Two Vowels Making One Sound

Designed by: Emily Herbig      School: Meadowfield Elementary

Grade Level: First       Subject: Language Arts

Core Curriculum Objective(s): 
Phonics: Identify and use vowel combinations (1-VW-8); South Carolina Standard: I.B.2).

Overview: 
Using poems from the Internet that focus on the vowel combinations "ee" and "ai", the students will learn to identify and read words that contain the letters "ee" and "ai". During this lesson, the children will become word detectives by searching through meaningful literature to find other "ee" and "ai" words. The students will use these newfound words to create their own pictionaries. The teacher will use a teacher made pocket chart word game to review "ee" and "ai" words and the sounds they make. The students will be assessed using Internet and teacher designed assessments.

Focus/Essential Question(s): 

What two vowels, when put together, make a certain sound? 

When two vowels are put together, what sound do they make? 

When two vowels are put together in a word, what new words can you read?

Time Frame: Period 1- 1 hour Period 2- 1 hour Period 3- 45 minutes

Resources/Materials:

Period 1

For the teacher:

Dry erase board/Chalkboard Dry erase marker/chalk Averkey Television Computer Destination Computer (optional)

Teacher pictionary of "ee" words: The pictionary should be made by taking 3-4 pieces of manila or white colored construction paper, putting them together, and folding them in half to form a book. The model book should have the title "My Book of ee Words" by _________ (the teacher's name) written on it.

Chart paper Marker

For each student:

Student pictionaries: This pictionary should be made by taking 3-4 pieces of manila or white colored construction paper, putting them together, and folding them in half to form a book.

1 copy of the Internet activity worksheet on "ee" words 1 copy of the Internet poem "Meet the Creeps" Books in table's book basket Crayons Pencil 1 piece of paper AlphaSmart (optional)

Period 2

For the teacher:

Dry erase board/Chalkboard Dry erase marker/Chalk "ee" words chart created with students in Period 1 Averkey Television Computer Destination computer (optional) Teacher pictionary of "ai" words: This pictionary should be made by taking 3-4 pieces of manila or white colored construction paper, putting them together, and folding them in half to form a book. The model book should have the title "My Book of ai Words" by ________ (teacher's name) written on it.

Chart paper Marker

For each student:

Student pictionary: This pictionary should be made by taking 3-4 pieces of manila or white colored construction paper, putting them together, and folding them in half to form a book.

1 copy of the Internet poem "Daisy the Snail" 1 copy of the Internet activity worksheet on "ai" words Books in the table's book basket Crayons Pencil 1 piece of paper Alphasmart (optional)

Period 3

For the teacher:

Pocket chart The letters "ee" and "ai" written on small square sentence strips Hat or container The following words written on sentence strips: sweet, seek, beep, sleep, seeds, peek, teeth, feet, wait, mail, trail, paint, train, praise, sail, rain

For each student:

Pencil 1 piece of handwriting paper (students should number it 1-10) 1 blue crayon 1 red crayon 1 copy of the third assessment- The assessment is made by typing the following words on a piece of paper:

1. sleet 2. beep 3. pain 4. green 5. see 6. train 7. sail 8. queen 9. Spain 10. trail

Culminating Assessment:

Rubric 1 - This rubric will be used to assess using vowel combinations.

Using questions 2 and 3 on the "ee" activity sheet, the student will receive 1 point for each correctly placed "ee" word in the blanks. The total number of possible points is 7 points so that

7/7 points and 6/7 points = + 5/7 points and below = a dot

Rubric 2- This rubric will be used to assess using vowel combinations.

Using questions 2 and 3 on the "ai" activity sheet, the student will receive 1 point for each correctly placed "ai" word in the blanks. The total number of possible points is 6 points so that

6/6 points = + 5/6 points = a check 4/6 points and below = a dot

Rubric 3- This rubric will be used to assess identifying vowel combinations.

The student will receive 1 point for correctly identifying the vowel combination heard in each word. The total number of possible points is 10 points so that

10/10 points and 9/10 points = + 8/10 points = a check 7/10 points and below = a dot

Rubric 4- This rubric will be used to assess identifying vowel combinations.

