Bake a Cake with Kate
A Beginning Reading Lesson
By Emma Billingsley
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. 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 a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (a friend baking) they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e = /A/.
Materials: Graphic image of a friend baking cake; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, e, t, p, m, k, c, r, l, g; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: tape, make, crate, lake, age, ace, cage; decodable text: Jane and Babe.pdf and assessment worksheet: https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/47217496083015658/
Procedures: 1. Say: In order to become a great reader, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce different words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a, like tap, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of my friend Kate baking a cake! (show graphic image)
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and my lips are apart. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: lake. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips apart [make a hand gesture for opening mouth]. There is a long A in lake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in meat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t make that round little a. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Bake a Cake with Kate.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in boat, cage poke, tape, age? [Have children make the hand gesture for opening their mouth when they hear /A/]
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write a_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word crate? “If I put the puppy in the crate, he will go to sleep.”. Crate means cage in this sentence. To spell crate in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /c//r//A//t/ . I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /t/ so I’m going to put an t in the 4th box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /c/, that’s easy; I need an c. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /c//r//A//t/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put an r right after c. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word] The missing one is /t/ = t.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for age. Age is how old someone is., “My cat will be 9 years of age!” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: make, I will make cake today; make. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: m – a – k– e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: bake; I’m going to bake cookies. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: cap; my brother wears a baseball cap. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: lake; we go swimming in the lake. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: brake; To slow down, we use the brake. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with stroke on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a silent e on the end; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel a. It must say /A/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /c/+/r/ = /cr/ /. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /crA/. Now all I need is the end, /t/ = /crAt/. Crate; 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 and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This is a story of a lion named Babe who has a zookeeper named Jane. Jane takes care of Babe and gets to wake him up from his nap and play. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jane and Babe to find out what they play [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Jane and Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What did Jane and Babe do together? Right, they race each other. What did Jane do to wake up Babe? Right, she said his name. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see if you know can spot the /A/ in words. On this worksheet, you will find the words that have a say it’s name. First read the word and see if you can hear /A/, then check your answers. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Murray, G. ( 2004) Jane and Babe Reading Genie : file:///Users/emmabillingsey/Downloads/Jane%20and%20Babe.pdf
Assessment worksheet: https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/47217496083015658/