Overview
The children will turn rags and tags into flags and then read and write words ending in -ag, such as rag, bag, tag, wag, and drag.

Literacy Activities
Make flags with rags and tags

• Help the children attach a scrap of fabric, called a rag, to a straw or stick and label the flag Rag flag with a permanent marker.
• Invite the children to wag their rag like a flag.
• Repeat with a tag graphic and label the new flag Tag flag.
• Have the children place all the rag flags and the tag flags in a bag.
• Tell the children to snag a flag out of the bag and wag the flag.
• Have the children say, “I can wag a rag flag” or “I can wag a tag flag.”

Pass the Flag game (similar to the game Hot Potato)

• Have the children take turns passing a half-sheet of paper attached to a stick as a flag while music plays.
  • Note: Click here to play "You’re a Grand Ole Flag.”
• As each child gets the flag, have him or her say a new word that ends in -ag (support as needed).
• Write each new word on the board.  
• When everyone has had a turn, have the children read all of the -ag words.
• Repeat the game, but this time, have the children write their word in small print on the flag graphic when the flag stops at them.

More Practice

Read target words in target texts 

Read the Wag a Flag target text (see below) together with the children. 
Read the text again, fading support, and adding the actions.
Have the children underline the words that end in -ag.

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• With word-building cards, have the children make new words by changing the vowel or either of the consonants:
  • Change the beginning consonant(s): rag→ drag; tag→ sag; bag→ lag; wag→ nag
  • Change the ending consonant: rag→ ran→ rat; tag→ tap→ tan; bag→ bat→ bad
  • Change the vowel: tag→ tug; rag→ rug→ rig; lag→ log→ leg; bag→ big→ bug→ beg 

Write about the activity using target words and patterns

• Give the children whiteboards and have them write words from dictation, changing one or two letters each time to make a new word (e.g., tag, tug, bug, big, bag, bat, bit, sit, sat, sag).
• Have the children help create a word wall with -ag words from the lesson.
• Engage the children in interactive writing about their experience by letting them use the word wall to fill in the blanks in these sentences (support as needed).
  • I can make a_____ (rag) _____ (flag).
  • I can make a  _____ (tag) _____ (flag).
  • I can _____ (snag) a _____ (flag) from a _____ (bag).
  • I can _____ (snag) and _____ (wag) a _____ (flag).