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Train Tracks with A!

Beginning Reading Lesson 

By Jessica Campbell 

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Rationale: This lesson will help children recognize long vowel correspondence ai=/A/. This lesson goal will be to establish children's recognition with /a/ within their readings by using the word analogy (train tracks) and the long A sound, and establish the phoneme /a/ within phonetics cues while they are at the emergent level in reading. 

Materials:

  • White board markers 

  • Cover up critter that is a mini train 

  • Cut out train tracks to put on the board 

  • Boxes drawn out or printed to put on the board

  • Magnetic words for the board: a, t, b, r, c, d, e, c, k, s 

  • Vocabulary cards with long A words (EX.RAIN, BRAIN, SAIL, SALE, CAKE, LAKE, FACE, LATE)

  • Use a decodable long a book one for every child 

Procedures: 

  1. Say: Today we are going to learn about the long A sound. We use the sound A in so many of our daily words but now we can help to identify this sound in our reading.

  2. Say: Lets first thing about something that we have probably all seen before either walking or driving in our cars, this might you ask is train tracks. Let’s break it down on why train tracks both have the long A sound. 

  3. Say: Let's look at the spelling of /A/. I am going to write on the board the word tracks and let's see if we can spell it out. As we look at the word let's say it together t/r/a/ck/s. (write tracks spaced out so the kids can see each sound as separate) Now we can try and see how we can break down the word tracks and find long A saying it slowly, using the boxes. Using the five different squares on the board, when do you hear the sound /A/. I think I heard it before the /ck/, so let's put /A/ in box number 3. Now we can begin to find where the other sounds go in the boxes. The word starts with /t/ so that goes in the first box and as we say the next sound /r/ it comes right after the /t/. Now here it’s easy to get tricked up. The 4th box has the sound /ck/which produces a sound together meaning that /ck/ goes in the same box which leaves us with /s/ the fit perfectly in the last box.  

 

t r a ck s

 

  1. Say: Lets try modeling this by using this train that I cut out to help us sound out the word train. I can go first by using my cover up to sound out each letter. Let's start ttt-rrr-AAA-ii-nnn, now from what we just did as we sounded out the word train I believe I heard long A in the third sound of the word train would y’all agree! 

  2. Say: Now I am going to make a long train track on the board and we can have different volunteers come up to the board and use their mini train cover ups and see if they can find the long A sound in each word. Don’t forget when you find a long A sound within each word make sure to underline the sound so the whole class can see how smart and what a good job you did!

  3. Say: You have all done such a great job with learning how to spell ai=/A/. We are all going to get a decodable book called Jake and Gail Go to Spain that we are going to read. This story is about Jake the Snake and Gail the Snail that lived in Maine and wanted to go on a trip. The pair couldn’t decide on how to go on the trip until they both agreed on a big ship. The two are now on their way and we are going to have to continue to read to find out what happens next. 

  4. Say: That book was just so fun to read and find out how their travels ended and the great way to end the book. To wrap up our lesson for today, we are going to practice the Grapheme ai that has the phoneme long A as seen in one of our words today, train. On our worksheet it will have several words like train that we can work through to serif we can grasp long A. 

References: 

Worksheet: “Long Vowels: Long a in Train | Worksheet | Education.com.” Www.education.com, www.education.com/worksheet/article/learning-long-vowels-a-train/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.

 

Book: Charles, Robert. (2002) Jake and Gail Go to Spain. www.readinga-Z.com, 1point3.weebly.com/uploads/6/0/1/8/60184271/jakeandgailgotospain_clr.pdf. Accessed 11 Oct. 2021. 

 

DiGilio, Anna. “Guided Reading Lesson Plans Made Simple.” Guided Readers, 1 Feb. 2020, guidedreaders.com/guided-reading/guided-reading-lesson-plans-made-simple/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.

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