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A Confused Caveman says "uuuhhh"

Beginning Reading Design

Ivy Hughes

Rationale:

In this lesson students will learn about the short vowel correspondence u = /u/. Children must learn to recognize

the spellings that map word pronunciations in order to read. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and

read words with the correspondence u = /u/. They will learn a meaningful representation (thinking caveman), they will

model their understanding of the sound with a tongue tickler, they will spell and read words containing the u = /u/ correspondence in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence u=/u/.

 

Materials:

  1. Image of  a caveman scratching his head to represent our confused caveman,

  2. cover-up critter

  3. whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling 

  4. individual Elkonin boxes for each student

  5. letter manipulatives for each student 

  6. magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: u,p,t,b,g,n,s,c,r,g,p; 

  7. list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read off: up, yuck, gut, buzz, pat, bug, shrub, fast, bunch, grump, thrush; pseudoword: wump

  8. decodable text Nan the Nun; and assessment worksheet.  

 

Procedure:

1. Say: “Good morning boys and girls! I hope you are ready to learn today! In order to become expert readers, we must first learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we are going to be learning about the short vowel U and the sound that it makes. Every time you see an /u/ in a word, you will make the sound of a caveman that is confused! Now I want everyone to make the sound of a confused caveman while they tap their head like they are thinking! “uuuuhhh” good! When I say /u/ I think of a confused caveman” (Show graphic image of caveman.) 

2. Say: “Before we learn about the spellings of /u/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /u/ in words, I hear the sound of our confused caveman thinking. [give a vocal example of this sound]. Let’s slowly say our u=/u/ sound in a tongue tickler, “Uncle is upset because he is unable to get his umbrella up.” Say it slowly and stretch out the words so that we can listen for /u/. Uuuuuncle is uuuupset because he is uuunable to get his uuuumbrella uuuup. Good job remembering the confused caveman! Let me show you how to listen for /u/ in the word pun. Puuuuun I heard /u/ and felt my mouth open wide, there is a short u in pun. Now I’m going to see if pen has the /u/ sound. Hmm, I didn’t hear /u/ and my mouth didn’t open up wide. Now you try. If you hear /u/ I want you to make the motion of a confused caveman tapping his head.” If you don’t hear /u/ I want you to give me a thumbs down. Is it in tub, pat, punt, crab, shrub?”

 

3. Say: “Now let’s look at the spelling of /u/ that we’ll learn today. What if I want to spell the word luck? “Good luck on your test.” To spell luck with our letterboxes, I need to know how many phonemes are in the word so I stretch it out and count: /l/ /u/ /k/. I need three boxes. I heard that /u/ just before the /k/ so I am going to put the letter u in the second box. The word starts with /d/ that’s easy; I need a d. Last, I hear /l/ so I need to put letters ck in the last box to complete the spelling of the word luck.

 

4. Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for up. Like, “I looked up at the sky; up.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to student’s answers.) What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. (Observe the students’ progress.) You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sounds that goes in the first box. Then listen for /u/. Here’s the word: cup, “I poured juice in my cup; cup”. (Allow students to spell remaining words while giving them sentences for each of the words: gut, but, pat, bug, bunt, fast, scrub, grump, crust.)” Remind students to listen to each word to see if they hear the /u/ sound before spelling. 

 

5. Say: “Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’m going to show you how” (Show poster with the word ‘scrunch’ on it). “I will sound it out using my cover up critter [uncover and blend sequentially] /s/ /c/ /r/ = /scr/ now I’m going to blend that with our short vowel /u/ = /scru/. Now, we just need the end, /n/ /ch/ = scrunch! Like “I scrunch my nose”. Your turn! [Have the students read the words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read on word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

 

6. Say: “You have done a great job with our new vowel. Now we are going to read a book called, Nan the Nunby Kelsey Williams. Nan the Nun wants to have fun, but work is not fun and it makes her sad! Let’s keep reading to find out if Nan the Nun can find some fun. Pair up and read the rest of the book with your partner.” [Students pair up and take turns reading alternate pages while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After each group is finished reading, the class rereads Nan the Nunaloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the story.]

 

7. Say: “I am glad that Nan the Nun found some fun! Before we finish up with our lesson about spelling with u= /u/, o 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:

  • Crying Babies say “Aaa” by: Morgan Tedder

https://morgan12bhs.wixsite.com/misstedder/beginning-reading

  • Worksheet:

https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/meet-word-family-short-u/

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