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 sound analogy (crying baby) and the letter symbol A. Students will practice finding /a/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /a/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil
Chart with “Allen asked for apples to feed active animals.”
Drawing paper and crayons
Book: Clickety Clack by Rob and Amy Spence (Scholastic, 1999)
Word cards with BAG, TAP, FAN, DAD, SACK, and CRASH.
Worksheet identifying pictures with /a/ (URL below).
Procedures:
Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves in certain ways as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /a/. We spell /a/ with letter A. A looks like a highchair, and /a/ sounds like a baby crying.
Let's pretend to cry like a baby, /a/, /a/, /a/. [Make balled fist crying motion]. Notice how your mouth changed? When we say /a/, we open our mouths wider.
Let me show you how to find /a/ in the word stack. I'm going to stretch stack out in super slow motion and listen for the crying baby. Ssss-t-a-a-a-ck. Slower: Sssss-t-a-a-a-a-ck There it was! I felt my mouth open wider. Crying baby /a/ is in stack.
Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Allen works at a zoo full of animals. Here’s our tickler: “Allen asked for apples to feed active animals.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /a/ at the beginning of the words. "Aaaaa-llen aaaa-sked for aaaaa-pples to feed aaaaa-ctive aaaaaa-nimals." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/a/llen /a/sked for /a/pples to feed /a/ctive /a/nimals.
[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter A to spell /a/. Capital A looks like a highchair. Let's write the lowercase letter a. Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little circle, then add a small tail that touches the sidewalk. After I put a check on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /a/ in sit or mat? Hat or top? Hill or ham? Shop or flat? Fed or grab? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /a/ in some words. Make your crying baby /a/ face: The, pat, sell, snack, tan, fin, cap, sad, post, bath.
Say: "Let's look at Clickety Clack. This is about a train that is packed full of animals and acrobats. Will this group get too loud and silly for train conductor Zach? " Read each page, drawing out /a/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /a/. Ask them to make up a name with /a/ for an imaginary pet. Then have each student write their pet’s name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their pet. Display their work.
Show BAG and model how to decide if it is Bag or Fog: The A tells me to make my crying baby /a/, so this word is b-aaaaa-g, bag. You try some: TAP: Tap or Top? Fan: Fun or Fan? DAD: Dad or Did? SACK: Sack or Sock? CRASH: Crush or Crash?
For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that have /a/. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
Clickety Clack by Rob and Amy Spence (Scholastic, 1999)
https://www.amazon.com/Clickety-Clack-Picture-Robert-Spence/dp/0670879460
"Feel Your Heart Beat with B" by Charlie Marks
https://charliemarks1.wixsite.com/mysite-2/emergent-literacy
Louis Van Deven, Short A Sound; worksheetshub.com
https://www.free-math-handwriting-and-reading-worksheets.com/short-a-sound.html
Assessment Worksheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_E0fDKYLQKASG5FeHBEbVVSZ1k/view