Rationale: This lesson focuses on the long vowel correspondence ee/ea = /E/. In learning to read, children learn to recognize specific spellings that cue corresponding word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ee/ea=/E/. They will learn a meaningful representation (shrieking “eek” sound ), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, read a decodable poem, and complete a worksheet assessment that focuses on the correspondence ee/ea= /E/.
Materials:
Image of Cute Ghost
Cover-up Critter
White board or Smartboard
Letter Boxes for teacher modeling
Letter Boxes for each student
Smartboard letters or magnetic letters for teacher modeling
Letter manipulatives for each student
List of spelling words on poster, whiteboard, or Smartboard: tree, need, sneak, greet, treat, stream
Decodable Text: Meet the Creeps by Sue Palmer
Assessment Worksheet: https://readingelephant.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ElephantSplashing.ee_.ea_.pdf
Coloring supplies such as crayons, markers, or colored pencils
Procedures:
Say: To become experts at reading, we need to learn the codes that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with e, like fell, and today we are going to learn about long E that is used to make ee and ea say its code, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of saying “Eek! A ghost!” As if a friend has dressed up as a ghost to jump out and surprise me [shows ghost picture].
Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say /E/ and my lips make a little smile shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for/E/.] I will show you first: Sheep. I heard e say /E/ and I felt my lips make a little smile that shows my teeth [smile]. There is a long E in sheep. Now I’m going to see if it’s in stop. I didn’t hear e say its name and my lips didn’t make that little smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say, “Eek! It’s E.” If you don’t hear/E/say, “That’s not it.” Is it in boots, lake, keep, coat, rose, cheek, stack, reach? [Have children point to their smile when they feel /E/ say its name.]
Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. Two ways to spell /E/ is with letters e-e and e-a to tell me to say E’s name.[Write e-e and e-a on the board.] What if I want to spell the word stream? To spell stream in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s/ /t/ /r/ /ea/ /m/. I need 5 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /m/ so we’re going to put ea in the 4thbox. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s/ /t/ /r/ /E/ /m/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s. One more before the /ea/, /s/ /t/ /r/ /ea/ /m/, I think I heard growling /r/so I need an r. I have one empty box now. The missing one is /m/= m.
Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out with three boxes for tree. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? 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 /E/. Here’s the word: need, I need a tissue. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: n –ee –d and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: sneak; I saw them sneak away. [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 is greet; They will greet you at the door. [volunteer spells it on the front board.]? Now let’s try another word with 4 phonemes: treat; the treat was candy. One more then we are done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: stream; They swam in a stream. Remember to stretch this word out.
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 stream written on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there’s the vowels ea. It must say /E/. I’m going to use a cover-up critter to get the first part. [Uncover before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /s/ /t/ = /st/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /strE/. Next for the end, /m/ = /strEm/. Stream. Now it’s your turn. [Have children read words together. Then, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling for ee/ea= /E/. Now we are going to read a poem called Meet the Creeps by Sue Palmer. This is a silly poem about a creepy family that lives down the street. Let’s learn some more about this creepy family together [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate lines while the teacher walks around the room and monitors progress. After paired reading, the class rereads Meet the Creeps together, and stops to identify words with /E/.]
Say: That was a fun and creepy story. What color was Mrs. Creep’s hair? Right, she had green hair. What game does Teeny Creep like to play? Right, hide and seek. Before we finish up with our lesson about ways to spell ee/ea= /E/, I want to see how you can solve a reading worksheet. On this worksheet, we have a mix of words. Your job is to look at the word choices and decide if you see a word that fits ee/ea= /E/. First, try reading all the word options, then choose the word that fits to color with markers, crayons, or colored pencils. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
"Eek, a Sheep!" by Lizzy Buchanan
https://lizzymb105.wixsite.com/lessonplans/beginning-literacy
B. Marker, ee Worksheets & Lessons:
https://www.readingelephant.com/2018/06/07/ee-worksheets/
Palmer, Sue. (2002) Meet the Creeps. BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/poems/flash/print/p1a.htm
Assessment Worksheet: https://readingelephant.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ElephantSplashing.ee_.ea_.pdf