Rationale:

This lesson teaches children about the short vowel 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 with u.  They will learn an easily memorable representation that goes along with the u.  They will spell and read words containing this spelling in the letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence u=/u/.

 

Materials:

-Graphic image of a caveman saying uhhh

-The Mutt and the Bug

-picture of upper/lower case u

-tongue tickler

-primary paper for letter u practice and assessment

-short u worksheet assessment

-Elkonin boxes and baggy of letter tiles for each student (b, u, m, c, t, s, a)

-Elkonin boxes on PowerPoint slide.

 

Procedures:

Say:  In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words.  We have already gone over our a, e, i, o and now we are on u.  Today we are going to learn about short u and the caveman picture will help us with this.

 

The letter u makes the sound uhhh. When I think of the /u/ sound, I picture a caveman scratching his head as if they he was confused and does not understand something. Look at the picture of the caveman scratching his head with a confused look on his face (I will have a print out of this). This picture can help us remember the /u/ sound. Practice that sound with me uhhhh. Now lets try, let’s all be a caveman and say uhhhhh

 

 Next say, "As we do this, think about how your mouth moves when you make the /u/ sound. When we say /u/ is our mouth opened or closed? That’s right they are open and our tongues are down in a spoon shape, and we are making the uhhh sound from the back of our throats."

 

 Then say, "Let me show you how to find the /u/ in jump. I am going to stretch the word out and listen for the /u/ sound. Jjj-uuu-mmm-pp. I'm going to say it again slower, jjjj-uuuuuu-mmm-pp. Both times I felt my mouth open, my tongue made a spoon, and I made the sound from the back of my throat. 'He might jump over the fence.'"

 

 "Lets review how you write the letter u. To begin we start with our pencil at the fence, and we go down into the ditch and swoop back up to the fence again. (Give primary paper for them to practice writing u). Practice writing your u's on this page. Good job!"

 

 "Here is a tongue tickler (show on board) with the /u/ sound in it. "Uncle was upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up". Let's read that together and find where we hear uuuuhh. Stretch out the /u/ sounds as we read them. Good job friends!"

 

"As we say it again together I want you to go very slowly and separate each part of the words. When you hear the /u/ sound, raise your hand. Then we can review where we hear the u!"

 

Letterbox Lesson: Have Elkonin boxes on a overhead for the children to see. Pass out letterboxes for each student and a baggy of tiles with the letter they need. Now say, "We are going to practice spelling words with the /u/ sound. Look at the board and see that there are three spaces for three mouth spaces. I am going to model how to spell rub. The /r/ goes in the first box, the /u/ sound goes in the second box and the /b/ goes in the third. Now practice spelling out with these words: bum, cut, and sat." Have the children talk with their friends around them about their answers.  I can also write the answers on the overhead as we go over it as a class.

 

Teacher puts the words dump, strum, shut, bug, and gum on the overhead board. Says: "Now lets read these words to see if we hear the /u/ sound and feel our tongue make a spoon as we say them. We are going to stretch the words out like we did earlier to see if we hear /u/. I will go first. Dddd-uuuu-mmmm-ppp. D-u-m-p. I hear the /u/ sound in the middle. Say it with me and see if you hear the /u/ sound. Good! Now let's test the next word." Go through all words.

 

Say: "Now we are going to read a book called The Mutt and the Bug. This is a story about a mutt and a bug. The mutt sits down and a bug jumps on him.  The mutt gets upset.  We’ll have to read to find out what the mutt will do.  (Read story and emphasize the phoneme /u/.)  After we read it, ask students a comprehension question such as: What did the mutt do after he saw that the bug was on him?

 

Give each student the assessment worksheet for short u to assess their individual knowledge of the vowel.  They will circle the /u/ words from the list and write them in alphabetical order. 

 

Resources:

Picture of Caveman: Amanda Earnest found on reading genie site--http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/phonlet2.html

Whole text: The Mutt and the Bug

Tongue Tickler:  Making Sight Words

Lesson Reference: Haley Barnes, Uhhhh… I don't understand?

http://www.auburn.edu/~hlb0006/barnesbr.htm

Assessment worksheet:  Assessment Worksheet:

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics/short-u-abc_UUUUU.pdf

 

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