chart paper or board. Then have each student to write a message
to
extend the tongue twister into a story. Display the stories
7.
To assess what they know, give each student
a picture
page, construction paper with an O on top, scissors, and glue. Assist
the students
by helping them name the pictures. Ask the students to cut out the
pictures and
glue the /o/ pictures on to the construction paper.
Reference: Eldredge, J.L. (2005). Teaching
and Decoding: Why and How/2nd Ed.