Emergent Literacy Design: Alexander Alligator says aaaa with the letter A!
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /a/, the phoneme represented by A. Students will learn to recognize /a/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation and the letter a, practice finding /a/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /a/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from becoming letters.
Materials: Primary paper, pencil, drawing paper and crayons, word cards, assessment worksheet identifying /a/, beginning letter /a/ book, poster board that reads “alexander alligator is a silly alligator!”
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code, which helps us to communicate with each other. It is important to learn the letters made up in our secret code so that we understand what those letters stand for. As we say those letters our mouths move in particular motions unique to those letters. Today we’re going to see how our mouth moves as we say /a/. We spell /a/ with letter A. A looks like an alligators mouth that is open, and /a/ sounds like (aaa) when the alligator crys.
2. Let’s pretend that we are hearing the alligator cry , /a/, /a/, /a/. [Pantomime an alligator crying] Notice how your mouth is apart and open? When we say the letter a our mouth is open like the alligator who is crying.
3. Let me show you how to find /a/ in the word apple. I’m going to slowly say apple, and I want you to listen for the (aaa) when we talk about our scary apple. Aaaaa-p-p-l-e Slower: aaaa –ppp-pp-lll-e There it was! I felt my mouth get really big, and open up. I can feel the (ahh) when I am scared about my apple.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister [on chart]. “Alexander Alligator is a silly alligator!” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /a/ at the beginning of the words. “ Aaaaaalexander Aaaaaalligator is aaaaaa silly aaaaaalligator.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: /a/ lexander /a/lligator is /a/ silly /a/lligator.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter A to spell /a/. Capital A looks like our alligators mouth that is open. Let’s write the lowercase a, start at the roof and make a hump all the way down to the sidewalk, then draw a straight line from the roof to the side walk. I want to see everybody’s a. After I see your a, I will put a sticker on your paper, and then I want you to practice writing the lowercase letter a 5 more times.
6. Tell students to respond “Yay” if they can hear the /a/ in a word or “Nay” if there is no /a/ in the word you say. Do you hear /a/ in bat or pet? Car or red? Mad or met? Law or cow? Cart or pink? Fall or sell? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /a/ in some words. Say (aaa) as if you are crying like our alligator when you hear /a/: cat, fudge, care, mop, mad, car, pink, may, june
7. Say: “Let’s look at our beginning letter /a/ book, it tells us about all the letters in the alphabet using a fun story that describes the letter A. ( I don’t have my letter a book yet, but when I get it I will fix this section). Let’s draw out /a/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /a/ that they see on a daily basis. Ask the children to make up a funny animal name using /a/ like Attie - At- At. Then have each student write their funny name with invented spelling and draw/color a picture of their funny animal. Each student will present their animal during circle time.
8. Show ART and model how to decide if it is art or pet : The A tells me that something is very sad, /a/ /a/ /a/, so this word is aaaa-r-t. You try some: MAIL: mail or bet? SAT: Sat or set? ARM: arm or bed?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with A. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step number eight. Assess the responses given by the children to observe and record whether the students can or cannot use the strategy taught in this lesson.
References:
Byrne, B., & Fielding-Barnsley, R. (1990). Acquiring the alphabetic principle: A case for teaching recognition of phoneme identity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 805-812.
Bruce Murray, Brush Your Teeth With F: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html
Ameshia Cleveland, Icky Vicky Babysits Talking Timmy http://arc0035.wixsite.com/earlychildeducation
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /a/, the phoneme represented by A. Students will learn to recognize /a/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation and the letter a, practice finding /a/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /a/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from becoming letters.
Materials: Primary paper, pencil, drawing paper and crayons, word cards, assessment worksheet identifying /a/, beginning letter /a/ book, poster board that reads “alexander alligator is a silly alligator!”
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code, which helps us to communicate with each other. It is important to learn the letters made up in our secret code so that we understand what those letters stand for. As we say those letters our mouths move in particular motions unique to those letters. Today we’re going to see how our mouth moves as we say /a/. We spell /a/ with letter A. A looks like an alligators mouth that is open, and /a/ sounds like (aaa) when the alligator crys.
2. Let’s pretend that we are hearing the alligator cry , /a/, /a/, /a/. [Pantomime an alligator crying] Notice how your mouth is apart and open? When we say the letter a our mouth is open like the alligator who is crying.
3. Let me show you how to find /a/ in the word apple. I’m going to slowly say apple, and I want you to listen for the (aaa) when we talk about our scary apple. Aaaaa-p-p-l-e Slower: aaaa –ppp-pp-lll-e There it was! I felt my mouth get really big, and open up. I can feel the (ahh) when I am scared about my apple.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister [on chart]. “Alexander Alligator is a silly alligator!” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /a/ at the beginning of the words. “ Aaaaaalexander Aaaaaalligator is aaaaaa silly aaaaaalligator.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: /a/ lexander /a/lligator is /a/ silly /a/lligator.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter A to spell /a/. Capital A looks like our alligators mouth that is open. Let’s write the lowercase a, start at the roof and make a hump all the way down to the sidewalk, then draw a straight line from the roof to the side walk. I want to see everybody’s a. After I see your a, I will put a sticker on your paper, and then I want you to practice writing the lowercase letter a 5 more times.
6. Tell students to respond “Yay” if they can hear the /a/ in a word or “Nay” if there is no /a/ in the word you say. Do you hear /a/ in bat or pet? Car or red? Mad or met? Law or cow? Cart or pink? Fall or sell? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /a/ in some words. Say (aaa) as if you are crying like our alligator when you hear /a/: cat, fudge, care, mop, mad, car, pink, may, june
7. Say: “Let’s look at our beginning letter /a/ book, it tells us about all the letters in the alphabet using a fun story that describes the letter A. ( I don’t have my letter a book yet, but when I get it I will fix this section). Let’s draw out /a/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /a/ that they see on a daily basis. Ask the children to make up a funny animal name using /a/ like Attie - At- At. Then have each student write their funny name with invented spelling and draw/color a picture of their funny animal. Each student will present their animal during circle time.
8. Show ART and model how to decide if it is art or pet : The A tells me that something is very sad, /a/ /a/ /a/, so this word is aaaa-r-t. You try some: MAIL: mail or bet? SAT: Sat or set? ARM: arm or bed?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with A. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step number eight. Assess the responses given by the children to observe and record whether the students can or cannot use the strategy taught in this lesson.
References:
Byrne, B., & Fielding-Barnsley, R. (1990). Acquiring the alphabetic principle: A case for teaching recognition of phoneme identity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 805-812.
Bruce Murray, Brush Your Teeth With F: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html
Ameshia Cleveland, Icky Vicky Babysits Talking Timmy http://arc0035.wixsite.com/earlychildeducation