“Give the Dog a Bone”

Rationale: When readers read they decode words in various ways, one of which is blending.  Children need to be able to blend sounds in order to use phonics to identify unfamiliar words.  This lesson is designed to help children blend words with the digraph sh.

Materials: Dog patterns (with the body of the words beginning with sh on it), Bone patterns (with the coda of the word on it), riddles for the words, velcro, Poster board, and the book, Splish Splash . The students will also need primary paper and a pencil.

Procedures: 1.  Start the lesson by explaining to the children that “sh in words says shh; like what a mommy says when the baby is sleeping or what a librarian says.  “Can everyone say shh?”  Sh can be found at the beginning of a word like sheep or at the end of a word like fish. I will write down the word ship on the board. I will cover up the -ip to show only the sh. Now I will show them the shi.   Finally, I will uncover the p to say ship. Say sheep to see if you can hear the sh sound;now try to hear the sound in the word fish.  “Now class, we are going to plat a secret game with a magic code.  As I give you a riddle, when you know the answer, raise your hand to come up and place the correct dog with it’s bone”.  2. Exapmle Riddles : “ I am thinking of something that floats in the water and often carries people in it” ANSWER- Ship,  “this is something that goes on  after you put on a sock” ANSWER-Shoe, “this has scales and loves to swim” ANSWER-Fish, “Another word for yell or scream” ANSWER-Shout, “Another word for close” ANSWER-Shut, “Another word for saying be quiet” ANSWER-Hush   3. Once all of the words are connected we will review.  I will write sh on the right side of the board and the codas of the words on the left side of the board. “ Students, I want you to take out a piece of paper and a pencil. Number your papers from 1-6 and the riddles will be mixed up and repeated.  Each student should blend the words individually for assessment. 4. After reviewing I will read the book Splish Splash to the class to model the sh digraph.
 

Reference: Eldredge, J.L. Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms . (1995), Pages 17-22 and 50-69.
Sarah Weeks’ Splish Splash

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