"aaaa" Cried the baby!
Beginning Reading
​
Rationale: In order for students to learn how to read, they must first learn to recognize vowel correspondences. Short vowels can be the hardest for students to learn, so we will start at the beginning with a = /a/. Through the activities in this lesson, students will be successful in decoding, reading, and reading comprehension. They will learn a meaningful representation of a = /a/ by rubbing their eyes like a crying baby. They will learn to recognize, spell, and read words through a letterbox lesson and book focusing on the correspondence a = /a/.
Materials:
-
Picture of crying baby
-
Whiteboard for modeling
-
Cover up critter
-
Class set of letterboxes
-
Class set of letter tiles
-
Word list: at, and, bad, cap, bag, fast, flash, plant, stand
-
Poster for list of spelling words
-
Letters: a, t, n, d, c, p, b, g, f, s, l, h
-
Book: A Cat Nap
-
Assessment worksheet
Procedures:
-
Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we are going to learn the short vowel sound /a/. When I say /a/, I want you to think of a baby crying “aaaa” (show graphic). Can you pretend like you are crying like the baby in this picture and rub your eyes? Let’s do it together! Aaaaa!
-
Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /a/, we need to listen to it in some words. When I say /a/ in the words, my jaw is down and so is my tongue [make vocal gesture for /a/]. When I say “rag,” I heard the /a/ sound and felt my jaw drop and my tongue lower in my mouth. There is a short a in rag. Now let’s see if we hear the short a in pen. I did not hear the /a/ in pen, and my mouth made a different shape. Now it is your turn to try! When you hear the /a/ sound in a word, use your hands to pretend like you are crying. Do you hear /a/ in mug or glass? Rat or mouse? Kit or mat?
-
Say: Now let’s look at how we use our code to learn to read words with the crying baby /a/ sound. What if we wanted to learn how to spell the word flag? “He waved his flag at the game.” To spell the word flag in letterboxes, we first need to know how many phonemes are in the word. So, we have /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/. We need four letterboxes. I heard the crying baby /a/ right before the /g/ and right after the /l/. So, I am going to put the a in the third box. The word begins with /f/, so I am going to place the f in the first box. After that, we hear the /l/, so the letter l goes in the second box. In the last box, we hear the /g/, so the letter g goes in the last box. When you put it /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/ together, you get flag!
-
Say: Now we are going to spell out some more words in letterboxes. You are going to start with two boxes. Our first word is at. “He threw the ball at the batter.” What goes in the first box? How about the second one? I am going to walk around and make sure everyone is on the right track! Great job! Now let’s try another word. The word is and. “She sang and danced.” [Give students time to spell the remaining words and give sentences for each remaining word: bad, cap, bag, fast, flash, plant, stand].
-
Say: Now we are going to read the words that we just spelled. Before we start, I am going to show you how to read a word [show poster with words on it and model the word plant]! First, I see that the letter a is in the middle of the word, so that signals us to make the /a/ sound. Now I am going to use my coverup critter to put the beginning letters together, p-l-a. What comes after the a? The letters n and t, which make /n/ and /t/. Let’s put it all together now: p-l-a-n-t. “The plant was green and tall.” Ready to try it on your own? [Show students the words on the poster: at, and, bad, cap, bag, fast, flash, plant, stand, pseudoword: vap. Then have students repeat in unison].
-
Say: Everyone has done an amazing job at learning our new sound /a/! Now we are going to read a new book called A Cat Nap. In this story, a fat cat named Tab decides to take a nap. She snuggles up in a soft, comfy bag and falls asleep. Her owner, Sam, takes the bag while Tab is still sleeping! You’ll have to read to find out what happens next to Tab! [Students will read A Cat Nap aloud with partners, alternating pages. Then reread the book to the class and have discussion questions.]
-
Before we finish our lesson on a = /a/, we are going to do a worksheet. On this worksheet, there is a list of rhyming words and a picture next to them. The student has to write the word that corresponds with each of these, giving them the opportunity to recognize the phoneme in several different words.
References:
Assessment worksheet: https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/meet-word-family-short-a/
Bussman, Sally Kale. “Uhhhh I don't know! https://szb0094.wixsite.com/lessondesigns2017/beginning-reading
Luangkhot, Palina. “(B)aaaaa Goes the Sheep!” https://pzl0019.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
A Cat Nap. Educational Insights, 1990. Phonics Readers, Short A Book 1.
https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Nap-Short-Phonics-Readers/dp/0886798515
​