Uh, wait a minute!!
Rational:
This lesson will teach the children the short vowel correspondence u= /u/. This is a correspondence that is used in many words, and in order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize spellings that map word pronunciations. n this lesson, students will learn and practice the pronunciations and spellings of words, thus being able to read them. They will be shown a photo of a cave man scratching his head saying Uh?, as well as practicing words with /u/ in letterbox lessons. At the end we will read a decodable book that focuses on this correspondence.
Materials:
Graphic image of a cave man scratching his head, cover up critter, letter box lesson set for modeling and individuals for each student. letter manipulatives for each student and magnetic or smartboard letters for the teacher: c, u, t, f, n, r, g, s, b, h p, l, m; List of words on poster or white board, primary paper, and pencil. Words: cut, fun, plum, nut, shrub, bug. Decodable Text: Bub and the Nut, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
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Say: “We are going to learn something new! Learning this letter and the sound it makes will help you read many more words and you will even see this in quite a of your future few sight words as well. You may have heard this sound in words like fun, and bug. It’s the ‘u’ sound that comes from the letter u. Whenever I think of the ‘u’ sound I always think of a confused caveman who’s scratching his head saying …’uh.. wait a minute!’ “. (show graphic image)
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Say: “Just like we heard the ‘u’ sound in fun and bug, there are also other words we are able to hear it in. Whenever I say words like fun and bug, my mouth opens a little, and my tongue goes to the bottom.(Make vocal gesture for /u/) I’ll show you first: jug. I hear the /u/ sound and my tongue goes to the bottom of my mouth. Now I’m going to see if it’s in bus. It is! What about car? Hmm, I didn’t hear the u sound in car, and my tongue wasn’t in the bottom of my mouth. You can try it!” (Demonstrate first and then allow student to try themselves. Run through several times.)
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Say: Now that you know how to say “u” we are going to practice writing it. (Hand out pencils and primary paper) The little u starts in the middle line, or the fence, goes down to touch the sidewalk, and then curves back up to the fence. It’s important to remember that the u stays open at the top!” (Demonstrate several times on white board, then allow the student to try on primary paper) Now that you know how to write it yourself, you can find it in words! What if I tried to spell the word bug in these boxes? I saw the biggest bug! (hand out letterboxes and letter manipulatives) to spell bug in letter boxes I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b/ /u/ /g/. I need 3 boxes. I heard the /u/ sound just before /g/ so I’m going to put it in the second box. The words starts with /b/, so we definitely know that one goes first.
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Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out very similar to what I did, with three boxes for the word cut. Like if you cut fruit or vegetables in the kitchen. “We cut up our food before we eat it!” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] Let’s try another one: You’ll also need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then, listen for /u/: fun. We had a fun day at the park! Fun. [Allow children to spell words]. Let’s check. Watch how I spell it in my letter boxes on the board. F-u-n. Let’s try another one, but this one with four boxes. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Listen closely, because a sound can be made of more than one letter. Then, listen for /u/. Here’s the word: shrub. A bush can also be called a shrub; shrub [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: sh – r – u– b and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes plum boxes: plum; I ate a plum for breakfast . [Have a volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.]
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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 shrub on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a sh- sh sound at the beginning. Even though this is it’s own sound, it blends really well with the r that comes after it. Sh-shr. Then there’s the vowel u. It must say /u/ just like what our caveman is saying. 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.] /sh/ = /sh/ + /r/ = /shr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /u/ = /shru/. Now all I need is the end, /b/ = /shrub/. Shrub; 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.]
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Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /u/. Now we are going to read a book called Bub and the Nut. This is a story of a squirrel named Bub who sees a nut that he just HAS to have. He wants it so bad! He climbs to the very top of a tree just to get this nut. He cuts it down, but then it falls on top of a hut! Bub has to chase down this nut in all sorts of places, like in a tub. But when a suprise bear cub sees Bub on his nut chase, what will happen next? Will Bub ever get the nut? . Let’s pair up and take turns reading Bub and the Nut to find out if he ever gets this nut. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Bub and the Nut aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
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Say: That was a fun story. Did Bub get the nut? No! He got something even better! He got toeat a sub with his new friend cub. he had snuck out of his cage and into Nate’s bag. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /u/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some pictures, . Your job is to pick the word that best matches the picture, and write it on the line. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best with the picture. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Bruce Murray, Making Sight Words (2nd edition)
Lili Henderson, Bub and the Nut https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=28
Assessment sheet: (Last one)
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ShrtuWk.pdf
Developments Lesson Design
http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/developments/
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