Rationale:
This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee = /E/. 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 ee.
They will learn a meaningful representation: the phoneme /E/ can be recognized and compared to the screaming sound associated with Halloween and spooky season “Eek!,” they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee = /E/. Additionally, student will achieve phonemic awareness through recognizing in reading and writing as well as visually learning the mouth movements in saying the phoneme /E/.
Materials:
· Printed out Halloween Eek image
· White/smart board
· Preschool lined paper
· Long /E/ Decodable Reader “The Queen’s Feast”
· Paper king and queen crowns.
· Ee/Ea Halloween Poem for individual reading practice
· Printed out matching cards: words and pictures, and matching grid
· Glue sticks
· Letterboxes and letter tiles
Procedure:
1. “Okay friends! Now we are going to learn about an eeeeeriee new sound. A sound that makes us go Eek!” Point to/reference pumpkin image. “Does anyone know what eerie means? That’s right, creepy, sneaky, scary, those are all good words to describe the word eerie, and the feeling we get when something seems eerie. Now, what holiday comes up in October, the month we are now in? I’ll give you a hint, there are pumpkins, and ghosts, and witches, and candy…. That’s right, Halloween! During Halloween-time we hear a lot of people go: Eek!” Point to pumpkin image. “It’s a sound people make when they scream or are scared, everyone say eek! (point to pumpkin) Eek! Ooooooh you all sounded so scared! Good Job! What sound does everyone hear when we say the words eerie, or scream Eek! (point to pumpkin), or at the end of the word HallowEEN? /E/ that’s right. I can hear an /E/ sound too.”
2. “When I see the letters ee together together, I know they make the /E/ sound, just like when we scream Eek!” Write these graphemes together on the board. “Who can help me think of some words we know that make the /E/ sound? Screech, that’s a good one we’ve said a lot today! What else? Feet! Bee! Flee! Three! Halloween?! That’s the perfect word!” Write these all on the board in a list. These are all great words! Let’s practice some more!”
a. Looking at all the words written on the board say, “Who can tell me something about the spelling that these words have in common? That’s right! They all have two e’s!” Write ee on the board. “When we see a word that has a spelling with two ee’s we immediately know it sounds like /E/. The pair of ee’s will most often go between two consonants of a word or at the end of to make the sound /E/.” Erase all the words, write GLEE and say “Spell this word out with me. G-L-E-E. Let’s all sound this word out together, GLEE, how do we say this word? Glee! Now spell this word out with me, F-E-E-T. Pay attention to the double e’s between the consonants f and t. We now know that those e’s make what sound? /E/! Correct! So let’s sound this word out together, FEET, feet! Good Job everyone.”
b. Say, “Now I want to spell the word peel. ”
3. Provide letterboxes and letter tiles to each student. Say, “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for bee. You all know what a bumblebee is! 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.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word, seen. As in, ‘I have seen that movie before!’ Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box.” Give a list of other words like, feet, tree, queen, meet, and teeth for them to do and walk around, observe progress, and scaffold.
4. Reads whole texts
a. Next, introduce the story “The Queen’s Feast.” “Ok we are going to read the story “The Queen’s Feast” so I want everyone to get in their Halloween costume spirit and imagine we are all queen’s and kings ready to feast. Put on your crowns! This story is about a village run by a royal and very beloved queen. This queen decided one day to offer a treehouse to the villager who could make her the best feast in all of the lands. A brother and sister villager begin the challenge to make the better feast for the queen. Who do you think will win the treehouse? I guess we will have to keep reading to find out!”
5. Matching game (original idea, no reference)
a. Print off Halloween themed /E/ words: Treat, Scream, Creaky, Halloween, Bleed, Feet, Teeth, Sneak, Fear
b. Print off additional photocopies representing these words
c. Print off a blank Halloween Matching Activity Grid
d. Have students match and glue the picture to the corresponding /E/ word.
Resources/References:
Pumpkin Halloween Eek image: https://www.horror-shop.com/en/p/halloween-plate-in-pumpkin-shape-8-pcs.html
Ee/Ea Halloween Poem: https://www.coolteachingstuff.com/teach-phonics-skills-with-halloween-poems/
Long e Decodable Reader “The Queen’s Feast”: https://carissa-taylor.blogspot.com/p/decodable-readers.html