Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a=/a/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map out word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing a. They will learn a meaningful representation (making the noise “AAA CHOO” when they sneeze), they will spell and then read words containing this vowel in a letterbox lesson, and finish by reading a decodable book that focuses on the a=/a/ vowel correspondence.

 

Materials:

• Graphic of a child making “AAA CHOO” noise while sneezing (on flipchart)

• coverup critter for class and another for teacher

• Flipchart 

• Whiteboard and marker

• Letter boxes for each student

• letter tiles for each child and on flip chart for teacher (r,a,t,f,l,g,z,p,e,n,s,p,s,h,m,c,b)

• list of spelling words on flipchart: rat, flag, zap, plant, smash, slap, lamp, tap, last, scab, yat (and printed for each student) 

• Decodable book “Fat Cat”

• assessment worksheet

• pencils

 

 

Procedures:

1. Teacher will say: “In order to become expert readers we need to learn code that tells us how to pronounce all words! To start, can we say together the vowels in our alphabet? (Everyone together) A, E, I , O, U! Great job everyone! Today in class we are going to talk about a=/a/.”

2. Teacher: “When I say /a/ I think of when you are about to sneeze and you say “a a aaaaa choo!” (show flipchart with a picture of a child sneezing). Let’s try together. Say the sound /a/ and act like you are about to sneeze on the count of three: one, two, three! (class says “ a /aaaa/ choo!”) Nice job everyone!”

3. Teacher: “When we say our /a/ sound I feel the bottom of my mouth lower and my tongue sits behind my bottom teeth like this (model mouth movement for /a/). 

4. Teacher: (on flipchart) “Now let’s practice a tongue tickler: Allen was really hungry, but he couldn’t stop home to eat.  Allen had an apple after class. 

5. Teacher: “Good! Now let’s see if we hear our /a/ sound in some words. (look at flipchart) When we say flag do you hear our “aaaa” sound like when we sneeze? How about in skip? Right! Our /a/ sound was not in the word skip.” Have them practice this with: rat, plop, smash, and rent.

6. Teacher: “What if I want to spell the word lamp? ‘I turn my lamp on when I read.” A lamp is furniture that gives us light. We are going to need to get our letters out (r,a,t,f,l,g,z,p,e,n,s,p,s,h,m), and our letter boxes. To spell lamp in the letter boxes we first need to figure out how many boxes we need. To do this I stretch it out: /l/ /a/ /m/ /p/. So, I need 4 boxes. I heard my /m/ after the /a/ so I will put it in the 3rd box. The word starts with /l/, so that will go into the first box. Next, I hear a /p/ sound so I will put that in the 4th box. Do you hear the  /a/ sound? That will go in our second box. 

7. Teacher:“Now I am going to show you how to read a hard word (show the word on the whiteboard). I am going to start with our a says /a/ sound. Now I am going to put the beginning letters with the a: s-m-a /sma/. Finally, I am going to create the ending chunk and then put it together with the beginning chunk: s-h /sh/, /smash/. Oh, smash, like my mom will smash apples to make applesauce.”

8. Teacher: “Now it is your turn to try to spell some words in letterboxes. We will start easy. Let’s start out with 3 letter boxes for tap. To tap something is to lightly touch something. “The teacher woke up her sleeping student with a tap on the shoulder” Everyone spell tap in your boxes as I walk around the room and check your spelling (Observe the class’ progress).” Repeat these steps for the remaining words: slap, zap, scab, plant, and last.

9. Teacher: “Now we are going to read the words that we have spelled: rat, flag, tap, plant, smash, zap, slap, lamp, last, scab (show the words and the pseudoword yat ). Let’s read these words together.” After, call on individual children read a word off of the list until each student has participated.

10. Teacher takes out a book and says: “Now that we have spelled and read short a words, we are going to read a book called Fat Cat. This is a story of a cat named Fat Cat. Fat Cat always sleeps on a mat, but one day he lost it? Where do we think his mat went? Let’s read to find out! Let’s pair up and take turns reading to find out what will happen (pair up children and have them take turns reading). Now we are going to read it as a class (talk before you turn each page).”

11. Teacher: Great job on reading Fat Cat? Before we finish the lesson, we are going to do a worksheet, so that I can make sure you understand our /a/ sound. I am going to pass out a worksheet that has pictures of some items. I want you to say the name of each picture out loud, and if you hear an /a/ sound then circle to picture. Make sure to check your answers!” (Collect all of the worksheets and evaluate each student’s progress.)

 

References:

 

Assessment worksheet:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Read-and-Write-Phonics-Practice-Worksheets-Short-Vowel-A-E-I-O-U-2265450?st=e3516f8a3e41f5e2f283f2b1023ba4f2

Lequel Daigel’s, AAAAAA Roller Coaster a!:

https://sites.google.com/view/lacqueldaigle-e-portfolio/lesson-designs/beginning-reading?authuser=0

Book: Fat Cat

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/geniebooks/teacherbooks/ 

Picture:
https://www.shutterstock.com/search/cartoon+child+sneezing