Uh, Squish That Yucky U Bug!
Beginning Reading
Rationale:
To become successful readers, students must learn to identify letters and the
sounds that those letters make. The children will learn the correspondence
u=/u/. The students will learn meaningful representation of the letter and
have plenty of practice with written and spoken words which contain u=/u/.
Students will learn to recognize the phoneme in spoken as well as written words
by learning a meaningful representation (Uh, Squish That Yucky U Bug!) and the
letter symbols U and
u. Students will practice identifying
the phonemes in spoken words and phonetic cue reading words.
They will then further their understanding of this phoneme through a letterbox
lesson.
Materials:
Poster with tongue tickler, picture of a bug for each student, Elkonin
letterboxes for each student, plastic letters (d,u,g,s,h,r,b,n,k,l,c,c,t,p,m,p,z,z)
for each student, document camera, word list typed out (dug, shrug, buzz, dunk,
slug, crunch, hunt, lunch, plump, bust), book
Hunches in Bunches by Dr. Seuss to
read to class, 1 copy per 2
students of decodable book The Ugly
Umbrella for assessment in a small group, worksheet on /u/ sound for each
student.
Procedures:
1. Say: Today we are going to work with the sound /u/. You say this sound when
you see something yucky--like a bug. "uuu. . .there's a yucky bug over there!"
We spell this using the letter u.
(Pass out a small picture of a bug to each student and have them keep them out
on their desk).
2. Say: So we said that we use the sound /u/ when we see something yucky. Let's
think about how our mouth is moving while we are saying "uuuu". My tongue is
touching the bottom of my mouth and I am opening my mouth just a little bit and
pushing the air out "uuu…uuu" Now you try it with me. When you make the /u/
sound I want you to pretend you are squishing that yucky
u bug with your finger. (Demonstrate
squishing a bug with your finger and saying the /u/ sound) "uuu…uuu"
3. Say: Good work squishing out those U's
now let me show you how to find the
/u/ in a word. I am going to use the
word umpire . I am going to say the
word and then I am going to stretch it out so that I really hear that /n/ sound.
Umpire. Uuuu-mpire Yeah I heard my
yucky U in umpire. Now let's try it
together with the word umbrella and
funny.
4. Now, let's try a funny tongue tickler to practice our yucky
U's (poster).
Ursula
put up her umbrella before she went under the rain. Let's say it together.
[Repeat tongue tickler together]. Now let's stretch out those yucky
U's so that we can really hear them.
/U/rsula put /u/p her /u/mbrella before
she went /u/nder the rain.
5. Next, as a class, go over cue words to see if they are hearing the phoneme.
Say: I am going to read some words. If
you hear our yucky /u/ sound anywhere in any of these words I want you to squish
that yucky bug like we practiced. Show the students
ugly [written out on card] and model
how to decide if it has the /u/ sound or not.
Uuu-gly. The /u/ sound I hear tells
me to squish that yucky U.
Ready?
Do you hear /u/ in up or down? In pretty
or ugly? In bored or fun? In sun or cloud? In munch or
eat?
6. Next, draw the Elkonin letterboxes on the board for teacher to use during
this part of the lesson. Give each student a letterbox and letter tiles.
Tell the students to turn the letterbox tiles on the lower case side. "We
are going to practice spelling words with the
u sound. Look at the board and
see how there are five spaces for five mouth moves. Right now, I am going to
spell the word grump. The first box is for the first sound in
grump, the /g/. The second box is for the second sound, the /r/. The
third box is for the third sound in grump the /u/. Remember how the /u/
sound makes the sound we say when we see a bug (Uh, yucky
u). The fourth sound is the
/m/, and the last one is the /p/. Now, you can practice with the following
words: (3)-dug, bug (4)-shrug, dunk, slug, hunt, lunch, bust (5)-crunch, plump
(Call the words out and walk around making notes on the progress of each child,
be sure to go over each word so that student see and hear the correct
pronunciation and spelling. Make sure and tell the students when you make the
change to words with more phonemes)
Say the word, count the sounds, make the number of boxes on the board, and have
the students tell you the sound they hear.
7. Get out the typed list of all the words just spelled in the letterbox lesson
and put them on the document camera. Start with the model word and show the
student how to read the words. Read all the words from the letterbox lesson.
8. Read Hunches in Bunches by Dr.
Seuss. Say: We are going to read the book
Hunches in Bunches by Dr. Seuss As we listen to the story if you
hear a word that has out yucky /u/ sound I want you to squish that yucky U bug.
This book will be good for students because it will make them really listen and
think about words that have the /u/ sound. The book is lengthy so I will only
pick a few pages on which to listen for the sound on so that students do not get
frustrated. After reading talk about a few of the words that you hear the /u/
sound in and write them out on the board.
9. For assessment, students will come to the teacher's station in groups of 3-4
students. In this group students will read the printable and decodable book
The Ugly Umbrella (teacher will have
one copy per 2 student, can be printed from website listed in references.) The
teacher should have the students read at least one page aloud noting miscues in
order to keep a running record of students' progress. Once she has heard each
student read aloud alone, the teacher may have the students buddy read the rest
of the book listening as the groups read and continuing to note miscues. As the
teacher works with small groups other students may be further assessed using a
worksheet of short /u/ words.
References:
Dr. Seuss. Hunches in Bunches. Random
House. 1982.
Moore, Brittany. Up, Up, Up, and Away
with the Letter U!
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/explor/moorebr.html
The Ugly Umbrella.
http://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=441.
Online, printable, decodable books.
Worksheet.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/letters/shortu.shtml.