State the Objective
Tell the children that they will pretend to help a sad cat as they read words with the short-a vowel, such as sat, can, pat, mad, fat, mat.

Literacy Activities
Pat a sad cat

• Tell the children that you are a fat cat.
• Blow up your cheeks and push out your chest to look fat.
• Tell the children that the fat cat is sad.
• Let the children give the fat cat a pat.
• State that now the fat cat is not sad.
• Read the Pat the Sad Cat target text (see below) with the children.

Let a cat nap on a mat

• Help the children read the /ă/ words nap, cat, mad, and pat.
• Ask each child to pretend to be a cat and give the cat a little pat (optional).
• Show a drawing of a cat (example below) and let the children give the cat a pat.  
• Let the children pretend to get sleepy and take a nap like a cat.
• Help the children read the A Cat Naps on a Mat target text (see below).
• Re-read the text, having the children point out the short-a words.

Write words on a mat

• Give each child a piece of paper and tell them that it is a mat.
• Have the children write short-a words from dictation on their mats (e.g., cat, sad, can, nap, pat).
• Let a child pretend to be a cat, and let them take a nap on the mat.
• Let the other children pat the “cat.”

Read and make words

• Display the words mad, had, nap, cap, can, fat, cat, sad, mat, and hat.
• Help the children read the words.
• Write letters on small pieces of paper: p, a, t, n, and c.
• Ask the children to use the letters to make words:
  • Make the word pat and then turn it into tap.
  • Make the word nap and change it to pan.
  • Make the word cat and turn it into the word can.
  • Make the word can and change it to be cap.
  • Make the word pan and turn it into the word pat.