Say /A/ with the Fonz!
Beginning Reading Design
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /A/, the
phoneme represented by a_e, ai, and ay.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with Jake and Jane play cut duck rain;
drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random
House, 1963); word cards
with CAKE,
RAIN,
PLAY,
MAIN, BAT, TAKE,
DAY, and
FAKE; assessment worksheet identifying
pictures with /A/ (URL below).
Procedures: 1. Say: Our written
language is a secret code. The tricky part is
learning what letters stand for--the mouth moves we make
as we say words. Today
we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /A/. We
spell /A/ with the letter a_e
like in the word make.
We can also spell /A/ with the letter ai
like in the word rain.
And finally, we can spell /A/ with the combined letters ay as in
the word
play.
No matter how you spell it /A/ sounds like the sound Fonzie from
the TV show Happy Days always made. He was
called the Fonz because he was so cool.
2. So let's pretend to be cool like the Fonz, /A/, /A/,
/A/. [Pantomime Fonzie] Notice how you have to hold your mouth to make
the /A/ (Modeling mouth position). When we say /A/, our
mouth is open with our tongue down.
3. Let me show you how to find /A/ in the word cake. I'm
going to stretch cake out in
super slow motion and let me know when I'm being cook
like the Fonz by saying /A/. K-a-a-ak. Slower: K-a-a-a-k.
There it was! I felt my mouth open wide and my tongue drop to
say /A/.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. Abe the ape ate Amy's acorn. Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /A/ at the beginning of the words. Aaabe the Aaape aaate Aaamy's aaacorns. Try it again, and this time break it off the word: /A/ be the /A/ pe /A/te /A/ my's /A/ corn.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We
use the letter combination ai to spell /A/.
Let's write the lowercase letter a. Start
at the fence. Draw a circle, going down to
the sidewalk and back up to the fence. Then draw a line touching the
side of the circle by starting at the top of the fence and going down
to the sidewalk. Next to our letter a,
let's write the letter i. Let's start at
the top of the fence and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk.
Then let's put a dot above the straight line.
There's our letter i!.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do
you hear /A/ in play or
plan? sad or say? ran or rain? bake or back? tan or
tame? Say: Let's see if you can spot
the mouth move /A/ in some words. Give me your coolest
Fonzie move if you hear the sound /A/: The, man, made, a, cake, and,
gave, it, to, Jane, to, eat.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. ABC: A Child's
First Alphabet Book introduces us to a big, black, hairy animal at a
zoo. Can you guess?" (Answer: Ape) Read page 3, drawing out /A/. Ask
children if they can think of other words with /A/. Ask them to make up
a silly
creature names starting with /A/. Then have each student
write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of
their silly creature. Display their work.
8. Show MATE and model how to decide if it is mate or
mat: The a_e tells me be cool like Fonzie, so this word is mAAAt, mate.
You try some: RAIN: ran or rain? PLAY:
plan or play? MAIN: main or man? BAIT: bat or bait? JANE: Jane or Jan?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students
are to complete the partial
spellings and color the pictures that begin with A. Call
students individually to read
the phonetic cue words from step #8.
10.
Additional information on this lesson can be found at The
Reading Genie website located at
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/.
http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/html/phonics_worksheet_v2-01.html
http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/html/phonics_worksheet_v2-02.html