Overview
The children will play with a pretend tan pancake man as they add sounds to the -an ending to make words such as pan, tan, man, ran, can, and fan.

Literacy Activities

Act out the pancake man story

• Read Pancakes for Breakfast by Tommie DePaola or Tyler makes Pancakes by Tyler Florence & Craig Frazier (optional).
• Read the A Pancake Man target text and help the children follow the instructions to cut out the tan man, put him on a pan, fan the man, and make him run away to a van.
• Let the children hide the pancake man in a can and a van and write "The pancake man is in the can," or "The pancake man is in the van."

Play the "pass the tan pancake man" game

• Have the children sit in a circle and take turns passing around the paper man.
• As each child gets the paper man, have them say a new word that ends in -an. 
• Write each new word on the board.  
• Repeat the game, but this time, have the children write their word on the paper man.
• Emphasize the process of blending beginning sounds with the -an ending to spell each word.

More Practice

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• With word blending cards, have the children make new words by changing either of the consonants:
  • Change beginning sounds: man → pan; ran → van; ban → can; fan → tan.
  • Change ending sounds: ran → rat → ram; tan → tap; van → vat (big pot); man → map.

Read target words introduced in the activity 

• Read A Pancake Man Ran Away target text with the children. 
• Read the text again, this time fading support.
• Have the children underline the words in the text that end in -an.
• Repeat with the A Pancake Man Ran and Ran and A Pancake Man target texts, as desired. 

Write about the activity using target words

• Have the children write "The tan pancake man ran and ran" on the pancake man graphic.
• Give each child small pieces of paper and have them write words from dictation: pan, tan, man, ran, van, ban. 
• Have the children put the -an words in an empty can.