Edgar
Elephant
Beginning
Reading
Rationale: When learning to read, it is very important
for students to
become phonemically aware. Phonemically aware simply means that
students should
have an understanding of short vowel sounds. The goal of this lesson is
for
students to learn the correspondence e=/e/. In this lesson, students
will practice
writing, spelling and reading words with the e=/e/ sound.
Materials:
Tongue Twister Chart " Edgar
elephant ate eighty Easter eggs."
Set of Elkonin letterboxes for each
student.
Set of plastic letters (p, e, g, b, d, t, r, s, n, t, a, l)
for
each student.
Red Gets Fed book for each student and teacher.
Worksheet for Assessment.
Set of Elkonin letterboxes and
letters (p, e, g, b, d, t, r, s, n, t, a,
l) for teacher.
2 sheets of Primary Paper for each
student.
Letterbox Word List for each student
and teacher.
Pencils or Crayons
Procedures:
1). Introduce lesson to the
students. "Today, we are going to learn what sound short e makes.
Explain
to students that when pronouncing words our mouth moves in different
ways. We
are going to be able to know which way our mouth moves when we see
short e
words in our book.
2). Ask students: "Has anyone
ever heard an old creaky door open?" Tell students that whenever I hear
an
old creaky door I hear the /e/ sound. To make the mouth movement for
/e/ we
need to slightly open our mouths with our tongue sitting on the bottom.
Have
students practice by telling them to open the old creaky door and make
the /e/
sound.
3). Say: " Now let's try a
tongue twister using our chart. Listen closely as I say it to you.
Edgar
elephant ate eighty Easter eggs. Say it with me three times. Good Job!
This
time when we say it whenever you hear the /e/ sound I want you to
stretch it
out and pull the old creaky door. Eeeeedagr eeeeelephant ate eeeeeighty
Eeeeeaster eeeeeggs.
4). I want you to listen really
close when I say some words to you. I want you to raise your hand and
tell me
which word you hear the /e/ sound in. For example, if I said red or
ran, the
answer would be red because I hear the creaky door sound. Do you hear
/e/ in:
bed or floor?
Ted or Dan?
leg or arm?
full or fed?
pig or peg?
5). Give a sheet of primary paper to
each student. Explain to them we are going to practice writing the
letter e. Start halfway between the fence
and the sidewalk.
Draw a straight line towards the right window and curve up and touch
the fence.
Go towards the left window and draw a curve down to the sidewalk. Go
towards
the right window with a little curve. You should finish halfway between
where
you started the e and the sidewalk. (Model it for the class).
After you
have practiced writing the letter e one time, raise your hand and I
will come
around to check your work. When I put a check on your paper I want you
to write
it five more times.
6). Next, we are going
to spell words with e. We are going
to use our letterboxes and our letters for this activity. Explain to
students
that each box represents a mouth movement. Model for them how to use
the
letterbox with an example. I am going to spell the word red. How many
movements
does my mouth make in /r//e//d/? Good Job just three. So, my first
letter in my
first box is going to be the letter r to represent the /r/ sound. My
next
letter should be the letter e to represent the /e/ sound. This letter
goes in
my second letterbox. My last letter should be the letter d to represent
the /d/
sound. This letter goes in my last letterbox. Now, I want you to try
spelling
some words on your own. These words are (3) {peg, bed, get}. (4).
{rest, tent,
bead} (5) {trend, bread, slept}. After the students have had a chance
to spell
all the words pass out a word list for them to read as a class.
7). To help the students
apply this lesson, I will give them a brief book talk and read Red
Gets Fed.
I will read the story one time to the students and just have them
listen. The
next time I read the story, I will ask the students to raise their hand
every
time they hear the creaky old sound. I will ask them to remember some
of the
words they heard and write them on the board.
8). I will then pass out
another sheet of primary paper. I will ask the students to write a
short
message about a pet they might have or want.
9). For assessment, I
will ask the students to take out a pencil or crayon. I will give them
the
worksheet in which they will have to circle the correct picture that
makes the
/e/ (creaky door sound). For example, number one might be a picture of
a lion
or elephant. The correct answer would be the elephant.
Cushman, Sheila. Red Gets
Fed. Educational Insights:
Carson, CA. 1990.
Murray, Bruce. Mouth Moves and
Gestures for
Phonemes. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/mouthmoves.html
Britton,
Kristen. Ellen's Elephants.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/brittonbr.html