Rationale:  Children must gain an understanding of the alphabetic code to become fluent and successful readers.  Basic units of representation, words and letters are grasped through an awareness of the spoken correspondences, which are words and phonemes.  This lesson is designed to help children recognize ee=/E/ by being exposed to spelling and reading words that include the ee combination.

Materials:  letterboxes and a set of lower case alphabet letters, a dry erase board, appropriate markers for the board, The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, a list of the sentences for the person who is carrying out the lesson, and the individual letters to be used during the letterbox lesson which include:
 F, e, d, t, n, p, s, w, l (should the two eeâs be taped together?)
 
 
 

Procedure:
1) Start the lesson of by explaining to the child that two vowels, such as ee make one mouth movement when they are together within a word.  We will do a few fun activities today that help us understand what the vowel E sounds like when it is right beside another E in a word.
2) Do you know what sound two Eâs make when they are right together? Well, it sound like this, /E/. Now you try to make that sound with your mouth.  Do you hear /E/ in street or bend?
3) Now I will read you a few sentences that have a word in the sentence with the /E/ sound.  After each sentence I want you to tell me what word has the /E/ sound in it.  Here we go!

1. The water in the ocean is very deep.
2.That man needs to sweep the street. (Ask child if there is more than on word with the /E/ sound)
3. I need to wash my car.
4. Do you like to go to sleep at night?
5. My friend needs to wash her feet. (2 words containing /E/ sounds)
 

4) Great job! Now lets see if you can spell some of the words with the /E/ sound that were in the sentences that I just read.  Do you think that the two Eâs in the word will go in one box or sound we break them up? (child at this time will demonstrate if she understands that the two Eâs in a single word make one sound so they should not be separated) Watch me.  I am going to spell the word sleep. ( demonstrate spelling the word on the letter boxes)  Now, can you spell the word deep?  How about feet? ( continue spelling the words until all of the words with ee from the sentences earlier have been spelled) Now out of all the words you just spelled write on the board one that you can remember.
 

5) Good job! Now I will write the rest of the words on the board, but I need you help with the spelling.  ( student help with spelling and if they choose, they are more than welcome to write the words on the board)
 
 

6) O.K. Tell me one more time what sound does the double E makes?  Wonderful!!  Now we are going to read The Foot Book.  We can take turns reading one page a piece.
 
 
 
 

References: Murray, B.A., and Lesniak, T. 1999.  The letterbox lesson: A hands-on approach for teaching decoding. The Reading Teacher, 52,644-650.

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