The Baby Cries, "Aaaaaa!" by Macy Gann

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a=/a/. In order to be able to read, beginning readers must learn to recognize the  spellings that map word pronunciations. This lesson will teach children to recognize, spell, and read words containing the correspondence a=/a/. They will learn a meaningful representation that will help them remember the correspondence a=/a/. This representation includes a picture of a minion (character from a famous children’s movie called “Despicable Me”) screaming “Aaaaaa, I’m scared!” They will spell and read words containing the correspondence a=/a/ through a letterbox lesson. Then, children will read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a=/a/. 

Materials: -Graphic image of a minion saying “Aaaaaa I’m scared!”

- Cover-up critter

- Whiteboard/smartboard boxes for modeling

- Individual Elkonin boxes for each student

- Letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for each teacher: a, t, b, s, c, g, m, d, k, h, n, l

- List of spelling words on posters or whiteboard to read: cat, ask, flag, mad, dad, bag; decodable text: “Lad and His Pals”

- Assessment worksheet

Procedures: 

1. Teacher says: “In order to become expert readers, we need to be able to learn the sounds that letters make, so we can know how to pronounce words.  Every single letter in the alphabet has its own sound, and our mouths move in a different way to make that sound. Today we are going to learn all about the letter “a”, and learn the sound “a” makes. The letter “a” makes the sound /a/. When I say /a/, I want you to think of a sad baby. When you see the baby, think about it crying ‘Aaaaaa!’ because that’s what a baby cries when it is tired.. Have you ever seen a baby crying /a/?” Make crying hand movements in front of your eyes. 

2. Teacher says: Before we learn about the spelling of /a/, we need to listen for /a/ in some words. When I listen for /a/ in words, a say its sound /a/ and my mouth opens while my tongue rests at the bottom of my mouth.  I’ll show you first: cat.  I hear a and felt my mouth open wide and a say its name. There was a short a in cat! Now, I’m going to see if it is in the word pit Hmmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t open wide. Now you try. If you hear a say /a/ say, “Aaaaa, the baby is sad!” If you don’t hear /a/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in at? Snap? Rain? Home? Lips? Nose?” Have students then make the /a/ sound with their mouths when they hear the /a/ sound in a word.

3. Teacher says: “Now we are going to look at the spelling of /a/. When spelling /a/, you use the letter a.” Write “a” on the board. “Let’s work on spelling the  word sad, as if you are upset like a baby. To spell sad, first we need to find out how many phonemes I have in the word. Let’s stretch it out and count: /s/ /a/ /d/. Sad. I need 3 boxes. First, I heard ‘ssss’ so we need an s, then we heard /a/ like the crying baby, and then we heard /d/ at the end. Now I am going to show you how to read a tough word. Show students the word crab on a sheet of paper. I am going to start with the letter tile a, which makes our /a/ sound. Now im going to put the beginning letters with it: c-r-a, /cra/. Now I will put that chunk together with the last sound. /cra-b/. Oh, crab as in, “I stepped on a crab at the beach.” 

4. Teacher says: Now, I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. We will start out easy with three boxes for: bag. This is like, “I need to put my groceries in the bag.” What should go in the first box?” (Allow children to respond with their answers). “Then what would go in the second and third box? I will walk around the room and check spelling.” (Walk around the room and observe their progress.) “For the next word, you will need three letterboxes again.”  Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box, then listen for /a/ and move your mouth if you need to. The word is cab. For example, we took the cab in New York City.” (Allow students to spell words). “Let’s check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c-a-b, and see if you spelled it the same way. Now, let’s try a word with 4 boxes: Fast. I ran very fast to win the race. I want a volunteer to come spell this word for me on the board.” (Choose someone who is raising their hand to spell fast in the letterbox on the front board, and have the children check his/her work. Repeat this step for each new word.) “Let’s do another 4-box word: glad. For example, I was glad when Auburn won the game.” (Allow student to come up and show their work). Let’s finish with a challenge! We will need 5 boxes for the word scratch. The dog loves a good back scratch.” (Stretch this word out because there is a ch at the end, which means the ch will go in the last box together, since it makes one sound /ch/.)

5. Teacher says: “Now, I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. First, I’ll show you what I would do to read a tough word.” (Demonstrate on the board a modeling of the word with scrap on it.) “There is our vowel a! It must say /a/. I’m going to use a cover-up critter to get the first part.” (Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.) “/S//C/ = /sc/ + /r/ = /scr/, Now I’m going to blend with /a/ = /scrA/. Now all I need is the ending, /p/ = /scrAp/. Scrap; that’s it! Now it’s your turn, let’s read it together.” (Have students read words in unison. Afterwards, call on students individually to read one word on the list, until everyone has had a turn to do so.)

6. Teacher says: “You’ve done an amazing job at reading words with our new spelling for /a/: a. Now, we are going to read a book called Lad and the Fat Cat. This is a story of a dog named Lad who wants to take a nap. However, there is someone already on his nap mat. Will his growls convince her to find her own nap map? Let’s pair up and take turns reading Lad and the Fat Cat to find out if Lad gets to take a nap on his mat.” (Allow for children to pair up and take turns reading pages to each other, while the teacher walks around monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class will reread Lad and the Fat Cat out loud together. We will stop between each page to turn and discuss the plot. 

7. Teacher says: “Wow, what a great story! Who was on Lad’s mat? That’s right, it was Scat the cat! How did that make Lad feel? Right, it made Lad feel mad. Did Lad get to take his nap? Right, he did! He even took it with Scat. Before we finish up our lesson, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. I want you to look at the missing letters on this worksheet, and figure out what letters will make the word a short /a/ word. Use the pictures to help you, then read the words to yourself after the letters are written.” (Collect worksheets to evaluate each child’s progress.)

Resources:

Olivia Bolton, Crying Baby Says “Aaaaaa": https://ojb0003.wixsite.com/mysite-2/beginning-reading. 

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Murray, B., & Murray, G. (2019). Lad and the Fat Cat. Geniebooks. 

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​​Short a CVC words writing worksheet. Made By Teachers. (2021, October 12). Retrieved October 12, 2021, from https://www.madebyteachers.com/products/short-cvc-words-writing-worksheet/.

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