Dan
Ran and Ran
Katherine McCartha
Rationale: Children must be able to match letters in a written word to
phonemes
in a spoken word in order to become literate. This lesson will help
children
identify /a/ (short a, children must recognize the /a/ in a spoken word
by
associating the sound with the letter symbol a. They will practice
listening
for the /a/ phoneme and associating with the letter symbol (a) by
writing it on
their writing tablet.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with Pat and Sam ran at the
track;
pocket chart with word strips (word on one side and a question mark on
the
other: bat, sit, fan, sad, bath, sud, tag, at, back, man, mitt, led.
Procedure:
1. Begin the lesson by explaining that words are spoken combinations of
sounds
that are represented by letter symbols. Watch my mouth when I speak. Do
you
notice my mouth move? The hard part is learning which letters go with
the
matching sounds. Boys and girls, do you know which letters in our
alphabet are
called vowels? Let’s say our vowel names (while pointing). Say the
name, and
then make the sound. It is difficult to tell the difference in the
sound. Today
we are going to focus on the first vowel in the alphabet. We’re going
to talk
about the letter the makes the /a/ sound, a. Listen very closely to
hear the
/a/ in these words.
2. Ask the students: Say aaaaaa. This is the sound that the letter a
makes. Say
/a/ if you hear /a/ in the word (there will be a question mark on one
side of
the pocket chart. One by one the word strips will be turned over.
3. Let’s try a tongue twister [on chart]. Pat and Sam ran at the track.
Everybody say it three times together. Say the sentence again
stretching the
/a/ at the beginning of the word: Paaaaaaat and Saaaaaaam raaaaaaan
aaaaaaat
the traaaaaaack. Try it again, and break it off the word. P/a/t and
S/a/m r/a/n
a/t the tr/a/ck.
4.[Have the students take out Primary paper and pencil] We can use the
letter a
to spell /a/. Let’s write it. Start under the fence. Go up and touch
the fence,
then around and touch the sidewalk, around and straight down. I want to
see
everyone say (a). Walk around and check papers.
5. Call on students to tell how they knew: Do you hear /a/ in cat or
cut? Lip
or lap? Map or sip? Fun or fan?
6. Read At the Track and talk about the story. Read it again
and have
the students raise their hands when they hear words with /a/. List
their words
on he board.
7. For assessment, distribute a picture page and have students name
each
picture. Ask students to circle the pictures whose names have /a/.
Click
here to return to Guidelines
For further information click Katherine
McCartha
Resources:
www.firstschoolyears.com
www.auburn.edu/rdggenie