Blake Bakes a Cake
By: Rachel King
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 (baking a cake), 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:
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Image of a cake
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Cover-up critter
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Smartboard
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Letterboxes for each student
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Letter manipulatives for each child and teacher: b, r, c, a, k, e, p, l, n, t, m, s, v, f
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List of spelling words on poster to read: name, blame, plane, brake, place, crate, scrape, rave, black, frape
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Decodable text: Jane and Babe
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Assessment worksheet
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Crayons
Procedures:
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Say: To become an expert reader, we must learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned about the short vowel a and how it says /a/ like in tab. Today, we are going to learn about the long vowel A and the silent e that is used to make A say /A/. When I see a_e we say the letter A’s name. [Show picture of cake].
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Say: Before we learn about the spelling of long A, we need to listen and find it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I pretend that I am baking a cake and everyone is excited for dessert so we say BAKE THE CAKE! My mouth opens up and I say /A/. Let me show you: mane. I heard A and pretended I was baking a cake and I felt my mouth get wide. There is a long A in mane. Let’s see if there is long A in chap. Hmm, I don’t think I heard the long A. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “That’s good,” if you don’t hear /A/ say “EW.” Is it in came, flag, hard, drape?
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Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/. You spell /A/ with the letter a and the silent letter e. What if I want to spell the word scrape? “If I scrape my plate, it will be clean.” To spell scrape in the letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I need to stretch it out and count: /s//c//r//A//p/. I need 5 boxes. I heard the /A/ just before the /p/ so I am going to put it in the 4th box and the silent e outside the last box. The word starts with /s/, so I need the letter s. Now it gets a little harder so I’m going to say it slower /s//c//r//A//p/. I think I heard /c/, so I will put it right after the s. Let’s say it slowly one more time, /s//c//r//A//p/. I heard a growling /r/. I now, have one empty box! Let’s say the word one last time /s//c//r//A//p/. [Point to letters as you spell the word.] The missing letter is /p/.
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Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. Let’s start out easy with 3 boxes for name. “We both have the name Grace.” What letter should go in the first box? [Respond to answer]. What goes in the second box? Did you remember to put the silent e outside the last box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress]. You will need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound of the letter that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/; don’t forget to put the silent e outside the last box. Here is the word blame, “He was to blame for the mess.” Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: b-l-a-m-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Now lets try some other words with four letterboxes: plane, brake, place, crate. [Monitor students while they spell the words and write sentences with them.]
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Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words name, blame, plane, brake, place, crate, scrape, the extra words rave and black and the pseudoword frape. Read the words together. Afterwards, play the popcorn game (let students pick other classmates to read the list; students must sit down after they read the list) until every student has had the chance to read the list of words and is seated back in their seat.]
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Say: You have done a great job today reading words with /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This is a story about a zookeeper, named Jane, and a lion, named Babe. It’s time for Babe to eat dinner but Babe is asleep. Jane needs to wake Babe up so he can eat. How will Jane wake Babe? Lets read to find out how Jane will wake Babe. [Students will partner up and alternate reading a page out loud while teacher walks around the room to monitor their progress. When partner reading is over we will read the book aloud as a class].
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Say: That was a fun story we read! Now before we finish, I want you to get out your crayons. On this worksheet that I am handing out, Ann and Abe are looking for something. Your job is to color in words with a_e that say /A/ blue, and words that say /a/ gray to figure out what Ann and Abe are looking for. Once you have finished coloring, write your answer in the space below. [Collect worksheets to evaluate each child’s progress.]
Resources:
Assessment worksheet:
http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/phonics-worksheet-36.html
Beverly McMichael’s: Bake the Cake
http://bcm0023.wixsite.com/bevslessondesigns/beginning-reading
Cushman, Sheila and Kornblum, Rona. Jane and Babe. 1990.
