State and Model the Objective
The children will pretend to play a baseball game and will read and write words with the -ou vowel combination such as found, round, shout, about, ground, sound, bound, and mound.

Literacy Activities
Introduce long o words with -ou

• Ask the children if they have ever seen or played baseball.
• Engage the children in reading words with the ou combination from the word cards (found below): out, shout, count, loud, ground, mound, pout, round, around, found, sound, bound, about, pound, proud, and dugout.
• Tell the children that they could use those words to talk about a baseball game.

Explain how a baseball game works 

• Position children to pretend to be the pitcher, umpire, infield and outfield players, and fans.
• Have a child come out from the dugout and stand at the picture of home plate (found below) to be a batter.
• Read and comment on the things that they may see players and fans do.
  • The pitcher
    • Stands on the mound (picture found below)
    • Throws the ball
    • Tries to get the batter to strike out  
  • The batter
    • Waits in the dugout.
    • Pounds the ground with the bat. 
    • Swings the bat around.  
    • Swings at the ball.
      • And the batter could
        • hit the ball.
        • hit a foul ball. 
        • hit the ball into the outfield.
        • hit the ball out of the park. 
        • hit the ball and run around. 
        • strike out.
        • get tagged out.
  • The outfield and infield players
    • Catch a ground ball.
    • Tag the runner out.
    • Miss catching the ball and not tag the runner out.
    • Watch the ball fly out of the park.  
  • The umpire
    • calls the batter, “Out!”
    • calls the batter, “Safe!”
  • The fans
    • pout.
    • shout loudly.
    • stomp on the ground.

Pantomime actions in a ball game
* Read about three batters who are up at the plate and illustrate the actions with gestures (see below).   

Play a pretend game of baseball on an activity sheet

• Divide children into pairs or small groups. 
• Let children write an -ou word on each space in the baseball field activity sheet (found below).
• Have the children take turns drawing an -ou word card and a game card (found below), then read the -ou word card aloud. 
• Have the children move a token (also found below) around the bases according to the instructions on the game card they drew (e.g., move one to four spaces, get walked, or get out). 

                         OR

• Have the children draw an -ou word card and read the word aloud.
• Let the children roll a die and consult the chart (found below) that shows 1 = Go to 1st base, 2 = Go to 2nd base, 3 = Go to 3rd base, 4 = Home run!, 5 = Get walked!, and 6 = You’re out.
• Encourage the children to read each -ou word as their token passes it.

Write words from dictation

• Have the children write words from dictation (e.g., sound, bound, mound, found, round, proud, pout, shout). 

Read target words in texts 

• Engage the children in reading the Pitcher on the Mound target text (found below).
• Read the text again, fading support.       
• Repeat with the At a Baseball Game target text (found below).
• Have the children circle the -ou vowel combination in words.

Write about the activity   

• Engage the children in interactive writing about what happens at a ball game.
• Display a word wall with the words ground, around, out, pound, sound, mound, shout, pout, round, found, bound, about, proud, and dugout.
• Provide verbal or written prompts about things that happen in a baseball game such as:
  • The pitcher stands on a ____(mound).
  • The batter swings the bat ____(around) and hits the bat on the ____(ground).
  • A batter hits the ball and ___ ____(runs around).
  • The ball goes ___(out) of the park.
  • The runner is tagged ___(out).
  • The fans give a ____  ____(loud shout).