Uhhhhh I'm not sure???


Kristina Goodwin


In order for our students to become amazing readers we must teach them the sounds of the each letter. Once they know these sounds they will be able to recognize them when reading; thus, making them successful readers. In this lesson I will be teaching the u=/u/. The students will understand recognize and understand the letter. Also, they will have many tasks to perform to better help them practice the written and spoken words containing u=/u/.


 *         Cards with words: run, tug, cub, slap, neck, sack, pick, skunk, and bump.

 *         Primary paper and pencils for each student.

 *         Poster containing a tongue twister:  Uncle Bubba bumped his umbrella up.

 *         Letter box lesson: r, u, n, t, g, c, s, l, p, n, e, k, a, b, and m.

 *         Pictures for assessment:

 *         Fuzz and Buzz: one copy for each pair of students.


1.      I will review the previous letters and sounds we have learned. Then I will introduce the correspondence u=/u/. I will explain and tell the students the sound that the /u/ makes. This letter says /u/. To make this sound you will open your mouth making sure to keep your tongue still and say /u/.  Pretend as if you do not know the answer to a question. You are thinking and you say /u/. To help us make our sound, we are going to pretend as if we do not know the answer to a question. Let us pretend to think hard and scratch our heads. Let me see everyone say /u/ and scratch your head. Good Job!'Next I will help the students find the letter in words. 

2.      Next we will practice finding the letter u in written words. I will hold up words and together we will find which word makes the /u/ sound. For example: 'Do you hear /u/ in b-u-m-p or s-t-a-m-p? I hear /u/ in bump. Now I want you to try but remember when you hear the sound /u/ to scratch your head.

3.      Then pass out the primary paper and pencils (each student should receive 1 piece of paper and 1 pencil). 'First we are going to practice writing u. We will start at the fence, go down to the sidewalk, and curve back up to the fence and then a straight line down from the fence to the sidewalk. Remember we do not pick up our pencils. Now let's try a few.' Have student practice a line of u. 'Now, I want everyone to write me a message about a bug they do not like.'

4.      Next we will practice a tongue twister. I will say the tongue twister one time through, then I will have the students say each word after me. Then we will review the tongue twister many times before we put the whole thing together. Then I put the poster up with the tongue twister on it. 'Now we are going to practice our tongue twister. Make sure to keep your eyes on the board so you know what we are saying.'  First I will say the tongue twister then we will say it together. Uncle Bubba bumped his umbrella up.  'Ok now repeat after me.' Have the students repeat the tongue twister.  'Now this time when we read we are going to stretch out the /u/ when we hear it in a word. UUUUncle Buuuubba buuumped his uuumbrella uuup.

5.      Now we will begin the letter box lesson. I will draw boxes on the board. I will also provide students with paper boxes and letters to make the words we will spell as a class (make sure to give only lower case letters). First I will explain the lesson and then model the lesson for the students. 'Now we are going to spell some words that have the /u/ sound in them.  I have twp boxes up here so this means we are spelling words with two sounds. The first word we will spell is upon. What sound do we hear first? That is right. We hear /u/. That means we will place u in the first box. What sound do we hear next in up? That is right we hear /p/ so we will put our p in the second box. Next we hear /o/ and /n/. Now let's add them all together u-p-o-n. Good job! Now we are going to do one more as a class. The new word is stump. What sound do we hear first? That's right we hear /s/.  We will finish spelling stump as a class. 'Now I am going to say some words and I want to you practice putting the different sounds in the boxes.' I will continue saying words, sounding them out and placing letters in the boxes. After each word, the students will wait and we will go over each word. After will practice with 3 phoneme words, 4 phoneme words and 5 phoneme words. Words listed below, review words included: 3-- [run, tug, cub] 4--[slap, neck, sack, pick] 5--[ skunk, and bump].

6.      Next we will use these cards and practice reading some words. This word is pump. Start with /p/, and then add the /u/. Now put both sounds together /pu/. Now let's add the last sounds. What do you hear next? Right we hear /m/. What's the last sound you hear? That's right /p/. Now let's put the whole word together.... Fish the cards with the class.

7.      Now students will be placed into pairs with one book per pair. 'Today we are going to read about Buzz and Fuzz. Fuzz is a bear who sets out to find some honey. But when he is out something terrible happens. In order to find out what happens we must read the book Fuzz and Buzz. '

8.      For the assessment give the students worksheets for them to list the names of the pictures. Circle the words that have the /u/ sound.



Collier, Daniel








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