BOO! I see You and OO!

Beginning Reading Design

RATIONALE

This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence oo = /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 containing the spelling oo. They will learn a meaningful representation (a little ghost with two o’s for eyes saying “Boo! I see you!”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence 00 = /U/.

MATERIALS

Gif or still image of ghost saying “Boo!”
cover-up critter
whiteboard or smartboard letter boxes for modeling and individual letterboxes for each student
letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: l, o, k, m, n, s, p, b, h, d, u, r
list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: look, mood, noon, spoon, bamboo, mushroom
decodable text Goose the Moose is Loose, and printed assessment worksheets.

Procedures: [1] Say: In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We need to know what sound letters make by themselves, but we also need to know what sound letters make when they are combined, like oo. We already learned our yaaawning o... Now we are going to learn oo, /U/. Think about a spooooky ghost going “Boo!” when they see you. Let’s try it: let’s say “oooo” and wiggle our fingers as if we’re trying to spook someone.

[2] Say: We need to learn how to make the sound before we can use it. When we say “oo” our lips make a little o as if we’re saying “oooo” like a spoooky ghost... Now, let’s see if we can figure out which words have /U/ in them, based on what we feel our mouth do. So if you hear /U/ say “Boo!”, but if you don’t hear /U/ say “No ghost”: Book, Bot, Wood, Back, Good, Snow, Catch, Hook, Zoo.

[3] Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /U/. One way to spell /U/ is with two o’s right next to each other. So, what if I want to spell the word look? “I did not look at the box.” Look in this sentence means to see something. If I want to spell look using letter boxes I need to know how many phonemes there are. So I will stretch it out and count: /l//oo//k/. I hear three phonemes in the word look, which means I need three boxes. We hear /oo/ in the middle so we'll go ahead and put down our spooky oo in the middle box. We heard /l/ at the beginning so we will put an l in the first box. And finally we heard /k/ at the end, so we will put our k in the last box. Look at that! We have just put “look” into a letterbox. Our letter box should look like this: l - oo - k

[4] Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in the letterboxes. Let’s start out easy with three boxes for “mood”. A mood is a type of feeling. Let’s use it in a sentence, “I’m always in a happy mood when I see puppies”. What letter do you think goes in the first box? [Respond to their answer.] What about the second box, what do you think goes there? [Respond to their answer.] And finally, what goes in the last box? [Respond to their final answer.] The next word is going to use three boxes as well. The word is “noon”. When someone says noon, they mean 12 o’clock in the day. Let’s each do this one on our own then compare our answers. [Allow time for child to spell the word]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell noon in my letterboxes: n – oo – n and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Let’s try one more, but this time let’s do a word that has four phonemes. The word is “spoon”, “I need a spoon, not a fork”. We are going to do one more word. This one has five phonemes, so you will need five boxes. The word is “bamboo”, “The panda loves to eat bamboo”. This is a bigger word, so stretch out each sound to help you put it into the letterboxes.

[5] Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how to read a tough word. [Display poster with “mushroom” on the top and model reading the word]. First, I see our spooooky oo, so I know we’ll say oo in this word. Let’s use our cover up critters to read the word together. There’s our yummy m: mmm, /m/, caveman u: uhhh, /u/, shhh, the baby is sleeping, /sh, mmmuuushhh, rrrr, our revving motorcycle, /r/, spooooky oo, /U/, and one more yummy m, /m/. Mmmuuushhhrrroooomm. Mushroom!

[6] Say: You have done such a great job reading words with our new spelling oo = /U/. The next thing we are going to do is read a book called Goose the Moose is Loose by Stephanie Marie Blunt. In this story, Goose the Moose has gotten loose---Oh No! Goose goes on a wild adventure but soon makes a big discovery. I wonder what he finds … Let’s pair up to read the story and find out. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Goose the Moose is Loose aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

[7] Say: Goose is quite the Moose huh! Now that we have learned about spooky oo, /U/, let’s do a worksheet to show what we learned. You are going to write the word that goes with the picture. After you finish, compare your work with a partner, then we will all go over it together.

References

Gerri Murray---Oh, I didn’t know!: A Beginning Reading Lesson

https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/beginning-reading

Elizabeth Welch---Shhh! The Baby is Sleeping!: A Beginning Reading Lesson

https://elizabethkatewelch.wixsite.com/my-site-2/beginning-reading-design

Assessment Worksheet: