• The Letterlanders, like Annie Apple here, have some neat tricks that help us read and spell the thousands of words we need to know. And these tricks are sort of secret. Only people who know about Letterland can understand how to use all the Letterland tricks. But these are secrets worth sharing – which is why I am going to tell you one of them right now.
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Vowel Scene Poster: Short & Long Vowels
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Ww w w ĭ ĭ ĭ ĭ ĭ n n n n n
• The Sound Trick Ăăănnnieee Ăăăpllle
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ăăăă
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• Try each vowel between the p and t. Children finger tap the word and decide if it is real or nonsense.
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First let’s try the Rubber Band Trick. Let’s put our palms together in front of us and pretend that we have an invisible rubber band around our hands. It is a strong rubber band so we pull our hands apart slowly until we have the rubber band stretched out about as wide as our bodies. Then we have to use our strong muscles to bring our hands back together slowly without making a sound. Guide children in stretching their imaginary rubber band a few times. Now, as we stretch our rubber band with our hands we can stretch out words with our voices. We call it ‘slow speaking.’ Let’s slow speak the word win, like you win a game. “Wwwwĭ ĭ ĭ ĭnnnnnn.” Have children slow speak win a few times as you walk about listening to hear if they are all actually stretching out each sound in the word. (Note: the word win is used here because all three sounds can be prolonged. While all vowels can be prolonged, stop sounds such as /d/, /b/, and /t/ cannot, so for example, in slow speaking a word such as bat only the a can be stretched: băăăăt. See more about sound pronunciation on page 267.) We can slow speak any word including our own names, too. Guide children in slow speaking the names of some children in the class (e.g. Andrea: “Aaaannndrrreeeaaaa.”). The result may sound like a parent calling to a child to come home from playing outside. You might let children pair up and quietly stretch each other’s names. We can also stretch the Letterlander’s names. When we want to remember Annie Apple’s sound, or any other Letterlander’s sound, all we have to do is slow speak and then start to say it again but just say the first sound like this, Aăăănnnieee Aăăăpllllle, ăăă. Repeat this with the children a few times. That’s called ‘the Sound Trick’ (p.254). It helps us remember Annie Apple’s sound. It also works with any of the other Letterlanders. You just say the name and then you START to say it again, but STOP with the first sound. Now tell your neighbor how you do the Sound Trick. Let’s do the Sound Trick to help us remember what sounds these other Vowels make in words. Guide the children in doing the Sound Trick with Eddy Elephant. Then let individual children try demonstrating the Sound Trick with the other three vowel sounds. Each time after a child demonstrates the trick, have everyone repeat it to keep them all involved. Now, let’s practice our vowel sounds. Pick up the Annie Apple card showing the plain letter side, push the card forward several times and have the children say the sound each time. You can make a little game of it by having children sustain the vowel sound as long as you have the letter pushed forward (“ăăăăăăăăă”). They become silent as you pull it back. Push it forward for varying intervals so children will sound something like this: “ăăăăă, ăăă, ăăăăă, ă, ăăăăăă, ă”. Follow these same steps with each of the five vowels. Display the picture sides of the PCCs for t and p on the pocket chart. We have met all the important Vowels. Now, do you know what all the other letters in the alphabet are called? Yes, they are consonants. That can be a hard word to say, so let’s practice saying it a few times. (Model the pronunciation by syllables, if needed, i.e. con-suh-nunts.) Briefly introduce Peter Puppy and Talking Tess and have children discover or ‘rediscover’ their sounds using the Sound Trick.
Unit A : For children new to Letterland
19/06/2015 09:37