“Aaaaa, an ant!”
Beginning Reading
Rationale:
This lesson will teach children about the short vowel correspondence a =/a/. Beginning readers first must learn correspondences so that they can decode words. In this lesson, children will be able to recognize, spell, and read words containing the correspondence a =/a/. They will learn a representation that is meaningful to help them remember (Aaaaa, an ant! A person scared of an ant screaming Aaaaa). Children will spell and read words containing correspondence a=/a/ in a letterbox lesson. Lastly, children will read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a=/a/.
Materials:
Graphic image of ant; tongue tickler on chart; cover-up critter; whiteboard, letter boxes for each student, letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic letters for teacher: a, t, m, a, d, b, a, c, k, f, l, a, g, p, l, a, n, t; list of spelling words: at, mad, back, flag, plant; on poster or whiteboard to read, decodable text: "A Cat Nap" and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
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Say: In order to become the best readers, we can be, we need to be able to learn the sounds that letters make so we can know how to pronounce words. Every single letter has their own sound and our mouths move in a different way to make that sound. Today we are going to learn about the letter a and we will learn the sound it makes. The letter a makes the sound /a/. When I say the /a/, I want you to think that you see an ant crawling on your foot. When you see the ant, think about screaming ‘Aaaaa!’ because you are scared it’s about to bit you. Have you ever seen an ant on you and screamed /a/?
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Say: So, we are about to learn about how to spell /a/, but before we do that we need to listen for it in some words. I am going to read a tongue tickler to you and I want you to practice saying /a/ and hearing /a/ in a word. When I say /a/, my mouth opens while my tongue stays on the bottom of my mouth. Let’s look at this tongue tickler (show chart). Listen to me say it and then I will get you to repeat it. “Anna saw an ant. She was on a mat. She stomped her foot and the ant went splat.” Now I want you to repeat after me as I say it again (student will repeat with me two times). Do you hear the /a/ sound? I hear /a/ in ant? What other words can you hear /a/ in (Anna, saw, an, ant, was, a, mat, and, ant, splat)? Now let’s say the tongue tickler one more time, but this time let’s stretch out the /a/ sound. “Aaaaanna saaaaaw aaaan aaant. She waaaas on aaaa maaat. She stomped her foot aaaaand the aaaant went splaaaat.”
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Say: Now we are going to look at the spelling of /a/. When spelling /a/, you use the letter a. Let’s work on spelling the word bat, like a bat that you play baseball with. First, we need to know how many phonemes are in the word, so that we can spell it in letterboxes. Let’s stretch out the word to count the phonemes: b//a//t/. I need 3 boxes. I heard bbb so I will start with b, then I hear the /a/ and then the t at the end.
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Say: Now, I am going to let you spell some words with letter boxes. We can start out with two boxes for the word at. When you are talking about where you are, you can say where you are at. “I was at the mall today.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to children as they answer.) What should go in the second box? (Walk around the room and observe students’ progress.) Okay, for the next word, we need three letterboxes. I want you to listen for the beginning sound that will go in the first box. Then listen for the /a/ and finally, listen for the sound that will finish the word. Here is the word: mad, my friend is mad at me; mad. (Give children time to spell word). Okay let’s check our work together. Watch how I spell it in letterboxes on the board: m-a-d and see if that is how you spelled it. Let’s try another word with three boxes: lab, I went to the lab for science class; lab. (Give children time to spell word, then demonstrate on the board the correct way to spell the word in letterboxes and ask them to compare their spelling). Now let’s try the next word: back, I sat on the back row; back. (Give students time to spell and then demonstrate on board). Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck in the same phoneme box? Let’s try one with four phoneme boxes. The word is flag, the flag was flying in the wind; flag. (Give students time to spell and then demonstrate on board). Now for our very last spelling word, I want you to spell a word with five phoneme boxes. The word is plant; I saw a plant growing in my yard; plant. Remember you can stretch out this word if you are having trouble. (Give students time to spell and then demonstrate on board).
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Say: Now I want you to read through the words you have spelled. First, I will show you how I would go about reading a hard word. (Demonstrate on the board modeling reading the word plant). First, I know this is a long word, but I start from the beginning. I uncover one letter at a time. First, I see /p/, then /l/, now I hear the /a/, now a /n/ and it ends with a /t/. Now I can read it, pppplllllaaaannnntt, plant. Now you can try it! (Let the class read the words aloud then call on individual students to read a word letting each student read a word on their own.)
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Say: You have done such a good job at reading words spelled with the correspondence /a/. We are going to read a book called A Cat Nap. It is about a cat named Tab. Tab is a fat cat who loves to nap. He is napping in a bag and continues to nap; do you think he is going to get woken up? Let’s keep reading to see what happens next. (Let children break into pairs and take turns reading the book to each other alternating each page as the teacher walks around observing students’ progress. After paired reading, the class will read A Cat Nap aloud as a class and stop every couple of pages to discuss what is happening in the story).
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Say: So, that was a story about a cat who loved to nap. Did he ever wake up from his nap? Yes, he did you’re right. Where did he go after his nap? Right, he went to a baseball game. Before we finish our lesson, I want you to help me solve a reading problem using what you have learned about /a/. On the worksheet, you will work on spelling the words to then read them to yourself and later reading them aloud to me.
References:
Morgan Anderson, “Aaaa, an alligator!”
https://morgananderson0011.wixsite.com/mysite-1/beginning-reading
Book: Cushman, S. A Cat Nap. Educational Insights, Carson, CA (USA). 1990
Worksheet: https://www.funfonix.com/book1/ffonix_book1_2.gif
