Beginning Reading: Let’s take a peek…EEK!
Lesson by Claire Smith

Procedures:

 1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with e, like step, and today we are going to learn about long E and the ee signal that is used to make e say its name, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of someone looking into a haunted house, seeing something spooky and saying “eek!” [show graphic image].

 

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say its name /E/ and my mouth looks and feels like I’m smiling. [Make vocal gesture for/E/.] I’ll show you first: Tree. I heard e say its name and I felt my mouth smile [touch the corners of my mouth when I smile]. There is a long e in tree. Now I’m going to see if it’s in mess. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my mouth didn’t smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say, “EEK, I took a peek!” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in leak, spill, sneak, hide, peep, look?[Have children touch the corners of their mouth when they feel e say its name.]

 

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with two letter e’s to tell me to say e’s name.[Write ee on the board. What if I want to spell the word meet? “Let’s meet at the restaurant at 5 o’clock.” To spell meet in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /m//E//t/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /t/ so I’m going to put my two e’s in the 2nd box. The word starts with /m/, that’s easy; I need an m. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /m//E//t/.] The missing one is /t/ = t.

 

seek, peek, sleep, left, creep, screech

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for seek. Seek is when you are looking for something; “I seek treasure on a far away island.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? Do your best and I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /E/.  Here’s the word: Peek, “I was curious to see inside the house, so I took a peek inside the window.” ; peek. [Allow children to spell words.]  Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: p - ee - k and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Now let’s try one with four boxes: sleep; “It’s dark outside, which means it is time to sleep.” [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. This one has four boxes as well. Listen to see if this word has /E/ in it before you spell it: left; “The window was left open.” Did we see my smile when I said left? Right, this is because we spell it with our short vowel e.  [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try one more with 4 phonemes: creep; This use of creep means to wonder around or walk; “The ghost likes to creep around the haunted house.” Okay, this is our last one and then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: screech; “The boy let out a screech when he saw the ghost through the window.” Screech. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

 

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with tree on the top and model reading the word.]  First, I see there are two e’s beside each other; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel e. It must say /E/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /t//r/ = /tr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /trE/. Tree; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together.[Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

 

6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a book called Sheep on a Ship. This is a story of sheep that are a trip in the ocean. They have their sails flying and they are gliding in the water. But, oh no! There are dark clouds forming a storm! What if they crash their ship? Or maybe they can run away? Let’s pair up and take turns reading to find out what happens. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Jakes Joke aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

 

7. Say: That was an exciting story. What happened to the sheep’s ship? Right, they had to make a raft to drift to land. Did they enjoy their trip? Yeah, I didn’t think so either; they lost their ship!  Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /O/ = ee, I want to see if you know when a word has the short vowel /e/ or the long vowel /E/. On this worksheet, we have some words going around in flower petals. Your job is to look in the petal and decide which vowel pronunciation is being used; /e/ or /E/ and color them different colors. First try reading all the words, then listen for the different sound—you can also see if you use your smile to say it. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Resources:  

Geri Murray, Oh, I didn’t know! https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/beginning-reading

Shaw, N. (1989) Sheep on a Ship https://www.getepic.com/app/read/74071

Assessment Worksheet: https://sites.google.com/view/msclairesresources/coloring-sheets