Make the Ponies Say, Hay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale: 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 (horse needing hay) 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:

1. Graphic image of a pirate

2. cover-up critter

3. whiteboard or smartboard

4. Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student

5. letter manipulatives for each child

6. magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: e, c, g, r, h, m, a, p, n, s, t, i

7. list of spelling-words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, tape, rate, name, chat, grape, rake decodable text: Snake and Ape

8. assessment worksheet.

 

Procedures:

1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to

pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a, like tap, and today

we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name,

/A/. When I say /A/ I think of a funny little pony yelling “mate, mate, I need hay for my date! [show graphic image].

 

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I

listen for /A/ in words, I hear A say its name /A/ and my mouth will act like I am taking a deep breath but then it will stop like a half smile and my mouth slightly open. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: Tame. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips

make a little half smile [stretch figures across mouth to show the shape]. There is a long A in tame. Now I’m going to see if it’s in magic. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t make that half smile. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “mate, mate I need hay for my date!? If you don’t hear /A/ say,

“That’s not it.” Is it in snow, table, apple, stay, nose, date? [Have children make a smile with their fingers (sideways finger gun) across their lips when they feel /A/ say its name.]

 

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 stage? “All the actors stood on stage” To spell stage in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s//t//A//j/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /g/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. 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//A//j/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s.

I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//t//A//j/]

The missing one is /j/ = g.

 

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 was late for the game so I ate really fast” 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: tape, “I packed a box now I need to tape it shut”; tape. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: t – a – p – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: rate; I need a rate my favorite restaurants from least to best, rate. [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: chat; Everyone was texting in the group chat during class, chat. 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.] Did you remember to spell /ch/ with a ch? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: grape; the sucker was grape flavored. grape. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: insane; The crowd at the concert was insane. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

 

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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 insane 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.] /i/ /n/ /s/ = /ins/ Now I’m going

to blend that with /A/ = /insA/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /insAn/. Insanse; 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 Snake and Ape. This is a story of two unlikely friends who are forced to team up to save their home. Let’s read to see where they live and how they saved their home! [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

Jane and Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

 

7. Say: That was a fun story. How did Kate and Jake save their jungle?? Right, they had to go to the king.What does Jake eat and where does he get his food from? Right, he eats frogs from the lake. 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 for the sentence. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Resources:

https://misskindergarten.com/super-cvce-practice-that-tricky-magic-

https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=42

Charles, Robert, and Joe Hammond. Snake and Ape. Learning A-Z.

Madison Wilson, Bake a cake with Blake

 https://madisonwwilson.weebly.com/beginning-reading.html

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