Ellie
the 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 “Ellie the elephant has a pet eskimo”
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 of crayons
Procedures:
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.
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.
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. Eeeeellie
the eeeelephant has a peeeet eeeeskimo.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
References:
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
Gibson,
Laura. Edgar Elephant.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/passages/gibsonbr.html