State the Objective

Tell the children that they will feed a ram and that they will read and write words that end with am, such as ram, ham, jam, bam, clam, and wham.

Literacy Activities

Introduce target words

• Show the children the target words.
• Read the words with the children.

Feed the ram -am words

• Read the We Fed My Ram Some Ham target text (see below) with the children.
• Attach a plastic bag behind the mouth of the ram picture (see below).
• Sing the Feed the Ram song (see below) to the tune of “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” and let the children take turns putting the -am picture cards (see below) in the ram’s mouth.

Play a “Bam!” game

• Have the children sit in a circle.
• Place the -am word cards (see below) in the middle of the circle, face down.
• Turn over the cards one at a time and have the children read the cards aloud as you flip them.
• When one of the “bam” cards is turned over, have the children slap their hand on the ground and say, “Bam!”

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• With word-building cards (see below), have the children make new words by changing a consonant or the vowel.
  • Change the beginning consonant: ram→ jam, bam→ yam, ham→ clam
  • Change the vowel: ham→ him, him→ hum, ram→ rim
  • Change the ending consonant: ram→ ran, clam→ clap, scram→ scrap

Write about the activity using target words and patterns

• Let the children write short sentences using target words.
  • A boy sheep is called a ____ (ram).
  • We fed the ram ____  (a yam, a clam, ham, jam).
  • We turned over a card and said ____ (bam).
  • There is a big ____ (ram) who likes to eat ____ (ham, jam).