Emergent Literacy
By: Claire Dugas

Rationale: When introducing phonemes to beginning readers it is important to start them on exercises in which they can be successful fairly easily. The phoneme /O/ is one that sounds like it looks. Students make an O with their mouths and the sound /O/ comes out. In this lesson students will learn to recognize words that have /O/ in them. They will also practice writing the letter O. Through these exercises the students will gain confidence that they can be good readers.

Materials: flashcards, primary paper and pencil, Bing-o cards for each student, master word list (go, hot, toe, goat, grow, cow, so, boat, and home), and disks with /O/ on them, one copy of the book ''Is Jo Home?'', handout with pictures of words with and without the long /O/ sound in them from the book

1. "Today the sound we are going to learn is /O/. Can you make your mouth form a little circle and say Ohhhhh? This is called a long O. Did you notice my lips when I said the words the long O sound? They were shaped almost like I was going to kiss someone. I’m going to say some words now that have this sound in them: toooe, gooo, and soooap. Can you hear the long O in them? (Repeat words). There are words that have the letter O in them that do not sound like our long O. Here are some that do not have the long O sound: top, hot, stop. With these words my lips were shaped differently. Watch my lips while I say "stop." Did you see my lips in the kissing shape? No. Your mouth is always in a kissing shape when you say the long O. Here is a symbol for the long O sound. Whenever you see this symbol you will know how to pronounce the O."

2. "Now that you know something about the letter O we are going to practice writing it. Take out you paper and pencils. The letter O is the shape of a circle. Watch me write it on the board (demonstrate). You start at the fence line and curve down till you touch the sidewalk and without stopping curve on up till you get back to where you started. Now let me see each of you make a row of O's. Raise your hand when you are finished so I can check your O's."

3. "Now we are going to play a game called Bing-o. Have any of you played Bingo before? This Bing-o game is special because it will help us learn our long O sound. Each of you will get a Bingo card with 9 words (go, hot, toe, goat, grow, cow, so, boat, and home) words (go, hot, toe, goat, grow, cow, so, boat, and home)on it and 7 disks. The disks have a sign on them that means the same as the long O sound. I am going to say a word. Listen very carefully. If you hear the /O/ sound put one of your disks on the word. This game is like tic tac toe. To win you must have a row of disks on your card in a line up and down, across or diagonally (demonstrate). When this happens you say 'Bing-o.' Now when I say a word that has the long O sound, you may put a disk on it. If it does not have the long O sound, leave that space empty. Remember: not every word with an O in it is a long O word. Let's begin. (Play the game. There are 3 card arrangements so one third of the students will win.) Congratulations winners. But you know what? Everyone is a winner as we are all learning our long O sounds."

4. "Now lets try a tongue twister with words that have the long O sound in them. Repeat after me. "The goooat wore nooo coooat while he rooowed the boooat." Lets say it again and tell me how many words in that sentence had the long O sound."

5. Assessment: "I'll read a simple book that has some long O sounds in it. Listen carefully while I read for words with the /O/ sound. When I have finished I want you to circle the pictures of words that have the long /O/ in them on your handout."

"Is Jo Home?" 1990 Educational Insights
April Grimmett  http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/discov/grimmettel.html