Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /a/, the phoneme represented by A. Students will be able to recognize /a/ in spoken words by learning a sound (baby crying) and the letter symbol A. Students will practice finding /a/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /a/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

• Primary paper and pencils

• Chart with “Ally asks for an apple after her active adventure”

• Drawing and Crayons

• Dr. Murray’s Decodable book “A Cat Nap”

• Word cards with the words: TAP, MAD, SACK, CRASH, BAG

• Worksheet identifying pictures (attached image and website)

 

Procedures:

1. Say: We are going to learn about the letter A today and how it feels in our mouth when we say it. The sound that the letter A makes sounds like a baby crying.

 

1. Let’s act like we are crybabies. /a/, /a/, /a/ [balled fist to eyes motion]. How is your mouth shaped when you make that sound? When we say /a/ we open our mouths wider.

 

1. Say: Let me show you how to find /a/ in the word “stand”. I’m going to stretch the word “stand” out in a slow motion and listen for the crybaby. Sssss-t-a-a-a-ck. Now a little bit slower. Sssss-t-a-a-a-ck. I heard it! I heard the /a/ sound when I opened my mouth wider.

 

1. Say: let’s try a tongue twister now! A tongue twister is a phrase that has lots of the same letters in a sentence. “Ally asks for an apple after her active adventure.” Let’s say it three times together and we will stretch out the /a/ sound. “Aaaaa-lley aaaa-sks for aaaaa-n aaaa-pple aaaaa-fter her aaaaa-ctive aaaaa-deventure.” Let’s try it one more time and break up the words. “/A/lley /a/sks for /a/n /a/pple /a/fter her /a/ctive /a/dventure.”

 

1. Say: [Students take out primary paper, pencil]. We use letter A to spell /a/. Capital A looks like a highchair that a baby would sit in. Let’s write the letter a in lowercase. Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little circle, then start to add a small tail that touches the sidewalk.

 

1. Call on students and ask them: “do you hear /a/ in mat or pet? Pant or cut? Cold or after? Fed or grab? Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /a/ in some words. Make your crying baby face if you hear /a/: the, cat, fun, add, tan, fin, cap, sad, bold, bath.

 

1. Say: Let’s look at this book. We will read A Cat Nap. The cat is a very sleepy cat. The cat is always taking naps and ends up taking a nap is someone’s bag. Let’s read to find out the journey that this nap in the bag will take the cat on.

 

1. Show CAT and model how to decide if it is cat or fat: The A tells me there is a crybaby, /a/ so this word is c-aaa-t. Now you try: TAP: TAP or TIP? MAD: MAD or MED? SACK: SACK or SOCK? CRASH: CRASH or CRUSH? BAG: BAG or BUG?

 

1. For the assessment pass out the worksheet. Students match words to the following picture.

 

 

 

Reference:

 

Murray, B. (n.d.). Brush your teeth with f. Retrieved February 16, 2021, from http://webhome.auburn.edu/~murraba/murrayel.htm

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Ms. Ray's reading lessons, Crying Baby A 

https://sites.google.com/view/ms-ray-reading-lessons/emergent-literacy

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Assessment Sheet

https://www.littledotseducation.com/post/short-vowels-worksheets-and-activities