top of page
Classic VW Bug

BEEP BEEP!!!

Beginning Reading Design 
By: Madeline Rigdon

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee = /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 recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (car honking “beep beep!”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee = /E/.


Materials: Graphic image of cartoon giraffe driving car and honking; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: e, c, l, k, n, o, p,h, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: cheek, sleep, sweet, knee, freeze, bees; decodable text: Lee Tells Silly Tales and 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 bed, and today we are going to learn about long E and the silent e signal that is used to make ee say its name, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of a funny little car going “BEEP! BEEP!”  [show graphic image].


2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say its name /E/ and my lips make a smile like this. [Make vocal gesture for /E/.] I’ll show you first: sleep. I heard e say its name and I felt my lips make a smile [smile while saying e]. There is a long E in sleep. Now I’m going to see if it’s in slept. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my lips didn’t make a smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say, “BEEP BEEP!.” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in free, rain, pants, teen, mean, lips? [Have children make a smile when they feel /E/ say its name.]


3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with the letter e and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say E’s name. [Write ee on the board.] What if I want to spell the word freeze? “If I freeze the water it will turn to ice.” To freeze is to make things extra icy cold. To spell freeze in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /f//r//E//z/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /z/ so I’m going to put an e in the 3rd box. The word starts with /f/, that’s easy; I need an f. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /f//r//E//z/. I think I heard growling /r/ so I’ll put a r right before the smiling /E/ sound. I have one empty box now, but two letters. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /f//r//E//z/.] After /E/ we first might hear /z/ like a zzzipper! The silent e goes outside of the box /z/.



f

r

E

z



4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for see. There are two different words that sound like c, see like you’re looking and sea like the body of water. We are going to work on see, for example, “Look I see Santa’s reindeer!”. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? 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/. Here’s the word: deep,The swimming pool is deep; deep. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: d – ee – p and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: free; I got a free toy with my Happy Meal. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front 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: neck; Your neck holds up your head. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear e say its name. We spell it with our short vowel e. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: fleece; The coat was made of fleece not wool. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: freezer; If I put water in the freezer it will turn to ice. Remember to stretch it 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 tough word. [Display poster with freezer on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a double e; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. It must say /E/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /f//r/ = /fr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /frE/. Now all I need is the /z/ + /er/ = /frEzer/. Freezer; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]


6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a story called Lee Tells Silly Tales. This is a story of a boy named Lee who tells silly stories of a queen. The queen has a silly adventure with her friends the bees, fleas, and some beans. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Lee Tells Silly Tales to find out what silly tale Lee had that involved such random things! [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 Tells Silly Tales aloud together, and stops between paragraphs to discuss the plot.] 


7. Say: That was a fun story. What was Lee’s tale? Right, he dreamed a queen needed help retrieving her beans. Who did the queen get to help her? Right, the bees and fleas. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell ee = /E/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which ee word fits best to make sense of this very short story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]


Resources: 

https://www.hoodriver.k12.or.us/cms/lib06/OR01000849/Centricity/Domain/1043/Teachers%20Resource%20Book.pdf


Assessment Worksheet: 

https://www.sightwordsgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ee-words.pdf

giraffe graphic: https://www.zazzle.co.uk/beep_beep_cute_giraffe_in_car_cloth_face_mask-256127275926893389

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/insights/

BEEP BEEP!!: Text
bottom of page