Sh,
Sh, It's Sheila the Shark!
Beginning
Reading Design
Rationale:
In
order for children to become fluent readers, they must understand that
letters
represent phonemes, which are the vocal gestures they hear in words.
Phonemes
can be represented by one letter or a combination of letters. When a
combination of letters makes a single sound, it is called a digraph.
The
purpose of this lesson is to help students understand that two letters
put
together can make one sound. In this lesson, children will learn that
when s and h are put together, it
forms the sound /sh/ by recognizing /sh/ in
spoken words, doing letterbox lessons, and reading The Crash in the Shed.
Materials:
-
Class copies of The
Crash in
the Shed
-
Poster with tongue
tickler:
Sheila the shark shops for shells by the ships.
-
Elkonin boxes for
each student
-
Letters for each
student dash,
stop, shoe, hat, cash, sheep (d,a,s,h,t,o,p,e,e,c)
-
Board-sized Elkonin
box and
letters for teacher to model letterbox lesson in front of class.Ê
-
Handouts for the
class with
various pictures that have the /sh/ sound (ash, mesh, fish, cat); put
words on
right column and pictures on left column (mixed up) and match words to
pictures.
Procedures:
1. Teacher will introduce the lesson to the
class by saying, 'Sometimes two letters put together can make one
sound. Today,
we will put together the letters s
and h, which makes the /sh/ sound.'
(Teacher writes sh on the board)
2. 'Pretend we are on a big ship and we jump in
the water to find sea shells, when all of a sudden we see a big fin
heading our
way.' (Teacher puts hands in the shape of a fin on her head and repeats
the /sh/
sound.) 'What could it be? It is Sheila the friendly shark! She has
come to
help us learn to identify words that contain the /sh/ sound. Did you
notice
that 'Sheila' and 'Shark' both start with what sound?' Give students
opportunities
to answer. 'Yes, /sh/, that is exactly right! Now everyone put your
hands on
your head in a triangle like this and say 'Shhhhhhhh shhhh shhhh' like
you are
a shark swimming through the sea (teacher models shark hand gesture and
mouth
movement). Very good!'
3. Teacher say, 'Now, lets look at our tongue
tickler on the poster board: 'Sheila the shark shops for shells'. I am
going to
say it very slowly, and everyone look for the /sh/ sound. When you hear
the
/sh/ sound, make your hands like a shark. Very nice! Letâs stretch it
out
together and make our hand gesture when we hear the /sh/ sound.'
(Teacher
points to words while saying the tongue twister with the class). 'Great
job
everyone!'
4. Have everyone take out their letterboxes and
letters. Tell students 'Remember that each box stands for one sound, so
when
letters are teamed up, like s and h, they only get one box. I am going
to show
you how to spell the word ship in
your letterboxes.' Say, 'The first sound I hear is /sh/, so I will put
the
letters s and h in the first box.' Teacher models how to spell ship.
Next say,
'Let us spell some words in our letterboxes: dash, stop, hat, cash,
sheep.'
(After teacher says each word, she walks around to make sure students
are
spelling the words correctly). 'Now, together we will read the words we
spelled
in our letterboxes.' (Teacher writes the word dash on the board and
models
reading it by sounding out each phoneme, /d/a/sh/, and continues to do
this
with the rest of the words with the class all together.)
5. 'Now I want to see how well you can recognize
the /sh/ sound in words. Do you hear /sh/ in slow or rush? Whisper or
shout?
Malt or shake? Dish or bowl? Great job everyone!'
6. Keep encouraging and
tell
students, 'You all are doing such a great job, and I think you have
this down!
I would like everyone to get with a partner and buddy read The
Crash
in the Shed together. Ben and Jess can't make up their
minds whether to fish or collect shells. Suddenly they hear a
crash in
the shed. Sounds like trouble! I want you
to look for the words that have the /sh/ sound and make Sheila the
shark happy
with your /sh/ hand and vocal gestures.' After reading, get students
back
together and ask them what words they found and write them on the
board. Ask
students if they can think of any other words with the /sh/ sound and
write
them also.
7. For assessment, pass
out
activity sheet with pictures and words on it and have students match
the
correct picture with the word. (Have students turn them in and review
for
assessment)
References:
McIntosh, Kelly.
'Ssshhopping for
Ssshhells' Auburn University Reading Genie Website, 2005. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/mcintoshbr.html
Murray, B.A. and
Lesniak, T.
(1999). 'The Letterbox Lesson: A hands on approach for teaching
decoding.' The
Murray, Geri.
The
Crash in the Shed. Reading Genie Collection, 2006.
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