Pebbles King
April 02, 2001


Classroom ball
Rationale:  To establish a link between a letters and sound the learner must establish a clear image.  Early reading instruction begins with the assumption that words are individual units of language.  Children learn about words through print and as they become aware of these words in print, they begin to notice and isolate words in speech.  But decoding is the process readers use to translate the written language into oral or inner speech.  This lesson will help children to decode printed words by vocabulary, reading, and phonics.  They will learn through practice of translating print into language that decoding is necessary for reading.
Materials:  Common Words of four levels.  Make them on different colored cardstock and have the type of hit that each represents on each color posted somewhere that everyone can see it clearly (ex. Bat, hat , fog, log, mice, made, read, John, print, school, and children).  Places in the room will be marked 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base, and home plate.
Procedures:
1.  Introduce the lesson by explaining that our written language is a secret code.  Today we’re going to work on sight words.  At first it will seem easy, but the sight words have different levels so the words will become harder.
2. Ask Students:  Do you like playing baseball?  Have you ever made it to     home plate?
3. Now let’s try to hit a homerun ? go all the way to home plate.
4. I will divide the students into 2 teams and let them name themselves.  Designate one team home, and the other as visitors.
5. If the students can read the card correctly, they may move according to the type of hit.  (A single ? move 1 base, a double ? move 2 bases, a triple ? move 3 bases, and a homerun ? go all the way to home plate.)
6. We will have the team that wins write a message about their victory over the other team.
7. For assessment, I will use the student’s miscues on the cards to assess their performance on the lesson.

Reference:  Hall, Sharon.  (1999).  #485.  Activities to reinforce and teach Sight Words:
Reading/Writing level:  Elementary.  http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/485.html

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