Everyone Loves Evan the Elephant
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale:
Becoming phonemically aware and gaining alphabetic knowledge is
essential for children to become skillful readers. They must also
understand the significance of lip and tongue movements in order to
pronounce sounds and words. Children must also be able to identify
phonemes in spoken words, as well as the corresponding graphemes in
written words. One of the trickiest phonemes to learn is / e /. Since /
i / and / e / have similar tongue/mouth positions, it is sometimes a
challenge to distinguish the sounds in spoken and written words.
However, there are many activities, such as gestures and specific words
that can help children learn to pronounce words correctly using the / e
/ sound.
Materials:
*Book,
��� Red Gets Fed���
*Picture
of an elephant with letter E on top and tongue tickler, ���Everyone
Loves Evan the
Elephant��� on bottom
*Picture
of door opening with letter E as
knob(http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/phonlet.html)
*Phoneme
identities list- Red/Rod, Meg/Mat, Get/Got, Pet/Pot, Next/Not,
Strength/Straight, Bent/Brake, Test/Time, Smell/Smile, Dress/Drink
*Primary
Paper
*Pencil
*Assessment
Sheet- Children will circle words that have the /e/ sound
(http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/circlethemewords/shorte/)
Procedures:
1.The
first thing I want to do is introduce the letter e to the children by
showing them a picture of a door with the letter e as the door knob. I
will say, ���Has anyone ever opened a noisy door?��� Then I would ask
what them what that door sounded like. I would then say, ���Can
everyone pretend to open a noisy door and say / e /. What is our mouth
and tongue doing when we say / e /?��� I would model how to position
the mouth and tongue then say, ���Does elephant or monkey start with
the sound / e /? What is another word that has the / e / sound?��� In
addition I would explain that we are going to be using the letter e and
its sound many times throughout the day.
2.I
would tell the children, ���whenever you hear the /e / sound twist your
hand like you are opening that noisy door we talked about.��� Then I
would present the picture of the elephant with the tongue tickler,
Everyone loves Evan the Elephant. I would then say the tongue tickler,
and then model it once by stretching it out. ���E-e-e-e-veryone loves
E-e-e-e-van the E-e-e-e-lephant. How many times did you hear the /e/
sound? Now you say it with me, E-e-e-e-veryone loves E-e-e-e-van the
E-e-e-e-lephant.���
3.My
next step would be to tell the children that I need their help. ���Can
everyone say /e/ with me again? Let me see those mouths and tongues in
the right position! OK, I will be saying two words and I want you to
tell me which one has the /e/ sound in it��ω�� Do you hear /e/
in..?(refer to phoneme identities list)
4.After
finishing the phonemes identities list, I will ask the children to get
a piece of primary paper and a pencil out. ���We are going to practice
writing the letter e in upper and lower case. Let me show you how to do
it first. Start drawing a straight line from right to left across the
roof top. Then continue with that line down pass the fence to the
sidewalk and draw another straight line along the sidewalk. Go back up
to the fence and draw a straight line from left to right along the
fence. Now let���s see you write 5 big e���s and 5 little e���s.
5.After
the writing activity I would present the book, ���Red Gets Fed���.
Depending on the amount of children in the group, I would allow each
child to read a sentence. If it were a larger group, I would read the
book to t students and ask them to twist their hands like they were
opening a noisy door every time they heard a word with the /e/ sound.
Before reading the book, I would give a brief book talk. ���Red is a
dog that begs Meg and her dad to get out of bed to feed her. Sometimes
it���s hard to get people out of bed. You���ll have to read to find out
what happens.���
6.Once
we finish reading the book, I would give the students a worksheet. They
will have to circle words that have the /e/ sound.
Assessment:
By
reviewing each child���s worksheet and observing whether or not they
were able to circle the things with the /e/ sounds, I will be able to
determine if they understood the concept of the lesson.
Resources:
Livingston,
Charlotte, Iggy the Iguana is Itchy
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/solutions/livingstonel.html
Enchanted
Learning.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/circlethemewords/shorte/
Reading
Genie, Creaky Doorknob.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/phonlet.html