Overview
The children will play with a pretend pancake man and read and write words ending in –an, such as pan, tan, man, ran, and van.

Literacy Activities
Act out the story of the pancake man

• Read Pancakes for Breakfast by Tommie DePaola or Tyler Makes Pancakes! by Tyler Florence & Craig Frazier (optional).
• Read the target text A Pancake Man Ran Away and let the children act out the story:
  • Show a real or paper pancake and cut the pancake into the shape of a man, commenting on how the pancake man is tan.
  • Pretend the pancake man is hot and fan the man on the pan.
  • Say, “What if the man doesn't like the pan? Will it be like the story where the gingerbread man ran and ran? In our story, the pancake man ran and ran and then jumped into a van.”
  • Pretend the pancake man jumps in a van and drives away.
  • Wave goodbye to the tan pancake man in the van.
• Cut out the word cards and place them in/under the can or van.
• Let the children choose and read the word cards (provide support as necessary).
• Have the children label the van and can graphics.

Optional Variation:

• Read the target text How to Make A Pancake Man and help the children follow the instructions to cut out the tan man on the pan and make him run away to the van or can.
• Help the children write “The tan pancake man is in the van.” or “The tan pancake man is in the can.” then have them underline the -an endings.

More Practice
Read target words in a text

• Have the children underline the words that end in –an in the target text A Pancake Man Ran Away.
• Read the target text to the children.
• Engage the children in reading the text simultaneously with you.
• Read the text again fading support. 
• Repeat with the How to Make a Pancake Man target text.

Write target words/patterns from the activity

• Give each child a paper and pencil. Have them write words from dictation: pan, tan, man, ran, van.
• Have the children fold the paper with –an words accordion style to make a fan.
• Let the children use the paper fan to fan the pancake man, can, or van.