Let’s
Be Friends!
Beginning
Rationale:
Students need to have knowledge of letter-sound relationships coupled
with
blending abilities in order to read words automatically. Students will
be able
to decide more quickly with some blending experience under their belt.
This
lesson will use the Body-Coda method to blend because it is the easiest
way to
blend.
Materials:
Enlarged cut-outs of kittens (two white and one gray), a set of kitten
cut-outs
for each student (the gray kittens should have the letters b, d, g, n,
m, p, r,
t {Coda}on them and the white kittens should have the letters a (8), c
(2), f,
j, m, r (2), s {Body} on them, and one copy of the A Cat Nap
for
each student.
Procedures:
1. Today we are going to learn how to blend. Blending is a lot like
rhyming.
When you blend you have to make each sound run together smoothly.
Blending is a
fun thing to do and it is also very important. We need to learn how to
blend
letters in order to read.
2. Does anyone remember the sound that a short a makes? That's
right! It
says /a/, the crying baby sound. Today we will use the /a/ sound to
blend our
letters together. Listen as I blend these letters together, /ca/ /t/,
caaatt.
Did you hear the word that I made from those three sounds? Very good, I
said
cat. Today we are going to learn a special way to help us remember how
to blend
words.
3. Show the children enlarged copies of the kittens in order to explain
how to
blend kittens. These kittens are white because they are happy. They
are happy
because they have friends to play with. This kitten is gray because he
is sad.
He is sad because he has no one to play with.
4. One day a gray kitten named /t/ was all alone. /t/ was eating
grass all
by himself until he saw two white kittens named /a/ and /b/ tumbling in
grass a
few trees away from him. /b/ and /a/ were having a lot of fun together.
While
playing together their names blended together and made a new name and
sound.
They said bbaaaa. Finally /b/ and /a/ noticed that /t/ was looking at
them so
they ran over to meet him. /t/ was so happy. Put the cutouts b and
a next
to the cutout t. Now that /t/ has become their new friend, they all
began to
make a new and bigger sound. This sound is a word! Listen as I blend
them
together---/b//a//t/---bbbaaaaattttt. What word did they make? Right,
bat.
5. Always remember that different sets of kittens make many
different sounds.
Continue to model this with different letters until each child
understands what
to do.
6. Now I want you all to go back to your desks and practice
blending your
kittens. I will give each of you a set of kittens. Remember that it
takes two white
kittens and one gray kitten to make a word. The gray kittens should
have
letters b, d, g, n, m, p, r, t on them and the white kittens should
have the
letters a (8), c (2), f, j, m, r (2), s on them. The students should
have eight
blending kittenss when they are finished. I want to see how many
blending
kittens you can make. Walk around and make sure that the students
are
blending each word accurately. Make notes for assessment.
7. Now I am going to give each of you a copy of A Cat Nap
and I'm
going to walk around and listen to each of you read part of the story.
Make
miscue notes while listening. Everyone needs to start reading the
story and
if I don't get to you before you finish reading, just close your book,
and
practice more blending. I will get to you as soon as I can and when I
do I will
let you read part of the story to me.
8. To make sure that the students completely understand how to blend,
go over
the procedure again during the day and week. For more practice, do
another
lesson like this but use a different vowel.
References:
http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/blending.html
http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/illum/earnestbr.html