“Shhh!” said Miss Trish

Rationale: For a child to be able to read he or she must be able to recognize phonemes and understand that phonemes can sometimes be more than one letter. These two-letter combinations are called digraphs. These two-letter combinations make only one sound and are very common. One of the most common of these digraphs is sh = /sh/. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify and understand the combination of the letters s and h, and that sh = /sh/ in both written and spoken language.

Materials: A chart “Shhh! said Miss Trish to the fish in the dish.”

Elkonin letterboxes

Sets of the letters (s,h,e,I,p,r,t,o,d,a,f) for each child

Primary paper and pencil

Picture worksheet with pictures of a fish, sheep, ship, shell, and shirt

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

Chalk and chalkboard

Procedure: 1.WE HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT HOW EACH LETTER MAKES A SOUND. TODAY WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT TWO LETTERS THAT MAKE A SOUND WHEN THEY ARE PUT TOGETHER. WHAT SOUND DOES S MAKE? /S/, THAT’S RIGHT. NOW, WHAT ABOUT H? /H/, THAT’S RIGHT. NOW LET’S PUT THE TWO SOUNDS TOGETHER /S/ +/H/ =/SH/. VERY GOOD!

2. LET’S TURN TO OUR NEIGHBOR AND SAY /SH/. LET’S TRY THAT ONE MORE TIME. GREAT JOB. NOW I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU. WHO CAN RAISE THEIR HAND AND TELL ME WHAT THEIR NEIGHBORS MOUTH LOOKS LIKE? (teeth together, lips poking out) WE’LL PRACTICE ONE MORE TIME TO SEE IF OUR NEIGHBOR’S MOUTH IS MAKING THAT SHAPE. GREAT JOB! NOW, WHO CAN TELL ME WHAT IT FEELS LIKE WHEN YOU MAKE THE SOUND /SH/? (air seeping through your teeth). GOOD JOB.

3. NOW THAT WE KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE WHEN WE SAY /SH/, LETS SAY THIS TONGUE TWISTER. I WILL READ IT TO YOU ONCE AND THEN I WOULD LIKE YOU TO SAY IT WITH ME A COUPLE OF TIMES. “SHHH! SAID MISS TRISH TO THE FISH IN THE DISH.” Say the tongue twister together two or three times together. NOW THIS TIME LET’S SAY IT AGAIN, BUT THIS TIME LET’S STRETCH OUT THE /SH/ IN EACH WORD. “SSSHHHH! SAID MISS TRISSHHH TO THE FISSHHH IN THE DISSHHH.” GREAT JOB!

4. YOU DID A GREAT JOB WITH THAT. LET’S ADD SOMETHING TO OUR TONGE TWISTER. WHAT IS SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE DO WITH THEIR FINGERS WHEN THEY MAKE THE SOUND /SH/? THAT’S RIGHT, YOU HOLD YOUR POINTER FINGER UP TO YOUR LIPS. NOW WE ARE GOING TO SAY OUR TONGUE TWISTER AGAIN, EXCEPT THIS TIME WE ARE GOING TO HOLD OUR FINGER UP TO OUR LIPS EVERYTIME WE HEAR /SH/. READY, LET’S TRY.

5. NOW LET’S TAKE OUT OUR LETTERS AND LETTER BOXES. WE WILL DO THE FIRST FEW WORDS TOGETHER AND THEN I WILL LET YOU DO THE REST OF THE WORDS ON YOUR OWN. The teacher will model and work with the children on letterboxes for “ship” and “shore. He or she will model this by drawing a large set of letterboxes and place and explain the phonemes. The teacher will remind the children that the s and h are taped together because they are one phoneme/sound. The children will then place the phonemes for “shirt”, “she”, “dish”, “short”, “rash”, and “fish” into the correct letterboxes and discuss the placement of the phonemes when called upon.

6. NOW WE ARE GOING TO READ ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH BY DR. SEUSS. WHEN YOU HEAR /SH/ I WANT YOU TO MAKE THE SIGN FOR /SH/ THAT WE TALKED ABOUT EARLIER. WHO CAN REMIND ME WHAT THE SIGN IS? (finger to mouth) GREAT JOB! The teacher reads part of the text and the children will read along. After reading the text, the teacher will have the children recall some of the words containing/sh/. The children will then read the rest of the text individually.

Assessment: For assessment, the children will take out their paper and pencil. The class will work together to write the following words. The teacher will say the word and the children will write the word, discussing spelling when necessary. These words are: fish, sheep, ship, shell, and shirt. The teacher will walk around the room and make sure that each child has the correct spelling. The teacher will put a smiley face on each correct sheet. The children will then be given a picture worksheet containing pictures of a fish, sheep, ship, shell and shirt with lines, like those on primary paper, beneath each picture. The children will then be instructed to write the matching word from the sheet they just completed underneath the matching picture.

References:

Murray, B.A. and Lesniak, T. (1999). The letterbox lesson: A hands on approach for teaching decoding. The Reading Teacher. Vol. 52, p. 644-650.

Woods, Christina. Shhhh…Everyone is Sleeping. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insp/woodschr.html

Manning, Mari. CH-ch-ch-ch, CH-ch-ch-ch, CHOO-CHOO! http://www.auburn.edu/~manningbr.html

Geisel, Theodor Seuss. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Random House Publishers, 1960.

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