Aaaaaaaaa
A
Beginning Reading
Rationale: Knowledge
of phonemes is an important concept for children to master in order to
be
better at reading, writing, and spelling. Children need to know how to
recognize phonemes in relation to spoken words as well as in written
form.
Short vowels are especially important and often difficult concepts for
students
to understand. This lesson will focus on a=/a/ or the short a
phoneme. Students will learn how the short a phoneme is spoken
and
practice it by finding the phoneme in words.
Materials:
Tongue Twister (The Angry Alligator
asked Adam for an apple)
written on board or poster, Chant (The man is scared and yells, “A, a,
a”- he
keeps running and screams “A,a,a”) written on board or poster, Picture
card
(picture of a man screaming), Letter tiles
(a,m,n,p,e,t,r,b,c,l,y,k,s,f,d), Elkonin
Boxes (one set of two and one set of six boxes), A Cat Nap.
Educational Insights, 1990., Picture worksheet with some
short a words and some without (pictures of: bat, car mat, baseball
cap, bag,
boy, hippo, monkey, telephone, and a pen.), Pencil
Procedures:
1. “Today we are going to be learning
about the sound the letter a makes. Do you think you know what sound
the letter
a makes? That’s right, a does make the /a/ sound. Let’s all take a look
at this
picture (bring out and hold up picture of a man screaming) what do you
think he
is doing in this picture? That’s right he’s screaming aaaaaaa,
just like the letter a sound. So today when we hear a say
/a/ we are going to put our hands on our cheeks and yell /a/!”
2. “Now I am going to read you a
quick chant and then I want you to repeat it after me. The man is
scared and
yells, “A, a, a”- he keeps running and screams “A,a,a.” Now let’s try
reading
that together. Great Job! This time I want you to put your hands on
your cheeks
when you hear the /a/ sound ready? The man is scared and yells, “A, a,
a(hands
on cheek) ”- he keeps running and screams “A,a,a(hands on cheek)”.
3. “Alright boys and girls now we are
going to read a silly tongue twister. You ready? I’m going to read it
first and
then I want you to repeat it after me and make sure you use your
screaming
faces when you hear /a/. The Angry (put
hands on cheeks) Alligator (put hands on cheeks) asked (put hands on
cheeks)
Adam (put hands of cheeks) for an (put hands on cheeks) apple (put
hands on
cheeks). Now you try it (read chant again). Awesome job, I knew you
could do
it!
4. “Now I am going to ask you a few
questions. Let’s see if you can hear the /a/ sound when I say it. Do
you hear
/a/ in pet or nap? (nap) Clap or
goal? (clap) Bed or past? (past)
Craft or house? (craft)”
5. “Now we are going to use these
boxes (bring out boxes). These are calling Elkonin boxes and we use
these to
help us hear the sounds in words. We are also going to use these tiles
to help
us spell out the sounds we hear. I am going to show you an example of
how these
squares and then you can do it. First I am going to unfold three of my
boxes
because rat has three sounds, /r/ /a/ /t/. I am going to start
with the
first sound I hear in rat. R-R-R-at. I hear the /r/
sound. I
will place the letter “r” in the first letterbox. The next sound I hear
is like
the man screaming the /a/ sound. I am going to place the letter
“a” in
the second letterbox, because it is the second sound I hear. Now I have
ra-. To finish I need to find the last sound in the word
rat.
Ra-t-t-t. I hear the /t/ sound, which means I will place the
letter “t”
in the last letterbox. Then read the word, rat. Do
you think you can you can do the next few?
Ok for these words you are going to need 3 boxes. Give students words
to fill
in boxes: nap, man, pet, ran, nab. (After they have placed the letters
in the
boxes have them read the word.) Good Job now we are going to need 4
boxes. Give
students words to fill in boxes: crab, clap, yank, past. (After they
have
placed the letters in the boxes have them read the word.) Awesome! Now
we are
going to need 5 boxes. Give students words to fill in boxes: craft and
clasp. (After
they have placed the letters in the boxes have them read the word.) You are doing so well. Now we are going to
need to use our sixth box, this is going to be a big word but I know
you can do
it! Ready? The word is strand.” (After they have placed the letters in
the
boxes have them read the word.)
6. “Now we are going to read A
Cat Nap. This story is about a cat
named tab, One day Tab takes a nap in a bag. Sam picks up the bag while
tab is
sleeping. To see where he takes Tab we have to read A Cat
Nap.
Assessment: Now
I am going to see if you can hear the /a/ sound on this page. I want
you to
tell me what some of these objects are before you begin. Good job. Now
I want
you to color the short /a/ pictures you see and the words that don’t
have the
/a/ sound I want you to cross those out.
References:
A Cat Nap. Educational Insights: Carson, CA. 1990
Stokes,
Allison. "Aaa-aaa-aaa-choo!!"
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/insp/stokesbr.html