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Beginning Reading

Pooh’s Icky Sticky Honey!

Sarah Crawford

 

Rationale:

This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence i=/i/. Children have to be able to recognize the spellings that determine word pronunciations in order to read. Throughout the lesson, children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing i. They will learn a memorable representation (Icky Sticky I’s honey), then they will spell and read words containing this spelling through a letterbox lesson. After the LBL, children will read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i=/i/. 

 

Materials:

  • Picture of Pooh with Icky Sticky honey 

  • cover-up critter

  • letterbox squares

  • letter tiles; drink poster

  • flashcards/list with words to read

  • decodable book

  • worksheet assessment 

 

Procedures: 

  1. Say: In order to become an expert at reading, we must learn how to decode words, which helps us pronounce them. We have already learned some short vowels with words with a and e, so, today we are going to learn about short i. When I saw /i/, I think of Pooh getting stuck in some icky sticky honey! *show gif*

  2. Say: Before we start learning how to spell /i/, we need to see if we can listen for it in some words. When I listen for /i/ in words, my lips stretch out, almost like a smile (make vocal gesture for /i/.) I’ll start: crib. I felt my mouth stretch and I heard the icky sticky i so I know there is a short i in crib [make hand gesture of sticky hands]. Now I want to see if it’s in bed. Hmm, I didn’t hear i make the icky sticky sound and my mouth didn’t stretch out. Now you try. If you hear /i/ say, there’s icky sticky! But if you don’t hear /i/ say, “that wasn’t it!” Is it in twig, dress, split, gift, chest, flat, mint? [Have students make the sticky hand motion when they hear /i/.]

  3. Say: Now we’re going to take a look at the spelling of /i/. We spell /i/ with the letter i. So, what if I want to spell the word script. “The director wrote a script for a movie.” To spell script in letter boxes, I’m first going to need to know how many phonemes there are in the word. I’m going to stretch it out and count: /s/ /c/ /r/ /i/ /p/ /t/. I need 6 boxes. I heard that /i/ right before the /p/ so I’m going to put an i in the 4th box. The word starts with /s/, so I know I need an s. Now, we need to say it slow again to get the rest, /s/ /c/ /r/ /i/ /p/ /t/. I think I heard /c/ so I’ll put a c right after s. There’s still one more letter before the /i/, /s/ /c/ /r/ /i/ /p/ /t/ I heard a growling /r/ so I need an r. So far, we have scri, lets see if we can get the rest of the word. That /p/ sounds means I’ll need a p. And I hear a ticking clock /t/ at the very end so I’ll need a t. 

  4. Say: Now I want you all to spell some words using these letterboxes. I’ll start out easy with two boxes for the word it. We usually use it as glue words to make a sentence, “We like it, do you like the cake?” What should go in our first box? [Respond to student’s answer]. What goes in the second box? Yes, t goes in the second box. Now we have the word it spelled. You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to know what letter we’re going to put in the first box and then listen for /i/. Here is the word: win, The Auburn Tigers win a lot of football games; win. [Allow time to spell word.] I’m going to walk around and make sure you all are on the right track. Now, watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: w - i - n and see if you spelled it the same way. Try another word with three boxes: dip; I love to eat chips and dip at restaurants. [Have a student come up to the board and spell in letterboxes on the whiteboard to model for other students. This step should be repeated for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /i/ in it before you spell it: spend, Don’t spend all of your money in one place. Did you hear /i/? Why didn’t you? Yes, because we didn’t hear the icky sticky i. We spell this word with our short vowel e. [Allow for volunteers to come up.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: shift; Let’s all shift our bags to the right. Did you remember to put the /sh/ in the first letterbox with the letters sh? Now let’s spell one more word and we’re done with spelling. This time we’ll need five boxes: drink; I took a drink of my water. Remember you can stretch the word if it’s a little tricky for you. 

  5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you just spelled, but I want to show you how to read a tough one first. [Display paper with drink, under document camera, and model how to read the word.] First off, I see that there’s a i by itself, that means that it’s going to say our icky sticky i. I’m going to use my cover-up critter to get to the first part. [uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /d/ /r/ = /dr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /i/= /dri/. Now all I need to figure out is the end, /n/ + /k/ = /nk/-> /dri/ + /nk/ = drink. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read all together. Then, you can call on individuals to read off the list until everyone has had a chance]. 

  6. Say: You all have done an awesome job with spelling and reading our new words for i=/i/. Now we are going to read a book called Tin Man Fix-It . This story is about a tin man named Tim who likes to dig in a garden. But one day, he gets knocked over by a boy. Read with a neighbor and take turns reading Tin Man Fix-It to find out if Tim the tin man can get fixed. [Children will take a turn reading in pairs while alternating pages. Teacher will walk around and monitor the student’s progress. After the class has read, we will now, as a class, reread Tin Man Fix-It and talk about what’s going on after each page.]

  7. Say: Wasn’t that nice of Jim to fix Tim and put him back together! Before we finish up with our lesson i=/i/ I want you to practice it. On this worksheet, we are trying to figure out which words have short i in them. For the first section, I want you to say the name of the pictures to yourself and circle which ones you hear the icky sticky i in.  Next, read the words and determine which contain i, like the word bin. Finally, write three words that you can think of with short i. When you’re done, go back and check your work once you have written all of your words. [Collect worksheets when done to see each student’s progress.]

 

Resources:

John David Phillips, Icky I says /i/. https://johndavid2332.wixsite.com/jdp0058/beginning-reading

 

Decodable Book Tin Man Fix-It: https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1198003/pages/Educational%20Insights%20decodable%20books

 

Worksheet Assessment: 

https://www.myteachingstation.com/short-i-sound-worksheet

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Click here for Communications Index. 

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