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Short u breaks his cup,  uh uh uh oh!

Beginning Reading Design
Ashley Colquhoun

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence u = /u/. 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 u. They will learn a meaningful representation (uh uh uh oh!), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence u = /u/.

 

Materials: 

  • Picture 

  • Cover-up critter

  • Whiteboard

  • Letter tiles for each child: u, c, t, h, p, g, b, n, s, I,  

  • List of spelling words on flash cards or whiteboard to read: cub, plum, duck, grub, truck

  • Decodable book “Fun Gum” by Kristin Hall

  • Worksheet

 

  1. Say: In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read other short vowel words with a, e, i, and o like bat, met, pig, and hot. Today we are going to learn about short /u/ made by u. When I say /u/ I think of a when I drop something and say uh oh! (show image). 

  2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /u/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /u/ in words, I hear u = /u/ and my mouth opens slightly straight up, I feel my throat make a rough stop. There is a short u in the word put. Now I’m going to see if it’s in the word pick. Hmm, I didn’t hear any uh uh uh oh. Now you try. If you hear /u/ say “Ahh!” If you don’t hear /u/ say “That’s not it.” Is it in cut, mad, hug, luck, long, punt, scoop? (Have children act like they are disciplining with their finger shaking and saying uh oh when they hear the u sound).

  3. Say: Now let’s look for u=/u/ when it is in a word. Let’s take a moment to show how we write u. We are going to start at the fence and draw down to the sidewalk and then once you hit the sidewalk curve it back up to the fence (demonstrate this by writing it on the board). What if I want to spell the word cut? “Ms. Ashley cut her apple into three pieces.” To spell cut in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /c/ /u/ /t/. I need 3 boxes because uh uh uh oh I have a u sound. I heard the /c/ sound just before the /u/ at the beginning of the word so I’m going to put an c in the first box. Then I heard my uh uh uh oh next, so in the second box I have u. Let’s stretch it out to find what letter we are missing in our last box, /c/ /u/ /t/ (Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /c/ /u/ /t/) The missing one is /t/ which is the letter t.  

  4. Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. We are going to start out easy with just two letterboxes for the word up. I went up the elevator at the mall. 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 will need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box, and then listen for /u/. Here’s the word: pug, The Hart family got a new pug puppy; pug. (allow children to spell words) Okay, it is time to check your work. Watch how I spell pug using my letterboxes on the board. P-u-g, did you spell it the same way? Let’s try another with three boxes: bun. I had a bun with my hamburger; bun. Have a volunteer spell it in the letterboxes on the board in the front of the classroom for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word) Next word. Listen to see if you hear /u/ in the word before you spell it. sit; I like to sit in my desk chair. Did you hear a u? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear u. The next word is hut; Billy lived in a hut. One more than we will be done with spelling. This word is a little harder and it has 4 phonemes, so fold out 4 letterboxes: rust; the knives in the drawer were old and had rust on them. Remember to stretch it out and remember to see if our word is uh uh uh oh. 

  5. Say: Now, I am going to let you read the words you spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. (Display the word rust and model reading the word.) First I see it begins with r, then there is our uh uh uh oh letter u. I’m going to use my cover-up critter to get the first part. (Uncover and blend sequentially the the first consonant and the the vowel) /r/ + /u/= /ru/ Next I’m going to blend that with the next letter /s/. /ru/+/s/= /rus/. Now, all I need is the end, /rus/+/t/=/rust/ rust; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. (Have children read words in unison. Afterwards call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn)

  6. Say: You’ve done a great job of reading words with our spelling for u=/u/. Now we are going to read a book called Fun Gum. This is a story about a little girl and her bubble gum. Something bad happens and she gets her gum stuck in her hair. What do you think will happen to Jill’s hair? Let’s keep reading to find out. (Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Fun Gum aloud together, and stops between pages to discuss the plot and what they think will happen next.) 

  7. Say: That was a fun story. What happened to Jill’s hair? Right, she had to cut it. Who cut the gum out of her hair for her? Right, Jill’s mom cut the gum out of her hair for her. Did Jill end up making friends over her gum? Yes! She made some new pals. Before we finish with our lesson about short u, u=/u/. I want to see how well you can recognize the short u in words you see. On this worksheet, there are some pictures of different things. Your job is to look at all of the pictures, and then color in the letters that spell that word. Then you will write the word on the line. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.)

 


Recourses: 

Melissa Milford, Short O Goes to the Doctor: Say AHHH!: https://mcm0161.wixsite.com/my-site/beginning-reading

 

Kristin Hall, Fun Gum, Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/FunGum.pdf

 

Uh Oh Graphic: https://imgflip.com/gif/20rwai

 

Worksheet link, Live Worksheets: https://www.liveworksheets.com/tq828055am

 

Uh Graphic, Reading genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/materials/phonlet2/

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