Blending with Frog and Toad
Rationale: To help the students learn to read with understanding and fluency. This lesson will help students apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend selections. Students will read and interpret a variety of literary words. The students will also make predictions about the story and be able to identify blends within the english language. The students will also be able to make their own list of things to do with blends in the words.
Materials: A copy of the book Frog and Toad Together for teacher and one for every group of four students; a poster board showing Toads list of things to do; big flash cards with the blends st, sk, sl, bl, br, pl, cl, cr, gl, gr, pr, tr, fr, dr, fl, sm, sn, sw, sp, sc, str and more on each one; worksheet titled “Things to do Today” for each student
Procedures: 1. Explain that they are going to read Frog and Toad Together and learn about blends. Introduce the topic by saying that, “a blend is a combination of letters that represents a distinct sound”. Give the students a few examples of blends like fr for frog or friends. Get the students to think about if they have a blend in their name and write on the board all of the names that do and what blend they have. The teacher can also make some physical examples or act out blending words. The teacher can ask the class while clapping, “what am I doing?” The class will answer, “clapping”, and the teacher can explain cl as the blend in that word. The teacher can also take a step for st, cry for cr and swim for sw.
2. Ask students if they have ever forgotten to do something one day. Tell the students that they are going to read a story about someone who made a list of things to do throughout their day so they wouldn’t forget. Then introduce the story and ask them, “what will the story be about from the title?”. Get some feedback from the students and have them make predictions about the story.
3. Have the students read aloud the story in a round robin fashion. This can help with fluency where the teacher can hear them reading and also time them to keep up with how long they read. The teacher can assess how fluent the students read aloud and if they are understanding it at the same time by asking questions. Throughout the book the teacher will ask questions about the story: What are some things Toad will have to do?, What can Toad now cross out on his list?, What are some things on Toads list?, Did Toad do things that you or I might do?, Do we have a list of things to do in our classroom?
4. The teacher needs to have the students break up into groups of four or five. Each group will have a copy of the book Frog and Toad Together. The flash cards with the blends on them will be divided and distributed equally to each group. Each group will have to go back through the book and find words with those blends. The groups will then present the words to the class, the blends will be identified, and a word wall will be made for words with blends. The students need to add words to the list as well that are not in the book. They need to sound out the blends and recognize whether the blend is in the beginning, middle or end of the word.
5. The teacher will then go over the poster board with the list of things on it and talk about it with the students. They will identify all of the words with blends in there too. Then the students will make their own list of things to do for a day. The students can use blending words from the word wall or new ones in their lists.
Assessment: The students will turn in there lists and the teacher will make sure they labeled all of the blending words. The students can also be shown more words that have and do not have blends. The students have to identify whether they have blends or not. Also, the teacher will use the students timed reading records to see how fluent they are.
References: Eldredge, Lloyd J. Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Prentice Hall Inc. c. 1995. p. 191-194.
Rettke, Jamie. www.lessonplanspage.com/LAfrogAndToadIdentifyingBlends13.htm.
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