top of page

Beginning Reading

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Cat Scratches the Baby: 

A Beginning Reading Lesson

 

 

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a=/a/. In order to be able to read all texts, children must recognize the spellings that map out pronunciations of words. This lesson will allow children to learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling a. They will learn a meaningful representation (crying baby saying “a!”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a=/a/.  

 

Materials:

  • Graphic image of crying baby

  • Cover-up critter

  • Smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling

  • Individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student

  • Ziploc bags with letter manipulatives for each child

  • Smartboard letters for teacher: c, a, t, l, p, s, d, r, b, n, g, h, m

  • List of spelling words on poster to read:

cat, lap, sad, crab, snap, grass, plant, scratch, strand, grand, clasp, dramp

  • Poster with the word plant on it

  • Decodable text: Lad and the Fat Cat

  • Assessment worksheet

 

Procedures:

 

1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn about open mouth movements called vowels to help us pronounce words. Today, we will start out by learning short vowel a. When I say /a/ I think of the sound that a crying baby makes [show graphic image]. We can pretend that the baby is upset and starts to cry because a cat just scratched him. To help us remember this connection, we can learn a hand gesture for when we hear /a/. To do this hand gesture, you take each hand in a fist and rub them beside your eyes [demonstrate the hand gesture]. Repeat the gesture after me. Now let’s look at the spelling of /a/ that we’ll learn today. We spell /a/ with the letter a. [Write a on the board.]

 

2. Say: Before we learn about spelling words with /a/ in them, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /a/ in words, I hear a say its name /a/.  My jaw and tongue are down when saying /a/. I’ll show you first: flag. I heard a say its name and I felt the way my mouth was moving when doing so, while keeping my jaw and tongue down. There is a short a in flag. Now, I’m going to see if it’s in flop. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth was open like a yawn. I want you to try now. If you hear /a/, rub your fists beside your eyes and do the hand gesture of the crying baby (that is upset because it just got scratched by the cat). If you don’t hear /a/ say, “The cat didn’t scratch the baby.” Do you hear /a/ in trap or trim? What about in blow, catch, print, think, trash, sank, drain?

 

3. What if I want to spell the word scratch? If I pull the cat’s tail, he will scratch me. To spell scratch in letterboxes, first I need to know how many total mouth movements (phonemes) it has so I stretch it out and count: /s//c//r//a//tch/. I need 5 boxes. I heard that /a/ just before/tch/ so I am going to put a in the fourth box. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s//c//r//a//tch/. I think I heard /c/ so I’ll put a c right after the s. One more before the /a/, hmm… /s/ /c/ /r/ /a/ /tch/, I think I heard growling /r/. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//c//r//a//tch/] The missing letters are tch that make the /tch/ sound at the end.

Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with plant on the top and model reading the word]. I’m going to start with the a; that part says /a/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: p-l-a, /pla/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /pla-nt/. Oh, plant, like, “My grandma likes to plant sunflowers in her garden.”

 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for cat. I’m sure some of you have pet cats at home. “I have three cats at home. Their names are Charley, Koda, and Delilah.” Did you remember to start out by putting a in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress]. You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box. Then listen for /a/ as the third letter in the word. Here’s the word: crab, I like to hunt for crabs at night on the beach; crab. [Have students spell the remaining words, giving sentences for each word: lap, sad, snap, grass and strand.]

 

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words cat, crab, lap, sad, snap, grass and strand, the extra words grand and clasp, and the pseudoword dramp. Have children read words aloud as a class. Afterwards, call on individual students to read one word on the list until everyone has been called.]

 

6. Say: You’ve done such a wonderful job spelling and reading words with short vowel a. Now we are going to read a book called Lad and the Fat Cat. “This is a story about a dog named Lad and a fat cat named Scat. Lad is mad because Scat is lying in his bed. Scat will not get out of Lad’s bed, so Lad starts to bark at Scat. What do you think will happen after Lad keeps barking at Scat? You’ll have to read to find out in Lad and the Fat Cat.” Let’s pair up and take turns reading Lad and the Fat Cat to find out what happens next. [Children find partners and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring student’s progress. After partner reading, the class rereads Lad and the Fat Cat chorally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.]

 

7. Say: Before we finish our lesson on /a/ today, I want to see how well you can complete a worksheet practicing what we’ve learned today about letterboxes and short vowel a. [Pass out assessment worksheet to each student] On this worksheet, you will see pictures beside letterboxes containing the correct number of mouth movements (phonemes) in the word represented by the picture beside it. Say the word that the picture represents to yourself and remember what we discussed earlier about spelling words in letterboxes in order to put the letters in the correct boxes to spell the word. Remember to start out with short vowel a and write it in the box where you hear /a/ being spoken in the word. Next, say the beginning letter(s) aloud and write them in the letterboxes before the vowel a. Then, say the ending letter(s) and write them in the letterboxes that come after the vowel a. When you are finished, I would like you to check back over your work and then bring the worksheet to my desk. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

 

Resources:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bottom of page