State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will help a goat carry a load along a road and will read and write words with -oa, such as toad, road, moan, groan, cloak, coat, soap, boat, and goat.
 
Literacy Activities
Help a goat with a load

• Place the goat picture on the road picture (both found below) or on a road made from strips of paper.
• State that the goat roams along a road and loads up with things it finds on the road.
• Let the children load up the goat with the coat, boat, cloak, and soap pictures (found below).
• Pretend to have the goat . . .
  • moan and groan about the load.
  • get rid of the load.
  • boast about how the load was actually easy.
• After the goat gets rid of its load, it . . .
  • hangs up a coat and cloak.
  • soaks in a bath with soap.
  • floats his boat on soapy foam.
  • snacks on oats and toast.

Write words from dictation

• Have the children write words from dictation that are spelled with -oa (e.g., goat, oak, moat, oat, coach, goal, coal, toast, float, soak, croak, throat, boat, gloat).

More Practice
Word-building
With word-building cards (found below), have the children make new words by changing either of the consonants:

• Change the beginning consonant: toad→ road, boat→ goat, boast→ coast, coal→ goal
• Change the ending consonant(s): oaf→ oak, loan→ load, soap→ soak, coat→ coast

Load children up with words

• Have the children write -oa words on strips of paper (e.g., toad, road, boat, goat, boast, coast, loan, soap, soak, coat, groan, moan, foam, cloak, float, croak, coach, toast).
• Let the children read the words to a classmate and load up that friend with the words.
• Let the children pretend that they are carrying a heavy load.

Read target words in texts

• Engage the children in reading the target text A Goat with a Load (found below) as a group.
• Read the text again, fading support.
• Repeat the activity with A Goat Moaned and Groaned (found below).

Write about the activity using target words and patterns

• Let the children write about the goat and see if they can include some of these words: toad, road, moan, groan, cloak, coat, boat, soap, soak, float, croak, boast, load, loan, and foam.