State the Objective

Tell the children that they will stand tall to get a ball and read and write words that end with -ll such as ball, call, tall, well, fill, and small.

Literacy Activities

Introduce target words

• Show the children the words ball, call, tall, well, fill and small.
• Read the target words with the children.

Tall enough to get the ball

• Read the Tall Enough to get the Ball target text (see below) with the children.
• Hold a ball above the children’s heads and see if they can stretch to get the ball.
• Let the children stand on a small stool and pretend they are tall.
• Have the children stretch or stand tall to place a ball on the edge of a shelf or a wall and let the ball fall.
• Let the children blow or tap the ball to make it fall and chant “Fall, ball! Fall!”

Let balls fall

• Give the children different sizes of paper and let them label their paper and then crumple it up into a ball (e.g., small ball for a small piece of paper, big ball for a big piece of paper).
• Have the children put the small and big balls in a cup.
• Let them take turns pulling a ball from the cup.
• Ask them if they pulled out a small or a big ball.
• Let the children flip the cup over to let the balls fall out and say “The balls fell! Oh, well!”

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

With word-building cards (see below), have the children make new words by changing a consonant or the vowel.

• Change the beginning consonant: ball→ wall; tall→ call; well→ fell
• Change the vowel: tall→ tell; ball→ bill; fall→ fill; well→ wall
• Change the ending consonant: fell→ fed, call→ cap, tall→ tan

Write about the activity using target words and phrases

Let the children write short sentences using target words.

• We can be ____ (tall).
• I can get the ____ (ball).
• Put the ball up tall on a ____ (wall).
• Let’s yell “Oh, ____ (well)!”