Overview
The children will hide Ned, Ted, Fred and a sled while they read and write words ending in –ed, such as red, sled, and shed.

Literacy Activities
The red sled

• Before the activity, use a red crayon to color the large sled graphic, write or print out the words to The Sled Song large enough for the children to see, and lay out the shed and bed graphics on a table.
• Read the book Red Sled by Patricia Thomas to the children (optional).
• Teach the children The Sled Song, to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.
• After the children have become familiar with the song, have them sing it and clap when you point to a word that ends in -ed. 
• Show the children that  they can hide the -ed characters (Ned, Ted and Fred) and sled under Ned’s bed, Ted’s bed, Fred’s bed, or in the shed.
• Have a child choose one of the –ed characters to take for a ride on the red sled through the air, while everybody else sings The Sled Song with the name of the chosen character.
• At the end of the song, invite all of the other children to close their eyes as the child with the sled hides the character and the sled under the shed picture or one of the bed pictures.
• The children will then guess where the character is hiding by asking questions like, “Are Ned and the sled under Fred’s bed?”
• Repeat several times, choosing different children to hide the –ed character and sled.

More Practice
Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• Have the children use word blending cards to make new words by changing either of the consonants or the vowel:
  • Changing the initial consonant sound(s): bed → sled; red → led; shed → fed
  • Changing the vowel sound: bed → bad; red → rod; led → lid
  • Changing the ending consonant sound(s): led → let; bed → best; led → lend

Read and write target words

• Display the red sled graph poster you created. 
• Give each child a picture of a sled and have them write their name,“red sled”, and another -ed word they heard during the activity, on the pictures.
• Have the children take turns reading aloud the words on their sled picture 
• Invite the children to attach their sled to the graph to show where they hid the sled during the game.