Moo with Cooper the Cow
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence /oo/=oo. To be able to read, children must learn to recognize that letters represent phonemes. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling /oo/. They will learn a meaningful representation (cow saying “moo”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence /oo/=oo.
Materials: Image of a cow saying “moo”; cover-up slip; dry-erase board or Smart Board; letterbox boxes for me and each student; letter manipulatives for each student and magnetic letters for teacher to use on a cookie pan or board (b, c, e, g, k, l, o, p, s, t); list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read (cook, book, stool, spook, goose, boo); decodable text: Snoop the Crime Dogand assessment worksheet; pencils (one per student), poster with a tongue twister (“a good cow can moo and moon walk”)
Procedures:
1. Say: Today we are going to learn more about the code of language. We have already learned about short vowels but today we are going to long vowel /oo/. When I think of /oo/ I think of a cow “moo-ing” (show GIF of cow). This is my friend Cooper the Cow and he loves to moo! He will follow us on our learning adventure learning long vowel /oo/. He has always told me that a good cow can moo and moon walk.
2. Say: Before we start to learn more about /oo/, we are going to listen for it in some words that I tell you. When I say /oo/ my lips make a little circle and my tounge touches the bottom of my teeth relaxing behind them. The sound comes from the back of your throat and changes when it moves through your lips. I’ll show you now: moose. Did you see how my lips made a little circle when I created the /oo/ sound? Now I’m going to see if it is in a new word: stop. I didn’t hear the /oo/ sound that is in “moo” and my lips did not make the little circle. Now it’s your turn. If you hear /oo/ go ahead and “moo”. If you don’t hear /oo/ say, “that doesn’t have it”. Is it in boo, coat, dip, spook, loot, top (wait after each word and let the children experiment with it and tell you which words /oo/ is in).
3. Say: Next, we are going to learn the spelling of /oo/. One way to use /oo/ is in the word spook (write spook on the board) as in, “my friend had a spook from a bug”. It means that someone’s friend was scared in this sentence. To spell “spook” in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes are in it. I’m going to say the word slowly and count the many different phonemes in it: /s/ /p/ /oo/ /k/. There were four different phonemes so we will need four letterboxes. The first phoneme we had was /s/ so it will go in our first letterbox. Then /p/ goes in our second letterbox because it was the second sound we heard. Next, we heard our /oo/ sound that we have been learning so we put both of our letter o’s in the same box. Last, we put /k/ in our last letterbox because it is the last sound we heard. Now let’s look at the word “spook” again (say “spook” slowly and point to each phoneme as you say it).
4. Say: Now I’m going to let you spell some words by yourselves in your own letterboxes. Our first word is “boo” as in, “the ghost said boo”. Make sure you have two letterboxes and go ahead and try it on your own and I will come around and answer questions as you have them (answer children’s questions about where the phonemes need to go as the have them after children are done demonstrate the word “boo” in your teacher letterboxes for all the children to see). For the next word, you’ll need three letter boxes again. Our next word is book and for this word you will need three letterboxes. Go ahead and spell it on your own and I’ll show you how to spell it after you try (shows them b-oo-k after they try and you check). Next, we have the word stool, as in, “I sat on the stool” (have a volunteer come to the board, after the children attempt the word, to show the group the correct way). (Complete this with the rest of your list of words letting students demonstrate the correct way for each word in the letterboxes).
5. Say: Now I’m going to show you how I read a tough word that we worked on (show children your cookie sheet/pan with magnetic letters on it with word goose). First you see the “oo” after the “g” in goose. I’m going to use my cover-up to help me get the word correct (cover everything besides the “g” and say /g/ and slowly repeat the process with the next several letters unveiling the word blending the sounds as you go) /g/+/oo/+/se/=goose. Now it’s your turn (have children try with words that they originally worked with and then a new word with teacher checking as students do so).
6. Say: You’ve done a great job learning about the spelling for /oo/. Now we will read a story called Snoop the Crime Dogwhich is about a dog named Snoop who solves crime under a big moon in the woods. Let’s read this together so we can figure out what the crime is that Snoop is trying to solve and as we read we will point out the words with /oo/. After, I will give you a worksheet to complete about our /oo/ sound that we just learned (collect students’ worksheets when done to monitor progress).
References
Murray, G., ’t know!: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/murraybr.htm
Assessment worksheet (): https://www.themeasuredmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/oowkshtpack-2.pdf
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