Icky Sticky Slime
Beginning Reading Design
By: Claire Payne
Rationale: This lesson will teach children about the correspondence i=/i/. Students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing i=/i/. They will learn a meaningful representation (when you have something sticky or icky on your hand, you wipe it off because it is gross), they will spell and read words in a letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i=/i/.
Materials: Graphic image of sticky slime; 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: a, c, d, e, f, h, i, k, l, n, p, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: in, lap, lid, hit, stick, drink; decodable text: Liz is Six, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we must learn the code that helps us pronounce words. We have already learned to read words like cat, map, fed, and set. These words consist of either a=/a/ or e=/e/, but today we are going to learn to read words with icky sticky i=/i/. When I say i=/i/, I tend to think about sticky slime. (show the students the image of sticky slime).
2. Say: Before we can read words, we need to be able to recognize what they sound like. Let’s see if you can find the icky sticky /i/ sound in this tongue tickler. “The important Indian is ill with injuries inside the igloo.” The important Indian was the leader of his tribe when suddenly he got injured at war and had nowhere else to rest. He decided to rest inside the igloo. So, our tickler is “The important Indian is ill with injuries inside the igloo.” Now let’s slow things down and stretch the /i/ at the beginning of words every time you hear the icky sticky “i” sound, I want you to shake your hands like this (perform motion) and pretend to get that icky sticky “i” off. “The iiimportant Iiidian iiis iiill with iiinjuries iiinisde the iiigloo.” Can you hear how your mouth opens slightly and your tongue goes to the bottom of your mouth? Try it again, and this time break off the words. “The /i/ mportant /i/ ndian /i/ s /i/ ll with /i/ njuries /i/nside the /i/ gloo.” Nice job!
3. Say: Now let’s practice hearing the /i/ sound in different words. When listening for the /i/ in words, be sure to pay attention to what words have that “iiiiiicky stiiiiicky” sound. When you say /i/, pay attention to what your mouth does. You can feel your mouth open while showing your teeth, but your tongue stays low. “/i/ /i/ /i/.” Now I’m going to say two different words and I want you to tell me which word you hear /i/ in. Tip or Tap. You’re right! Tip. What about Dim or Leg. Let’s see what word has the iiiiicky stiiiiicky sound. That’s right! Dim does
f/l/i/p
4. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /i/ that we’ll learn today. What if I want to spell the word flip? “He knows how to do a flip on the trampoline.” To spell flip in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /f//l//i//p/. I need 4 letter boxes. I heard that /i/ just before the /p/ so I’m going to put an i 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//l//i//p/. I think I heard /l/ so I’ll put a l right after the f. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /f//l//i//p/.] The missing one is /p/ = p. Let’s see if you can practice some words with the icky sticky “i.” (in, lap, lid, hit, stick, drink- Scaffold as needed).
5. Say: Now, I want you to try spelling some words in the letterboxes. Let’s start with an easy one. This word has two letterboxes. The first word is in. “The baby is in the crib.” In this sentence, in means that something or someone is being enclosed or surrounded by something else. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: i – n and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Now, try a word with three letterboxes. The next word is hit. “The baseball player hit a homerun.” In this sentence, hit means to strike a certain target. What should go in the first box? (Respond to students.) What about the second box? (Respond to students.) What about the last box? (Respond to students.) Now, I’m going to walk around and make sure everyone understands. For the next word, you’ll need three letter boxes. Let’s listen to see which letters go where in the letter boxes. The next word is lid. “Don’t forget to put your lid back on your container.” In this sentence, lid means a removable or hinged cover for the top of a container. [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 /i/ in it before you spell it: lap; the dog sat in her lap. Did you hear our icky sticky i? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear i in the word lap. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: stick; I found a stick on the ground. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: drink; “I ordered a drink with my lunch.” Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word. (go around and check each students’ work).
6. Say: You’re doing so good! Let’s practice reading some words with icky sticky “i” in them (get out poster with words on them). If I was going to read the word script, I would begin by locating my icky sticky “i” and then I would look at the letters before it. Now, 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). /s//c/=/sc/+/r/=/scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /i/=/scri/. Now I need to do the next letter, which is “p.” /scri/+/p/=/scrip/. Now all I need is the end, /t/=/script/. Script, that’s it! Let’s see if you can practice reading some words (same as letterbox lesson, but have words printed out). (in, lap, lid, hit, stick, drink)
7. Say: What an awesome job you’ve been doing! Now that we can recognize the icky sticky “i” it’s time to hear it in a story! Now we’re going to read a new book call Liz is Six. This story is about a girl named Liz who is having her sixth birthday party. Her best friend pig is going to play baseball with her after the party and they are going to use Liz’s new mitt to catch the ball. We’ll have to read the book to see if they can catch the ball with Liz’s new mitt. Let’s pair up and read our new story. [Have students pair up and read, then after they have all finished, have the class reread it together stopping between pages to discuss the story.]
8. Say: We have one last activity to do. I want you to complete this worksheet by reading each word. You are going to match the word with the picture it belongs with. Color the pictures once you have matched them all. [Collect all worksheets to evaluate individual progress]
References:
Dr. Bruce Murray, Making Sight Words.
Tayler Rose, “Icky Sticky Lollipop”
https://sites.google.com/view/msroselessondesign/beginning-reading-design/icky-sticky-lollipop
Murray, G., “Oh, I didn’t know!”
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/murraybr.htm
Decodable Book
Cushman, S. Liz is Six. Educational Insights, Carson, CA (USA). 1990
Assessment worksheet:
https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/short-sounds-i/