1. The student will receive 1 point for each "ee" word circled in red - 1 point X 5 "ee" words = 5 points

2. The student will receive 1 point for each "ai" word circled in blue- 1 point X 5 "ai" words = 5 points

TOTAL = 10 points so that

10/10 points and 9/10 points = + 8/10 points = a check 7/10 points and below = a dot

Instructional Activities:

Period 1

1. The teacher will tell the students that in the next few days they will be learning about two new sounds that are each made up of two letters and that they will be able to use the new sounds and letters to become better readers.

2. The teacher will tell the students that he/she will read aloud several words and that the students must listen carefully to see if they can figure out what sound is the same in all the words.

3. The teacher will read aloud the following words two times to the students, making sure that he/she stresses or enunciates the "e" sound make by the vowel combination "ee": beep, teeth, peek, feet, seed, meet, see.

4. The teacher will ask the students what sound they heard in all of the words.

5. With the response of "the e sound," the teacher will write on the board the letters "ee" and tell the children that most times when they see the two letters e and e right beside each other in a word, the two letters make only one "e" sound (the teacher can remind the students of the old familiar vowel rule, "When two vowels are together, the first one does the talking and the second one does the walking- the second vowel is not heard"). Also, remind the children that this rule is true most of the time but that there are "rule breaker" words that they might find that do not follow this rule.

6. Then, the teacher will say each of the following "ee" words again: beep, teeth, peek, feet, seed, see, meet. This time, as the teacher says each word, he/she will ask the students to use the new rule about the sound that "ee" makes to help him/her spell the word. As a student helps spell an "ee" word, the teacher will reiterate that the "e" sound comes from the two "e"s being side-by-side.

7. After working with the students to spell all the words on the board, the teacher will tell the children that now they will engage in more activities with the "ee" combination and the sound that it makes by using the computer and the Internet.

8. Using the averkey or a Destination computer, the teacher will go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/ and click on the section entitled "Long Vowel Sounds." On the next screen, the teacher should click onto "Poem pack." Once the teacher is inside the "Poem pack," he/she should click onto the "ee" poem entitled "Meet the Creeps."

9. The teacher will tell the students that he/she has a poem for them to read, listen to, and watch. The teacher will tell the students to pay special close attention to the poem because it is full of words that have "ee" in them and make the "e" sound.

10. Then, the teacher should look at the options at the bottom of the screen and click onto "Hear It." This option will display the first part of the poem, and the narrator will read each line as it is highlighted. The teacher will advance through the screens until the entire poem has been read.

11. The teacher will play the poem 1-2 more times so that the children are familiar and comfortable with the poem.

12. Then, the teacher will choose the "Sound Search" game at the bottom of the screen. In this game, each part of the poem is displayed and the children must find or identify the designated number of "ee" words displayed on each screen.

13. The teacher will read aloud the instructions and then call on children to come to the front of the room and use the remote control or mouse to click on an "ee" word, that makes the "e" sound, on the screen and to read the "ee" word. If a child has difficulty reading a word, the teacher or other students should help to sound out the word.

14. The teacher and students will continue until all the "ee" words (with the "e" sound) in the poem have been identified and read aloud.

15. Then, the teacher will tell the students that they will engage in another "ee" word activity. The students will be able to use their new knowledge of the sound that "ee" makes to read several new words and then to decide and choose which word makes the most sense in a sentence (using vowel combinations).

16. The teacher will click on the option "Find the Word" at the bottom of the screen. The teacher or another student will read the sentence with the "blank" still left in the sentence. The teacher will call on a student to read the first "ee" word choice, and the teacher will re-read the sentence with the chosen word in it. The teacher will continue with this procedure until all choices have been read and placed into the sentence, and then the teacher will call on a student to provide the correct response and to click on his/her choice to complete the sentence.

17. The teacher and students will continue with this activity until the end of the game.

18. After the game, the teacher will hold up a pictionary with the title "My Book of ee Words" on it. The teacher will write the title on the board and tell the children that when they get their books, they will need to copy the title and write "by ______" (the child's name).

