EEK! It's Halloween
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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee = /E/. In order to be able to read, children must be able to recognize the spellings that map out word pronunciations. In this lesson, children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (a child shrieking at a Halloween monster). They will then spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson. They will also read a decodable book that focuses on the long vowel correspondence ee = /E/ at the end of this lesson.
Materials:
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Image of a child shrieking at a Halloween monster
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Letterboxes
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Letter tiles (s,e,e,b,w,p,t,r,d,c,k,b,l,a,i,n,m)
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Whiteboard
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List of words 2- see; 3- beep, tree, feet, seed, rain(review); 4- creek, bleed, green, sweet, snail(review); 5- street; pseudo-word: meep
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Cover-up critter
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Assessment worksheet – ee = /E/ worksheet (https://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/phonics-worksheet-43.html)
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Lee and the Team: Book 4: Long E by Sheila Cushman, 1990
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 the sound that short e makes, like in the words smell and pen. But today we are going to learn about long /E/! When I say /E/ I think of a child shrieking when he/she sees a monster, “Eeeek”! [show an image of a child shrieking at a monster]. Today we are going to look at one of the ways to spell /E/. One way to spell /E/ is with two e’s (ee). Words like speed that have 2 e’s in them that make the /E/ sound. [Write speed on whiteboard]
2. Say: But before we learn about the spellings of /E/, we need to listen to it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear the letter E say it’s name: /E/. Let me show you first: beep. I hear /E/ say its name in the middle of the word! Now I’m going to see if it’s in pet. I did not hear E say it’s name in pet. Now you try! Shriek if you hear /E/ in these words: pen, beetle, sneer, dent, greet, screen, red, and speed.
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3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’re going to learn today. To spell /E/, we use 2 e’s (write 2 e’s on the whiteboard). Together, the 2 e’s say /E/! So what if I want to spell the word green? “Frankenstein’s face is green”. Green is describing the color of the monster, Frankenstein’s, face. To spell green in letterboxes, first I need to count the number of phonemes in the word. To do this, I stretch it out, /g/ /r/ /E/ /n/. The 2 e’s go together because together they make one sound, /E/, so we only need 4 boxes. I can hear /E/ in the middle of green, so I’m going to put the 2 e’s in the middle box. I can hear the /g/ at the beginning, so I’ll put a G in the first box, then I hear /r/ so I’ll put an R before the e’s, and a N at the end! [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /g/ /r/ /E/ /n/]
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4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. We’ll start out easy, with only 2 letterboxes. Spell the word see. We use our eyes to see. “On Halloween you may see some scary monster costumes”. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers] What about the second box? Did you remember to use 2 e’s in order to make the /E/ sound? I’ll check your spellings while I walk around the room [observe progress]. We will need 3 letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to put in the first letterbox. Spell the word beep. “A car horn may beep if a Halloween monster is crossing the street.” What do you hear at the beginning of the word? [Respond to children’s answers] After /b/, we hear the shrieking child, right? What should we put in the second box? [Respond to children’s answers] So now we have /b/ /E/, what do we need at the end? (Allow children to spell remaining words and give sentences for each word: tree, feet, seed, creek, bleed, green, sweet, and street). [walk around and monitor their progress.]
5. Say: Now I’m going to show you how to read the words you’ve spelled.[show the words: see, beep, tree, feet, seed, creek, bleed, green, sweet, and street. [Have students read words in unison first then, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn].
6. Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ee. Now, we are going to read a book called Lee and the Team. In this story, Lee is the captain of his baseball team. Lee likes to play baseball with his team, but they are being lazy and wont practice! The team has a game coming up; how will Lee get them to practice for the big game? Let’s read to find out! [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages while the teacher walks around making sure they’ve got it. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Lee and the Team aloud as a group, stopping between pages to discuss the plot.]
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7. Say: That was a good book! To finish our lesson about one way to spell /E/= ee, I’m going to give you a worksheet to complete. [Hand o out worksheet] your job is to look at the pictures of the long E words use the letters given to write out the correct spelling of the word! [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
References:
Murray, “Oh I didn’t Know”
https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/978825/files?preview=84287048
Bianca Davidson, “Say Cheese”
Assessment worksheet:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/unscramble/longe/
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For more examples visit Entries:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/Entries.html