Overview
The children will try to discover secret messages as they practice blending beginning sounds with the –um ending to make words such as plum, hum, and drum.

Literacy Activities
Discover the message

• Explain to the children that you will read a set of clues to them and that they will try to guess the word being described.
• Make sure they understand that every word being described will end in –um. 
• Tell the children that once they’ve figured out what the word being described, they should write it down quietly on their whiteboard. 
• Read the clues found on the Clue sheet for the first word.
• Have the children write down the word on their whiteboard.
• After the:
  • First word (drum) has been revealed, allow the children to drum on their desks to the rhythm of a common song (e.g., "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star").
  • Second word (hum) has been revealed, allow the children to hum the tune of a song (e.g., "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star").
  • Third word (yum) has been revealed, provide the children with a treat (optional) or have them to pretend to eat their favorite treat.
  • Fourth word (gum) has been revealed, give each child a piece of gum (optional) or have them pretend to chew on a piece of gum.

More Practice
Identify, blend and manipulate 

• Have children blend beginning and ending sounds into words by tapping their head (beginning sound) and toes (-um sound), then clap to say the whole word.  
  • g um = gum
  • dr um = drum
  • h um = hum
  • pl um = plum

Write about the activity using target words and phrases 

• Display target words on a word wall (e.g., drum, hum, yum, gum). 
• Refer the children to the word wall and have them write a sentence or two expressing ideas from a lesson activity or target text (e.g., I got to drum and hum).