19. The teacher will tell the students that they will create their own pictionary of "ee" words as they become word detectives. After writing the title on their books, their mission is to use the poem and books in their book baskets to look for "ee" words that make the "e" sound. When the student finds an "ee" word, he/she should write the word at the top of a page (really 1/2 page of the construction paper- teacher should demonstrate by using model pictionary) and then draw a picture to go with the word (for example: sleep- write the word sleep and draw a person or animal sleeping). Each new "ee" word should be placed on a new page.

20. The teacher will give each child crayons, a pencil, pictionary book, and a copy of the poem.

21. The teacher will tell the students that they will be given 20-30 minutes to work on their pictionaries. If they do not complete the entire book, they can finish at a later time.

22. If a child finishes early, he/she should take each "ee" word in his/her pictionary and write a sentence for each word on a separate piece of paper.

23. During this activity, the teacher can circulate to check on progress and/or pull a small group of children who may be struggling with the concept to give them more individual instruction.

24. After the children have worked on their pictionaries for 20-30 minutes, the teacher will transition the students to a circle area, where students will be called on to choose an "ee" word they recorded in their pictionaries and to share it with the class. As each child shares a word, the teacher will record the "ee" word on a class chart.

25. Then, the teacher will transition the children back to their seats, and the teacher will click on the option "print it" and then click on "print activity." This option will display an "ee" worksheet that will be used to assess using vowel combinations (Only #s 2 and 3 on the worksheet will be assessed. The students can complete #s 1 and 4 after they finish with the quiz.).

26. The teacher will give each student a copy of the activity worksheet, and he/she will explain rubric 1 at this time.

27. Then, the teacher will read # 2 aloud to the students and have them raise their hands when they have chosen and recorded their response and are ready for the teacher to read the next part of #2 or #3 (the teacher should make sure that he/she does not read the "ee" words to the student; they should be able to read the "ee" words and make a choice).

28. If a child finishes early and when all children have finished #s 2 and 3, they can do #s 1 and 4, and the #4 poems can be sent to the "Gallery" on the website (If time allows, or during journal time, the students can type their poems onto AlphaSmart computers, the teacher can print them, the child can illustrate the writing, and the work can be scanned onto the school's website).

29. Then, the teacher will call on students to provide correct answers to the assessment.

30. The teacher will tell the students that tomorrow they will review the sound that "ee" makes and that they will learn of two more letters that, when put together, make a certain sound.

Period 2

1. As a review, the teacher will write "ee" on the board and ask students if they remember what sound these two letters make when they are side by side in a word.

2. After a child responds that "ee" makes the "e" sound, the teacher will display the "ee" words chart created in the previous period, and the teacher will ask the students to use their new knowledge of the sound that "ee" makes to read the words from the chart. The teacher will point to a word on the chart and call on a student to read the word. The teacher will continue with this procedure until all words from the chart have been read.

3. Then, the teacher will tell the students that today they will learn about two new letters, that when put together, make a different sound and that they will be able to use the new sounds and letters to become better readers.

4. The teacher will tell the students that he/she will read aloud several words and that the students must listen carefully to see if they can figure out what sound is the same in all the words.

5. The teacher will read aloud the following words two times to the students, making sure that he/she stresses or enunciates the "ai" sound: rain, nails, pain, wait, sail.

6. The teacher will ask the students what sound they heard in all of the words.

7. With the response of "the a sound," the teacher will write on the board the letters "ai" and tell the children that most times when they see the two letters "a" and "i" right beside each other in a word, the two letters make only one sound, the "a" sound (the teacher can remind the students of the old familiar vowel rule, "When two vowels are together, the first one does the talking and the second one does the walking" - the second vowel is not heard.) Also, the teacher should remind the children that this rule is true most of the time but that there are "rule breaker" words that they might find that do not follow this rule.

8. Then, the teacher will say each of the following "ai" words again: rain, nails, pain, wait, sail. This time, as the teacher says each word, he/she will ask the students to use the new rule about the sound that "ai" makes to help him/her spell the word. As a student helps spell an "ai" word, the teacher will reiterate that the "a" sound comes from the "a" and "i" being side by side.

9. After working with the students to spell all the words on the board, the teacher will tell the children that now they will engage in more activities with the "ai" combination and the sound that it makes by using the computer and the Internet.

