Itchy Liz Lives in an Igloo
Rationale:
In order to become skilled readers, students must first
become aware of the relationships between individual spoken phonemes
and their corresponding written graphemes. This lesson will help
children understand the relationship between the phoneme /i/ and the
corresponding graphemes i and I. This will be
accomplished by showing them a meaningful hand gesture, a
tongue-tickler using the correspondence, and by reading a whole text
that requires understanding of the relationship.
Materials:
-Chart Paper
-Marker
-Assessment Worksheet (attached)
-List of Read-Aloud Words (in, out, frown, grin, sip,
eat, tree, twig)
-Copies of Liz is Six (Educational Insights
Decodable Reader, 1990) for each student and teacher
-Poster with Tongue-Tickler: Itchy Liz Lives in an
Igloo.
-/i/ picture to illustrate phoneme hand gesture
-Projector
-White Board
-List of Letterbox Words in Phoneme-Count Order:
pig (3)
tip (3)
bid (3)
tan
(3)
(a = /a/ Correspondence Review)
fed
(3)
(e = /e/ Correspondence Review)
fill
(3)
drip (4)
slim (4)
list (4)
flip(4)
disk (4)
slip (4)
drink (5)
sprint (6)
-Letterboxes with the appropriate number of boxes (for
number of phonemes) for each student and teacher.
-Letter tiles for student and teacher (p, i, g, t,
b, d, a, n, f, e, i, l, l, r, s, m, k)
Procedure:
1.Introduce Lesson
Say: Today we are going to learn about the letter i
and the special sound that it makes. The letter i makes
the sound /i/, like
when something is icky sticky
(hold hands up and shake as if they were covered in
something sticky.) Can you do that with me? Don't forget to
act like your fingers are really sticky. Now make the /i/ sound while
moving your hands like that.
2.Show the /i/ Picture to the entire
class on a projector.
Say: Here is a special picture that will help us
remember the /i/ sound made by the letter i. This person
has a drippy, sticky i. Let's try it one more time
together make the hand movement: iiii; good job!
3.Display the chart paper with the Tongue-Tickler to the
class
Say: Here is a silly sentence that will help us
remember the sound that i makes. I'll say it first, and
get your listening ears ready!
Itchy Liz lives in an igloo. Now I'm going to say it again
super slow, and I want you to listen closely for the /i/ sound. Iiiitchy
Liiiiz Liiiives iiiin an iiiigloo. Did you hear the /i/
sound? Good!
4.Make sure students can hear phoneme in spoken words.
Say: Now you say it with me slowly, and when you
hear the /i/ sound I want you to shake your hands like they are covered
in something sticky, just like in the picture. Are you
ready? Iiiitchy Liiiiz Liiiives iiiin an iiiigloo.
Good job!
5.Isolate the phoneme in spoken words with the class.
Say: Now, let's say it one more time. This
time, break off the /i/ sound when you hear it in the words. /i/-tchy
L/i/-z
l /i/-ves /i/-n an
/i/-gloo.
6.Check for awareness of phoneme in certain words.
Say: I need you to put your best listening ears
on! I'm going to say some words, and I want you to tell me which
ones have the /i/ sound.
Display the pairs of words on the projector as you ask
each question. Call on students individually to answer each
question, and then ask the class if they agree. Say:
Do you hear /i/ in out or in?
Do you hear /i/ in grin or frown?
Do you hear /i/ in eat or sip?
Do you hear /i/ in twig or tree?
Good job! I can tell everyone has on their good
listening ears again.
7.Letterbox Lesson
Say: Now that we know the letter i makes
the /i/ sound, like iiii
(hold hands up and shake as if they
were covered in something sticky.) let's practice spelling some words
in our letterboxes together.
Pass out letterboxes and letter tiles to each student.
Say: Do not start working until I tell you
to. I'm going to show you how to spell the word pig using
your letterboxes.
Model how to spell pig by placing one phoneme in
each letterbox, displayed for the class on a projector.
Say: Okay, here are my three letterboxes.
