"Uhhh, Can You Help Me?"
Rationale: The point of this lesson is to teach children the short vowel sound /u/ and its correspondence to the letter u. For children to read, they need to understand the spellings and pronunciations. In this lesson students will learn how to pronounce /u/ and recognize words that contain the letter u. They will learn the sound analogy, “Uhhh, can you help me?”, learn to spell and read words with the vowel u = /u/ in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on u = /u/.
Materials: Image of a confused child scratching their head; cover up critter; whiteboard and markers for modeling; letterboxes for child and teacher; tongue tickler; letters: b, c, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, o, p, s, t, u; list of spelling words to read: up, bus, dog, cut, bug, mud, hum, luck, lost; decodable book: Run, Bug, Run!; assessment worksheet on the short vowel u.
Procedures:
Say: To become an expert reader, we must learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today, we are going to learn about the /u/ sound that is spelled with the letter u. When I say /u/, I want you to pretend like you are confused and scratch your head and say, “Uhhh, can you help me?”
Say: Before we start spelling and reading words with the vowel u, let’s listen to see if we can hear /u/ in some words. When I listen for /u/ in certain words the u says, “uhhh.” When I say, “uhhh”, my mouth opens and my tongue stays on the bottom of my mouth and we make the sound from the back of our throats (make vocal gesture for /u/). Now listen to me say duck. In the word, “duck”, I hear the /u/ sounding confused and I felt my mouth open and my tongue go flat on the bottom of my mouth. There is a short u in duck. Now I am going to see if the /u/ sound is in the word cute. I did not hear the u say, “uhhh” in the word cute, and neither did my mouth open the same way as it did when I said /u/ in duck. Now it is your turn! First, I am going to say a sentence and I want you to repeat it back to me: Uncle Ubb was upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up. Then, I am going to say some words, and if you hear u = /u/ in the word I want you to scratch your head like you are confused and say, “uhhh”. Are you ready? Do you hear /u/ in sun or moon? Truck or car? Bust or break? Chuck or throw? Rug or mat?
Say: Now let’s learn how to spell words with the letter u. First, we need to learn how to write the letter u. (Model how to write the letter u on white board). We spell /u/ with the letter u and it is surrounded by other letters. For example, let’s spell the word drum. “She marches to the beat of her own drum.” To spell the word drum we must break it down to see how many phonemes are in this word so we can put them into their letter boxes. So, let’s stretch the word out and count how many phonemes are in the word, drum. /d//r//u//m/. I need four letterboxes. I heard the “uhhh” sound after the /r/ and before the /m/. I heard the /d/ sound before the /r/. So, the /u/ goes in the third letterbox, the /d/ in the first, the /r/ in the second, and the /m/ in the fourth. Let’s see if we spelled it right, saying the word slowly: d-r-u-m. Drum! That sounds right to me!
Say: Now it is your turn to spell some words using letterboxes. Let’s get your letterboxes and letter tiles out. We will start by using just two letterboxes. Now I want you to spell the word up. “Sally ran up the hill.” What do you think should go in the first letterbox? What about the second? (I will respond based off the child’s response and check each student’s spelling). For the next word we will need three letterboxes, and make sure you listen for the “uhhh” sound. I want you to spell the word bus. “Today I was late for the school bus.” (Allow students to spell and then I will model how to spell bus in the letterboxes on the white board, and then I will check students’ spelling). Let’s try another word using three letterboxes. I want you to spell the word cut. “My little sister found scissors and cut her hair.” (After students have spelled the word, allow a student to come up to the board and demonstrate how to spell cut). For the next word, listen very closely to see if you can hear the “uhhh” sound: dog. “I have a dog named Bailey.” Did you hear the “uhhh” sound as if someone was confused? Uhhh, I sure didn’t, because I heard /o/ that makes the “ahhh” sound. Let's try another word: mud. “Wilbur the pig loves to play in the mud.” Did you hear the “uhhh sound like I did? Let’s try one more word, and I want you to pay close attention because it can be tricky. Luck. “Good luck at your dance recital!” Even though we spell this word with three letterboxes, the ck at the end makes the same /k/ sound, so those two letters go in the last letterbox.
Say: Now I will have you read the words you have spelled, but I will show you how to read a word first. (Write the word luck on the board). Looking at this word, I see the letter u and no silent e at the end, meaning this /u/ says “uhhh”. Now I will get my coverup critter out so we can read the first part of the word. (Cover up the /ck/, so only the /l/ and /u/ are showing). Now I will sound out the /l/ and /u/ and blend the pronunciations together saying /l-uhh/. Now I will blend the /ck/ sound after the u which makes a /k/ sound, like karate kicking. Luck! We have read the word which says luck. Now, I want all of you to read the words I have written on board together as a class: up, bus, dog, cut, bug, mud, hum, luck, lost.
Say: Now that we have learned to spell and read words with the short vowel /u/, let’s read a book! We are going to read the story, Run, Bug, Run! While we read, I want you to listen for the “uhhh” sound. This story is about a bug who keeps running away so he won’t get sucked up by a vacuum or swallowed in a drink. Will Bug get caught? Let’s read to find out! (Each child will read this book out loud by themselves, so I can mark miscues. Then I will read the book out loud and talk about the plot and pictures as I turn the pages. I will tell them to scratch their head like they are confused each time they hear “uhhh”). After we read, I will ask: Did you like that story? Why did Bug keep running away? Correct, he would have gotten eaten or flushed down the drain. What do you think would have happened if Bug stayed on the mug? Yep, Bug would have been swallowed! What do you think you would do if you were Bug? Would you stay in a human’s house or go back outside? If I were Bug, I probably would go back outside too so I could crawl in the grass or fly in the air.
Say: To finish up this lesson, I am going to give each of you a worksheet to complete about the letter sound /u/. To complete this worksheet, listen to the directions carefully. I want you read the words in the left column and figure out what ending they all share, and circle that in the box. Then, using the picture as a clue, write another word with that same ending that matched the picture. For example, if there are words in the column ending in ‘un’, and there is a picture of a sun, I would write sun on the line. (I will provide help to students who need it and collect each worksheet to score each student’s progress).
Resources:
Reference: Mackenzie Jones, “Uhh, I Don’t Know” https://makenziejones98.wixsite.com/mysite-3/beginning-reading
Book: Run, Bug, Run! https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/minibooks/short-u-mini-book_WFWRB.pdf?up=1551352163
Assessment worksheet: https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/meet-word-family-short-u/