The Icky Iguana
Rationale: This lesson will help students to learn the short vowel correspondence i=/i/. Students need to be able to recognize this correspondence so that they can be able to read certain words correctly. In this lesson, students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling i. They will spell and read words containing letter i spellings in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i= /i/.
Materials:
Liz is Six
Letterboxes and tiles – t, i, p , s, m, r, n, k, w, g
Whiteboard and marker – words on whiteboard (tip, sit, pink, trip, swim, stink, mist, spring, pig, brick, digs)
Cover-up critter
Pencil and assessment worksheet
Procedure:
Say Introduction: Today we will be talking about how we are going to become expert readers. In order to do that, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have learned two so far, a says /a/ and e says /e/. Today we are learning about the short vowel i and its sound, /i/.
Say: Before we learn about spelling words with /i/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /i/ words, I hear the “i, i, icky” sound and my mouth gets wider. [demonstrate what this looks like.] Listen to this tongue tickler. Listen for the sticky icky /i/: Nick sits inside the igloo. Did you hear the sticky icky i’s? Now, we are going to stretch out the words: NNN-iiii [“My sticky icky i!]-cckkk sss-iiii-tttsss iiiinside the iiiiiiglooooo. Did you notice all of the sticky icky i sounds? Did you see the corners of my mouth get wider when we said those i’s? Now, it is your turn to try. If you hear the /i/, say “iiii, that’s sticky icky.” If you don’t hear it, say “Nope, that’s not it.” I want you to put your fingers on the corners of your mouth, so you can feel your mouth stretch when you make the sound. Is /i/ in bite, sit, pants, dog, mitt, click?
Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /i/ that we are going to learn today. When wanting to spell a word that has the /i/ sound, there is so secret that you must know. All you need to know is that the letter i makes that sound! I want to spell the word tip. “We left a tip for the waitress on the table.” In this sentence, the word tip means money. How many letterboxes would I need to spell out this word? [wait for students to answer then give them the right answer, students should know the answer.] Three! Right! Knowing how many letterboxes we need tells us how many phonemes are in the word. /t//i//p/. I heard the /i/ right before the/p/ so I am going to put the letter i in the middle box. The word starts with /t/, so I know the letter t goes into the first box. Now I can read “ti”, what letter am I missing? I am missing the /p/ sound. Do you know what letter the /p/ sound is? [let them answer.] That is right!! The letter p! [Demonstrate all of this in letterboxes]
Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. Starting with easy ones working our way up to more letters and more boxes. Don’t worry if you get stuck on the harder words, I just want you to do the best you can. [Have students get out letters needed and their letterboxes.] You are going to start out with three boxes. I want you to spell the word “pig”. “The little pig played in the mud.” Listen for the /i/ sound. I am going to check your spellings while I walk around the room. [Observe progress] Let’s so another one. Try the word “sit”. “We will sit down once we get to the football game.” Now go up to 4 letterboxes. [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences and correct number of letterboxes for each word: 4 – mist, trip, pink, swim 5 – spring, stink]
Say: Now I’m going to let you read the words that you have spelled, but first I will show you how I read a tough word. [Write the word tip on a whiteboard and model the reading.] [use the cover-up critter and blend the word together.] Now that I have showed you, it’s your turn. I want you to say them all together. [Have the words PIG, SIT, MIST, TRIP, PINK, SWIM, SPRING, STINK, extra words DIGS, BRICK written largely on a whiteboard so the students can read them aloud together.]
Say: Since all of you have done a great job reading some words with /i/ sound, we are going to read a book called Liz is Six. Liz is having a birthday party! She gets a present from one of her friends and afterwards her and the other guest at her party go and play with it. Let’s read more to find out what they do! [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class re-reads Liz is Six aloud together, stopping between page turns to discuss the plot of the story and how it’s going.]
Say: That book was so much fun to read! Now I want you to go back to your seats and get out a pencil. I am going to come around with a worksheet and assess what you have learned today. [Pass out assessment] On this worksheet, you have to draw a line from the country of India to another picture on the page that you hear the /i/ sound in the word. Once you are done, you may color the pictures and turn in your work. [look at worksheets to evaluate children’s progress.]
References:
Assessment: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/vowels/i-begins1.htm
Reference: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/cultivations.html
Book: Liz is Six – published
Gif: http://bestanimations.com/Animals/Reptiles/Reptiles.html