John Hears a Bee in his Ear

Katie Oliver

 

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondences ee = /E/ and ea = /E. 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 spell, recognize and read words containing the spellings ee and ea. They will learn a meaningful representation (John Hears a Bee in his Ear), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, as well as read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondences ee = /E/ and ea = /E/.

 

 

Materials:

• Graphic image of "John Hears a Bee in his Ear"

• Cover-up critter

• Letterboxes

• Letterbox letters: e, a, t, d, r, h, f, l, b, m, s, c, r, k, n

• List of spelling words on paper to read: eat, let, bed, deer, besd, feel, beam, seen, creak, screech

• Decodable text: Lee and the Team

• Assessment worksheet

 

 

Procedures:

1. Say: In order 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 e, like bet, and today we are going to learn about long E and the different ways we spell words to make the long E sound, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of a boy named John who hears a bee in his ear [show graphic image].

 

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say its name /E/ and my mouth turns into a smile [make vocal gesture for /E/]. I’ll show you first: deer. I heard e say its name and I felt my mouth make a smile [point to the corners of your mouth]. There is a long E in deer. Now I’m going to see if it’s in dog. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my mouth didn’t make a smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say “John hears a bee in his ear.” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in meat, set, leaf, tree, bed, or heat? [Have children point to the corners of their smiling mouth when they feel /E/ say its name].

 

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spellings of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One-way to spell /E/ is with two e’s together, ee. Another way to spell it is with an e and an a next to each other, ea. [Write ee and ea on the paper]. Since both spellings sound the same, you’ll have to work hard to remember when to use each of them when you’re spelling words. What if I want to spell the word feel? “I feel a bug on my arm.” Feel is one of our five senses, and tells us something is touching us or we’re touching something. To spell feel in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /f//E//l/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /l/ so I’m going to put two ee’s in the 2nd box. The word starts with /f/, that’s easy; I need an f. Now I still need to figure out the ending, so I’m going to say it slowly, /f//E//l/. I think I heard /l/ so I’ll put an l right after the ee’s. Let’s put all of our phonemes together. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /f//E//l/.] Sounds like feel to me!

 

 

 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for eat. For example, “I like to eat ice cream.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? Did you remember the right spelling of the /E/ sound we use in this word? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress]. You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /E/ and make sure to use the right spelling of the /E/ sound. Here’s the word: deer, “We saw a deer in the woods.” [Allow children to spell word]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the piece of paper: d—e—e—r, and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: creak; “My footsteps make the floor creak.” [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front white board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /E/ in it before you spell it: let; my teacher let me get in line first.” Did you hear our /E/ sound? That’s right, we didn't. We spell it with our short vowel e. [Volunteer spells it on front white board.] Now let’s try: screech; “I heard an owl screech in the barn.” Remember to stretch the word out to get this tough word.

 

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 word. [Display poster with feel on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there’s two e’s in the middle of the word; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel e. It must say /E/. I’m going to use a cover-up critter to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /f/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /fE/. Now all I need is the end, /l/ = /fEl/. Feel; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

 

6. Say: You’ve done a great job at reading words with our new spellings for /E/: ee and ea. Now we are going to read a book called Lee and the Team. Have you ever been on a baseball or softball team before? Maybe soccer or basketball? Well, in this book, we meet Lee. He is the coach of a baseball team. Lee and his team have a big game, but they are running late! Let’s read the book to find out if they make it to their game! [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Lee and the Team aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

 

7. Say: That was a fun story. Before we finish up with our lesson about the two ways we can spell /E/ = ee and ea, I want to see how you can solve some reading problems. On this worksheet, we have three words under a picture. Each word describes the picture it is listed under, your job is to circle the word that uses the /E/ sound. Sound out each word, only one word will have a long a sound. Just try your best and always remember the correspondence we have been working on today. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

 

Resources:

Savannah Duke. Katie Bakes a Cake. http://sav4au.wix.com/misssavannahsreading - !about/cjn9

 

Assessment Worksheet: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/phonics/mc/e-long/

 

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