admire the acrobats

Objective
Associate the uppercase letter A and lowercase letter a with the short /a/ sound as in mat, cat, and can.
Lesson Plan
Target Words:
- app
- admire
- acrobat
- admission
- avenue
- accident
- advise
Materials:
- Video of acrobats performing*
- Letter cards*
- Phone graphic*
- Word blending cards*
- Writing practice page*
*Items included below.
State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will pretend to admire an acrobat and then read and write words that start with the letter A and make the short /a/ sound as in apple, act, animal, and acrobat.
Literacy Activities
Admire the acrobats
- Explain to the children that when you admire someone or something, you think they are great.
- Show the children a YouTube clip of acrobats so that they get an idea of what an acrobat does, and encourage them to applaud for the acrobats.
- Write the uppercase letter A and the lowercase letter a on the whiteboard.
- While emphasizing the target sound A, write admire and acrobat on the board and point out that both begin with the letter A sound.
Letter A tickets
- Scatter the letter cards around the room.
- Tell the children that they will be going to an acrobats show, but in order to get in they will have to have to find a letter A card to use as their ticket.
- Have the children search the room for letter A letter cards.
- Every time a child finds the letter A, have the child emphasize the A sound as he or she says, “I found an A ticket for the /a/, /a/, acrobat show!”
Find Acrobat Avenue
- Tell the children that in order to find Acrobat Avenue, they will have to ask an app on their pretend phones.
- After the children have found Acrobat Avenue, let the children use the A ticket to be admitted to (enter) the show.
- Make comments such as, “If you have your A ticket, I’ll admit you to the acrobat show on Acrobat Avenue.”
- Point out that the words avenue, app, and admit start with the letter A while emphasizing the short A sound.
- Let the children admire the acrobats as they watch the YouTube clip again (optional).
Turn your A into an acrobat
- Have the children write the letter A on a sheet of paper, then let them take turns pretending their letter A is an acrobat.
- Have the children use their As to do flips and tricks all while saying things like, “Admire the acrobat,” or “Look at the active acrobat.”
- Remind the other children who are watching that they need to act like a good audience and admire the acrobat performing.
- Have the children stack the A acrobats.
More Practice
Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds
- Have the children wear the letter cards as name tags.
- Have the children walk around the room to find other children to make a word with, and have both children say the word they made out loud.
- With word blending cards, have the children make new words by changing the vowel or either of the consonants:
- Change the beginning sound: pat → mat; ran → fan
- Change the ending sound: man → mat; bat → bag
- Change the middle sound: sat → set; pan → pen; pat → pot; lag → log
Write the target letter
- Help the children write the uppercase letter A and the lowercase letter a.
- Write words on the board that start with the /a/ sound (e.g., acrobat, apple, ant, animal), then have the children draw pictures of them on their paper.
Standards
1. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.D: Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters in the alphabet.
2. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.A: Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

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69280
Admire the Acrobats