Miss Jess
Abe the ape ate all the cake!
By Jesslyn Cochran
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 (picture of ape eating cake), 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 = /O/.
Materials:
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Graphic image of ape eating cake;
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cover-up critter
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whiteboard or smartboard
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Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student
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letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, p, e, c, n, l, t, k, j
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List of spelling words on a poster that read: ape, cane, late, cat, cake, Jake, plane.
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Decodable book: The Race for Cake
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Assessment worksheet on Long A
Procedures:
1. Say: To become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to
pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a, like cat, 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 Abe the ape eating 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 open and spread apart like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/] My mouth does not touch when saying /A/. Watch my mouth as I say the word plane. There is a long A in plane. Now I’m going to see if it’s in the word cap. Hmm, I did not hear A say its name and my lips did not make the same move that they made when we said plane. Now, it’s your turn to try! If you hear a word with /A/ say “Abe ate the cake!” If you don’t hear /A/ say “Next word!” Do you hear /A/ in lamp, tame, ran, wake, game? [Children will listen for the vowel correspondence in the listed words.]
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 silent 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 snake? “The snake slithered down the tree.” To spell snake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s//n//A//k/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd box and the silent e signal outside the last 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//n//A//k/. I think I heard /n/ so I’ll put a n right after the s. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//n//A//k/.] The missing one is /k/ = k. Now we must add our silent e outside of the letter boxes. [Points to the letters in the boxes while stretching out the word cape]
4. Say: Now it is your turn to spell some words in letterboxes. [Hands out individual Elkonin boxes and letters to each student]. You will start out easy with just two letterboxes for the word ape. “I saw an ape while I was at the zoo.” What should go in the first box? [Listen for student’s answers]. Now what goes in the second box? Now where do we put the silent e? [Walk around the room to check everyone’s spellings]. For the next five words, we will need three boxes! I want you to listen for the beginning sound in each word. Then listen for the /A/ sound and let’s remember to put the silent e outside of the boxes. Let’s spell the word cane. “The old man has to walk with a cane”. [Allow children to spell words as I walk around the classroom to observe their spellings, then demonstrate on the board the correct way, repeat this step with the next word]. Now let’s try the word late. “I was late to school because I forgot my backpack!” [Repeat previously mentioned step]. The next word is cat. “My cat, Tom, likes to sleep all day long.” Be careful with this word. Do we hear the long /A/ in cat? [Wait for children to respond] Very good! I like how you guys spelled cat and remembered that it has the short /a/ vowel. The next word is cake. “Abe the ape ate all the cake.” [This time let a volunteer come spell the word on the overhead using my letterboxes]. The next word is Jake. “My brothers name is Jake.” [Repeat step with a new student coming up to volunteer]. For our last word we need four letter boxes. Our last word is plane. “The plane flew around in circles” [Repeat step with a new student coming up to volunteer]. Very good class! We now know how to spell words with long /A/! You guys did great!!
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 plane 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.] /p//l/ = /pl/ /. Now I’m going
to blend that with /A/ = /plA/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /plAn/. Plane; 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 The Race for the Cake. This story is about brothers named Ben and Jess. They were swimming when they smelled their mom baking a cake! They ran and ran, along with their dog Lad, to get the cake. However, along the way, something unexpected happens that may risk them being able to eat the cake! Will they be able to eat it? We must read to find out. Let’s pair up and read this book. [Students get in pairs to read book. I will walk around and observe the students. After everyone has read the book, I will read it aloud to the whole class and stop between pages to discuss what is happening.
7. Say: That was a good story! Did Ben and Jess get to eat the cake? No, that’s right, but Lad sure did enjoy it! Before we finish our lesson, I want to pass out a worksheet. On this worksheet there are pictures with words under them. I want you to go through this worksheet and color all the pictures that make the long /A/ sound by using a_e. [Collect worksheets to see the child’s progress].
Resources:
Murray, G. (2006) The Race for Cake. Reading Genie. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Assessment Worksheet: http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/ws/phonics/vowels/Long_Vowel_Aa_Book_1.4.pdf
Abe the ape ate all the cake picture representation:
