Beginning Fluency

Plan(et) of the Ape

This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (an Ape beating on his chest saying ayyyeee) they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e = /A/.

Materials: graphic image of an ape beating on his chest; cover-up critter; whiteboard; letterbox boxes for modeling and individual letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives fir each child and magnetic letters for teacher: list of letters; list of spellings words on poster; decodable text: Abe and assessment worksheet.

Procedures:

1. Say: To become the best readers we can be we need to learn the code that tell us how to say certain words. We have already learned vowels like short a, like jam, and today we are going to learn long A and the silent e signal used to make the A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of an ape beating on his chest saying “AYYYYYEEEE” [show graphic image]

2. Before we learn the spelling of /A/, we need to try to hear it in some words. Whenever I listen for /A/ I hear a say its name /A/ and my mouth comes together, lips almost touching. [make vocal gesture]. I’ll do it first: lake. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips almost come together. There is a long A in lake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in hand. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t almost come together. Now you try. If you hear /A/ start beating on your chest like an ape! If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in lake, swim, bake, sun? [Have children trace their lips when they hear the /A/ sound.]

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write a_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word brake? “If I press the brake on my bike too hard, I will fly off.” Brake means to help something stop in this sentence. To spell brake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b//r//A//k/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the 4th box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need an b. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /b//r//A//k/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the b. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//r//A//k/. The missing one is /k/ = k.

b

r

a

k

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate.“I ate pizza for breakfast” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: cake, Cake is my favorite desert. Cake. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c – a – k – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: face; My face dropped when I saw the news. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: jam.Peanut butter and jam is my favorite sandwich. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: grape; The grape juice was perfect on the hot summer day.

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with brake on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a silent e on the end; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel a. It must say /A/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /b//r/ = /br/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /strA/. Now all I need is the end, /k/ = /brAk/. Brake; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Abe. Abe baked a cake. He gave the cake to Nate. Nate gave the cake to Jade. Did Jade like the cake? We’ll have to find out. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Abe to find out if Jade liked the cake. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Abe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

7. Say: That was a fun story. Did Jade like the cake? Right, she did like the cake. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which a_e word fits best to make sense of this very short story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers

Resources:

Abe by Trish Mylet https://www.freephoneticreaders.com/long-vowel-books/long-a/long-vowel-a-with-abe

Assessment: https://www.education.com/download/worksheet/28210/finish-sentence-long-a-second.pdf

Chuga Chuga Choo Choo by Emily Milner. Reading Genie: https://sites.google.com/site/milnersmagnificentlessons/home/chugga-chugga-choo

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