Rationale: Children will learn how to read, spell, and recognize words with the short vowel a = /a/. They will see a real-world example of the pronunciation by looking at a person screaming and learn that the short vowel is pronounced as if someone was screaming Aaaaa! They will also learn to spell the words with a letterbox lesson as well as a worksheet and learn to read this short vowel with a decodable book that focuses on a = /a/.
Materials:
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A picture of someone looking scared.
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Marker and whiteboard
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Magnetic f,l,a,t
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Children with letterboxes with the letters a,t,f,p,b,r,w,g,s,l,p,c
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Tap and Pat book stapled
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Short a worksheet
Procedure:
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We are all learning how to be amazing readers in this class and one of the big steps to becoming an amazing reader I am going to teach you today! Today we are learning all about the short a. The short a, /a/ sounds a lot like if someone was scared! If someone saw a rat in their hat they would go “Aaaaa”.’ Show the scared person. On the count of three let's all say /a/ like the person in this picture. Ready? 1...2…….3 *all together we say* /a/!
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Before we learn how to spell words with the short a, let’s see if we can hear them. I’m going to say some words and if you hear the short a=/a/ then you need to open your mouth and have a scared face! I’ll go first! Rat! *make scared face* Did you all see how the scared /a/ is in rat so I made a scared face?! Let’s try another one. Plane! See I didn’t hear the scared /a/ so I didn’t make a scared face. Let me try one more on my own. Sat. *Make scared face* See the scared /a/ was in sssss /a/ tttt. Now let’s try some as a class! Hat, May, Gap, Mat, Sad? (go over those individually and wait to see if they make a scared face. Go over where the /a/ was if it was there or why it was not there if not)
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Now let’s learn how to spell words with the scared /a/! Let’s try to spell flat! Flat has four phonemes /f/ /l/ /a/ /t/ so we will put four boxes on the board! And we know the /a/ is the third phoneme in flaaaaaat so let’s put that in the third box! For the first box we hear /f/ /f/ /f/ that’s an f so let’s put the f in the first box! Now in flat we hear llllllll. That’s an l so let’s put an l in the second box. We already know our scared /a/ is next so what’s after that in fffflllaaat. It’s t t t which is a ‘t’ so let’s put that on the board! Now let’s say the whole word ffflllaaatt flat! Great job everyone!”
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Now it is yalls turn to practice with your letterbox! The first word is at like I did work at school. How many phonemes are in this word? *class answers 2* “Yes! So we will put two boxes and you all will put the letters in them.*observe* Great job! Our next word is fat. How many phonemes are in fat?” *Have class answer* Great job! So we will put down three letterboxes and then everyone put in your letters! *observe* *repeat this process with pat, brat, wag, slap, and crab*
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Y’all did great! Now I will let y’all read the words you just spelled! *write each word they just spelled on the board one at a time and write the next word once the class has said the written word all together*
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Everyone did so good! Now you are going to read a book about Tap and Pat. Pat the dog is sitting with his owner but then he spills his water EVERYWHERE! What will happen next?! You are going to get to read this book to find out! *Pass out stapled booklet you made*
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Once you have finished reading you will come to me to get a worksheet where you will put the correct word with the correct picture. *collect worksheets and see how each student did*
References:
Book: “A Tap and a Pat” reading A-Z
Assessment Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-long-short-a/short-a-words-cutglue_BTREW.pdf?up=1555321289
“Aaaaa! Spooky!” Peyton Hayes: https://hayespeyton1999.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
“Aaaaaaa, an Alligator!” Allie Williams:
https://alliemwilliams3.wixsite.com/mysite-1/beginning-reading
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