I'm going to say pig really slowly so that I can hear all of
the sounds: p-p-p-i-i-i-g-g-g.
I hear /p/, /i/, and /g/ in pig. Do you hear the /i/
sound that we just learned about? Great! I do too. I
know that the /i/ sound is made by the letter i, so I'll put
that here in the middle. Okay, here's a p for the
beginning sound, /p/. Now I have p-p-i-i-i,
What's that last sound? p-p-i-i-g-g, I hear a /g/,
don't you? Great. We know the letter g says /g/, so
that letter goes last.
p-i-g, /p/, /i/, /g/, pig! Isn't it neat how our
letterboxes help us spell words? I listened carefully for every
single wound in the world and was able to spell is correctly.
Does everyone understand how I did that? Are there any questions?
8.Model How to Read a Tough Example Word:
Say: Wow, everyone is doing a wonderful job
spelling with their letterboxes. Next, we are going to work on
reading these words without our letterboxes. Let me show you how
to read a word that has the /i/ sound in it.
Write
splint on the board so all students can see.
Say: I see a i here, which I know says
/i/ like iii; does everyone see that? Great!
Cover up the remaining letters.
Say: Now that I know what this sound, /i/, is, I
can look at the rest of the word.
Uncover the first letter, keeping the rest covered.
Say: Here's an s; we know that says /s/, so now we
have /s/. I see a P, we know that P says /p/ let's put those
together; /sp/.
Now I see an l. l says /l/. lets add that to our /sp/
sound. Now we have /spl/ sspplll
Uncover the next letter.
Say: The next letter is an i, which I know
says /i/, so now we have /s/, /p/, /l/ /i/; ssppllliii; let's
keep looking.
Uncover the last two letters.
Say: Now I see a N. N makes the /n/
sound. Next we have a t. What sound does t make? That's right, it
makes the /t/ sound! Lets add /n/ /t/ to the rest of the sounds.
/s/, /p/, /l/, /i/, /n/, /t/. ssspppllliiinnnttt
I know that word; it's splint! I looked at the vowel
i
in this word first, and I knew it made the /i/ sound. Then I
looked at all the other letters one-by-one and slowly blended their
sounds together until I recognized the word! Does anyone have a
question about how I figured out what this word is?
Say: Now, I want you to spell these words with
your letterboxes:
pig (3)
tip (3)
bid (3)
tan
(3)
(a = /a/ Correspondence Review)
fed
(3)
(e = /e/ Correspondence Review)
fill
(3)
drip (4)
slim (4)
list (4)
flip(4)
disk (4)
slip (4)
drink (5)
sprint (6)
Present the words one at a time, telling students the
number of letterboxes to use and walking around to assess individual
understanding.
9.Have Class Read Letterbox Lesson Words (after they've
all been spelled)
Write the words one at a time on the white board, to be
read as a class.
Say: Everyone did an excellent job spelling all of
your words. Now, I'm going to write them on the board and I want
you to read each one for me. Are you ready?
10.Reading Whole Text:
Say: Now we're going to read a silly book together
called Liz is Six, which will help us remember the /i/ sound
made by the letter i. This funny book is about a little
girl named Liz, and today is her birthday. She is turning six. Liz
gets a baseball mitt for her birthday. We will have to read to
find out what she does with it. Is everyone ready? I'm
going to give each of you a book. Raise your hand if you need
help and I will come to you, but do your best to read the book by
yourselves!
Pass out books to each student and walk around the room
to monitor reading.
Assessment: Distribute Worksheet
(attached)
Say: Here is an assignment that will help you with
the /i/ sound. Work on it by yourself, but raise your hand if you
need help.
Walk around the room to monitor each student's progress.
References:
Cushman, Sheila. Liz is Six. Educational
Insights. Carson, CA: 1990.
Assessment Worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/vowels/i-as-begins-sf.gif
Sarah Dansak: Beginning Reading Lesson
Design. Uhh, Ulsa���s Unbrella is Ugly!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/journeys/dansakbr.htm
"iiii" Graphic:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/phonpics.html
