Not Tall At All

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Objective

Read and write words with the double letter combination -ll.

See Standards

Lesson Plan

Target Words:

tall
ball
tell
call
wall
small
smell

Materials:

Small ball
Toy dog or picture of a dog*
Letter cards*
My Best Friend of All target text*
My Dog Comes When I Call target text*

*Items included below.

State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will meet a friend who is not at all tall and read and write words that end with double -ll, such as tall, ball, tell, small, call, hill, and roll.

Literacy Activities
Guess who likes to play ball

Read the text My Best Friend Is Not Tall (see below) to and with the children.
Ask the children to try to guess who in the story is not tall.
Point out the words in the text with the double -ll that makes the /l/ sound.

Pretend to play with a dog

Read the text My Dog Comes When I Call (see below) to and then with the children.
Allow the children to pretend to be a dog or use a toy dog (or picture of a dog below) to act out the following:

You Say	They Do
Get the ball!	Run after a pretend ball.
Roll over!	Roll back and forth.
Be still. Play dead.	Lie still. Don't move at all.
Sit still!	Sit very still.
Stand tall!	Stand up tall on two legs.
Come!	Come when I call

Have the children write words from dictation that end with the -ll (i.e., ball, call, tall, fall, all, hall, wall, smell, tell, swell, roll, still, spill).

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

Have the children make a target word (e.g. fall) from letter cards and then let them make different words by changing the beginning consonant or the vowel.
- Change the beginning sound: fall→ tall; call→ ball; hall→ wall; stall→ small
- Change the vowel sound: fall→ fell→ fill; ball→ bell→ bill; wall→ well→ will

Write about the activity

Create a word wall displaying words that end with –ll (e.g., fall, tall, call, all, ball, hall, wall, hill, roll, stroll, tell).
Refer the children to the word wall and have them express ideas about things a dog likes or does (e.g., "The dog likes to play ball. My dog comes when I call.").

My Dog Comes When I Call

My dog is the best dog of all.
When I tell him, “Fetch,” he runs after the ball.
When I tell him, “Roll over,” he rolls all around.
When I tell him, “Play dead,” he does not move at all.
When I tell him, “Stay,” he sits very still.
When I tell him, “Up,” he stands up tall.
But best of all, when I call, “Come,” he comes running down the hall.
Then we go out for a stroll.

My Best Friend of All

Let me tell you about my best friend.
My best friend is not tall at all. He is very small.
My best friend likes to play ball.
My best friend likes to run up a hill.
My best friend likes to roll over.
My best friend likes to smell things when we go for a stroll.
My best friend bumps into the wall when he bounds down the hall.
My best friend is the best friend of all.
My best friend always comes when I call.
“Here Sport! Good dog!”