10. Using the averkey or a destination computer, the teacher will go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/ and click on the section entitled "Long Vowel Sounds." On the next screen the teacher should click onto "Poem pack." Once the teacher is inside the "Poem pack," he/she should click onto the "ai" poem entitled "Daisy the Snail."

11. The teacher will tell the students that he/she has a poem for them to read, listen to, and watch. The teacher will tell the students to pay special attention to the poem because it is full of words that have "ai" in them and make the "a" sound.

12. Then, the teacher should look at the options at the bottom of the screen and click onto "Hear It." This option will display the poem, and the narrator will read each line as it is highlighted.

13. The teacher will play the poem 1-2 more times so that the children are familiar and comfortable with the poem.

14. Then, the teacher will choose the "Sound Search" game at the bottom of the screen. In this game, the poem is displayed, and the children must find or identify the designated number of "ai" words displayed on the screen.

15. The teacher will read aloud the instructions and then call on children to come to the front of the room and use the remote control or mouse to click on an "ai" word, that makes the "a" sound, on the screen and to read the "ai" word. If a child has difficulty reading a word, the teacher and/or other students should help to sound out the word.

16. The teacher and students will continue until all the "ai" words (with the "a" sound) in the poem have been identified and read aloud.

17. Then, the teacher will tell the students that they will engage in another "ai" word activity. The students will be able to use their new knowledge of the sound that "ai" makes to read several new words and to decide and choose which "ai" word makes the most sense in a sentence (using vowel combinations).

18. The teacher will click on the option "Find the Word" at the bottom of the screen. The teacher or another student will read the sentence with the "blank" still left in the sentence. The teacher will call on a student to read the first "ai" word choice, and the teacher will re-read the sentence with the chosen word in it. The teacher will continue with this procedure until all choices have been read and placed into the sentence, and then the teacher will call on a student to provide the correct response and to click on his/her choice to complete the sentence.

19. The teacher and students will continue with this activity until the end of the game.

20. After the activity, the teacher will hold up a pictionary with the title "My Book of ai Words" on it. The teacher will write the title on the board and tell the children that when they get their books, they will need to copy the title and write "by ___"( the child's name).

21. Then, the teacher will tell the students that they will create their own pictionary of "ai" words as they become word detectives. After writing the title, their mission is to use the poem and books in their book baskets to look for "ai" words that make the "a" sound. When the student finds an "ai" word, he/she should write the word at the top of a page (really 1/2 page of the construction paper- teacher should demonstrate by using model pictionary) and then draw a picture to go with the word (For example: rain- write the word rain and draw a cloud with rain falling from it). Each new "ai" word should be placed on a new page.

22. The teacher will give each child crayons, a pencil, pictionary book, and a copy of the poem.

23. The teacher will tell the students that they will be given 20-30 minutes to work on their pictionaries. If they do not complete the entire book, they can finish at a later time.

24. If a child finishes early, he/she should take each "ai" word in his/her pictionary and write a sentence for each word on a separate piece of paper.

25. During this activity, the teacher can circulate to check on progress and/or pull a small group of children who may be struggling with the concept to give them more individual instruction.

26. After the children have worked on their pictionaries for 20-30 minutes, the teacher will transition the students to a circle area, where students will be called on to choose an "ai" word they recorded in their pictionaries and to share it with the class. As each child shares a word, the teacher will record the "ai" word on a class chart.

27. Then, the teacher will transition the children back to their seats, and the teacher will click on the option "print it" and then click on "print activity." This option will display an "ai" worksheet that will be used to assess using vowel combinations (Only #s 2 and 3 will be assessed. The children can complete #s 1 and 4 when they finish with the quiz.).

28. The teacher will give each student a copy of the activity worksheet, and he/she will explain rubric 2 at this time.

29. Then, the teacher will read # 2 aloud to the students and have them raise their hands when the have chosen and recorded their response and are ready for the teacher to read the next part of #2 or #3 (The teacher should make sure that he/she does not read the "ai" words to the students; they should be able to read the "ai" words and make a choice).

30. If a child finishes early and when all children have finished #s 2 and 3, they can do #s 1 and 4, and the #4 poems can be sent to the "Gallery" on the website (If time allows, or during journal time, students can type their poems onto AlphaSmart computers, the teacher can print them, the child can illustrate the writing, and the work can be displayed or scanned onto the school's website).

