I Want Ice Cream!

 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 i, like rip, and today we are going to learn about long I and the silent e signal that is used to make I say its name, /I/. When I say /I/ I think of someone asking for ice cream saying “I want ice cream” [show graphic image].  

Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /I/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /I/ in words, I hear i say its name /I/ and my mouth is open, and my tongue is lowered like this. [Make vocal gesture for /I/.] I’ll show you first: hide. I heard i say its name and I felt my mouth open and tongue lower. There is a long I in hide. Now I’m going to see if it’s in wish. Hmm, I didn’t hear i say its name and my mouth is not opening with my tongue lowered as it did before. Now you try, if you hear /I/ say, “I want ice cream” If you don’t hear /I/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in slime, slip, white, mine, pit, strike? [Have children point their fingers up when they feel /I/ say its name.] 

 Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /I/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /I/ is with the letter i and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say I’s name. [Write i_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after i, and at the end of the word, there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word lime? “I put a lime in my water” A lime is a fruit that is similar to a lemon. To spell lime in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /l//I//m/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /I/ just before the /m/ so I’m going to put an i in the 2nd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /l/, that’s easy; I need an l. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word] The missing one is /m/ = m. 

Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /I/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes.  Here’s the word: dime, I have a dime and a penny in my pocket; dime. [Allow children to spell words.]  Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: d – i – m – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: tide; The ocean tide was high today. [Have a 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. Listen to see if this word has /I/ in it before you spell it: kick; kick the ball to me. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear i say its name. We spell it with our short vowel i.  [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck?  Now let’s try 4 phonemes: slime; We made sticky slime. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strike; I can bowl a strike to win. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

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 lime on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a silent e in the end; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel i. It must say /I/. 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.] /l/ = /l/ + /I/ = /lI/. Now I’m going to blend that with /m/ = /lIm/. Lime; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone, together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterward, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /I/: i_e! Now we are going to read a book called The Nice Mice. This is a story about two mice named Spike and Mike. Spike and Mike want to take a trip but they have no money! They are going to have to get a job! Let’s pair up and take turns readingThe Nice Mice to find out what happens next! [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The Nice Mice aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

Say: That was a fun story! What job did the mice get? How much money did they make? Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /I/ = i_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide which i_e word fits best to make sense of the sentences. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.] (Pg. 11 of attached PDF)