State and Model the Objective

Tell the children that they will read a story about pets that has words with short vowel sounds (e.g., dog, cat, fish, and rat.)

Literacy Activities

Read Let Me Get a Pet 

• Read both Let Me Get a Pet texts (see below) with the children, fading support.
• Let the children act like the different animals in the story (e.g. bark like a dog, meow like a cat, wiggle a nose like a rat, make a fish face).

Sort animal pictures

• Using animal pictures (see below), have the children say the name of the pet and what short vowel sound they hear (pig, cat, hen, rat, fish, dog, frog, bug, duck).
  • If the children chose a different name for the pet (like toad for frog, or chicken for hen), have them listen to the word’s vowel sound.
  • If there is no short vowel sound in the word they chose, say, “I don’t hear a short vowel sound in that pet’s name. Is there another name for that animal?”

Let the children pick their favorite story

• Read both versions of Let Me Get a Pet again, fading support. Discuss the different story endings with the children.
• Let the children “vote” for the version of the story they like the best by writing fuzz or no fuzz on a chart with two columns. Count the results to see which story “wins.”
• Let the children draw and label which pet they would choose.