31. Then, the teacher will call on students to provide correct answers to the assessment.

32. The teacher will tell the students that tomorrow they will review the "ee" vowel combination and the sound it makes and the "ai" vowel combination and the sound it makes. Also, the teacher will tell the students that tomorrow they will have an opportunity to show the teacher how much they have learned about "ee" and "ai" and the sounds that they make.

Period 3

1.The teacher will tell the children that today they will review "ee" and "ai" words and the sounds that they make and that the students will have an opportunity to show the teacher how much they have learned about "ee" and "ai" and the sounds they make.

2.The teacher will tell the students that now they will play a word game. The teacher will use a pocket chart for the game. On the left side of the pocket chart, the teacher will have the label "ee" written on a small square sentence strip. On the right side of the pocket chart, the teacher will have the label "ai" written on a small square sentence strip.

3.In a hat or some other container, the teacher will have several "ee" and "ai" words written on sentence strips. The teacher will tell the students that he/she will draw a word out of the hat, read aloud the word, and the students must decide if the sound they hear in the word is made from the "ee" combination or the "ai" combination. Once a student provides the correct response, the student will take the sentence strip from the teacher and place the word under the correct vowel combination label in the pocket chart (example: the word rain should be placed underneath the "ai" label).

4.The teacher and the students will continue with the game until the vowel combinations in all the words have been identified and placed in the correct vowel combination category.

5.Then, the teacher will tell the students that they will play a new game using the same words. This time, the teacher will mix all the sentence strip words together and place them in the pocket chart so that the students can see all of the words. This time, the teacher will ask a student to come up to the pocket chart and choose a word that has the "e" sound in it. When the child chooses an "ee" word, the child also should read the word aloud. Once this word is chosen, it will be taken out of the chart and placed to the side.

6.Then, the teacher will ask a student to come up to the pocket chart and choose a word that has the "a" sound in it. When the child chooses an "ai" word, the child also should read the word aloud. Once this word is chosen, it will be taken out of the chart and placed to the side. Then, the teacher will call on a student to identify a word that has the "e" sound in it. This procedure will continue, with the teacher alternating between "ee" and "ai" words, until all words have been identified and read aloud.

7.Then, the teacher will ask the students if they have any questions about "ee" and "ai" words and the sounds they make.

8.After addressing any questions, the teacher will tell the students that he/she will read a word aloud to the students. As each word is read, the students must decide if the word contains the vowel combination "ee" or "ai." If the word makes the "e" sound, the students should write the letters "ee" to indicate the correct vowel combination; if the word makes the "a" sound, the students should write the letters "ai" to indicate the correct vowel combination. The teacher will explain rubric 3 at this time.

9.The teacher will read aloud ten different words. As each word is read, the students will write either "ee" or "ai" in order to identify the correct vowel combination.

10.The teacher will read aloud the following words:

1. feet 2. sheep 3. rain 4. sweet 5. wait 6. snail 7. pail 8. teeth 9. need 10. paint

11. After calling out each word, the teacher will instruct the children to raise their hands after they have written their response so that the teacher knows when to read aloud the next word.

12. After all students have completed the assessment, the teacher will administer one last assessment to the children. The teacher will tell the children that they will be given a piece of paper with 10 different words on it. If the word contains the letters that make the "e" sound, they should circle the word with a red crayon. If the word contains the letters that make the "a" sound, they should circle the word with a blue crayon. At this time, the teacher will explain rubric 4.

13. Then, the teacher will pass out blue and red crayons to every student and a piece of paper with the following words typed on it:

1. sleet 2. beep 3. pain 4. green 5. see 6. train 7. sail 8. queen 9. Spain 10. trail

(The teacher should make sure that the words are spaced out so that the children have room to circle the words. Also, do not read aloud the words to the students; they should be able to identify the correct vowel combinations.)

14. As each child finishes the quiz, he/she can turn the paper over and write one sentence using each of the words from the quiz. The children should engage in this activity until all students have finished the quiz. If some children finish this activity before all quizzes have been completed, then they should continue with their "ee" and "ai" pictionaries from the day before.

15. Once all children have finished the assessment, the teacher will review the two assessments, with the students providing the correct responses.