Use multimodal cues to connect readers to how to pronounce the long vowel sounds using the long vowel staircase. It will be helpful for some readers to watch how they make the sounds in a mirror.
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Phonics Book: Let’s Read!
Standards
Know and apply phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Reader Goals
I can identify the five long vowel sounds
Target Words
• Long e: Pete, Steve, theme
• Long a: cake, face, whale, grape, plate
• Long i: bike, rice, pile, kite, smile
• Long o: hole, nose, phone, rose, stone
• Long u: cube, mule, fuse, tube, huge
Helpful Hints
Guide
- Say
Let’s look at the cover of the book. The title says Nouns spelled with the Magic e. - Point to each picture as you Say
I see five pictures on the board. Let’s name them together: theme park, whale, kite, phone, cube. They are all nouns and I think they have something in common in terms of how they are spelled.
Guide
- Point to the long vowel staircase and Say
I see a staircase and the long vowel sounds. Let’s start from the top left of the staircase and figure out what this is about. - Ask
How is the mouth at the top left of the staircase different from the mouth at the bottom of the staircase?
(The mouth at the top left is smiling more than the mouth at the bottom which is more open.) - Ask
How is the mouth at the top right of the staircase different from the mouth at the bottom of the staircase?
(The mouth at the top right is rounded more than the mouth at the bottom which is more open.) - Model exaggerating each mouth position with readers: Say
Follow me to make your lips in all three positions–smile, open, and round. - Say
Now let’s hear, see, and feel the long vowel sounds.
We will name the pictures starting with the most smiley and go down the staircase: key, cake, bike. Feel how your lips change from very smiley to open.
Now let’s go up the staircase: coat, cube, blue. Feel how your lips change from more open to very rounded.
The long vowel sounds are the same as the names of the vowels: e, a, i, o, u. Notice the vowel u has two different long vowel pronunciations as in the words cube and blue. Both are round lip sounds /o͞o/ as in blue and /ū/ as in cube. - Say
Now read the book on your own with these long vowel sounds in mind.
Guide
Intervene as needed and Help readers identify the long vowel sounds spelled with the magic e: Say
I hear the long e sound in these words. Notice the other vowel e at the end is silent, and only the first vowel says its name.
Guide
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Guide
Intervene as needed and Help readers identify the long vowel sounds spelled with the magic e: Say
I hear the long a sound in these words. Notice the other vowel e at the end is silent, and only the first vowel says its name.
Guide
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Guide
Intervene as needed and Help readers identify the long vowel sounds spelled with the magic e: Say
I hear the long i sound in these words. Notice the other vowel e at the end is silent, and only the first vowel says its name.
Guide
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Guide
Intervene as needed and Help readers identify the long vowel sounds spelled with the magic e: Say
I hear the long o sound in these words. Notice the other vowel e at the end is silent, and only the first vowel says its name.
Guide
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Guide
Intervene as needed and Help readers identify the long vowel sounds spelled with the magic e: Say
I hear a long u sound in these words. Notice the other vowel e at the end is silent, and only the first vowel says its name.
Guide
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Guide
- Say
Let’s read the words on the left together: pet, kit, cub, tub, hug. They are all closed syllables with short vowel pronunciations. - Point to the magic e and Ask
What is the magic e saying?
(Abracadabra, fiddle-de-dee! I give you the power of magic e!) - Say
Now let’s see what happens when the magic e gives its power to the words. Let’s read the words on the right together: Pete, kite, cube, tube, huge. They are all magic e syllables with long vowel pronunciations. - Ask
So what do you think happens when the magic e gives its power to the closed syllables?
(The first vowel will say its name.)
Guide
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