Jolly Phonics

Level 7 - The er sound lesson

1. Introducing the er sound

Before starting doing activities to practice the er sound, I have thought about doing a short presentation covering the following issues:

• Asking how many letters for how many sounds.
• Asking if they are vowels or consonants.
• Showing the action for the er sound (roll hands over each other like a mixer and say erererer)
• Singing the er song of Jolly Phonics.
• Create a story telling. For this we are going to take advantage of Christmas time and the action before. We will tell our students that Christmas is near and it would be a good idea to make gingerbread people for the last day before holidays. But he have a problem, we don’t know the ingredients we have to use to make them. The only way to know them is to pass successfully a number of tasks. For each task overcame the teacher could say one ingredient and write it in the board to make a list. They are six: Butter, brown sugar, golden syrup, plain flour, an egg and ginger.

On the other hand, I’m going to use the following resources for the interaction produced above:

• An individual card for present the er sound.
• An individual card for the word ginger and its picture.
• The er song of jolly phonics.

2. Activities

          1. Segmenting blending and rhyming

To achieve the first ingredient to make gingerbread people we are going to segment and blend a list of words that contain the er sound. For this, the teacher will use word cards and she will say for each word: first sound, second sound, third sound… And finally she will ask for blending.

Children will have as support the lines written under each word.

Besides, some of the words contain a picture behind. This means that they have to say the rhyme “The ginger in the mixer” each time the teacher turn the word card.

Also, the teacher can take advantage of these words asking which letter is in capital letters in some of them.

          2. Fast word reading game

To achieve the second ingredient, children have to try reading the word cards. It’ll be difficult because the teacher will turn the word card very quickly, so children only are going to see it for a second.

They have to call out the word they read.

          3. The family tree

To achieve the third ingredient, the teacher will show in the whiteboard a tree family with gaps. She will choose the children she wants to come out to the board and they have to drag the correct label to the correct gap. All the children will participate segmenting and blending together using their fingers.

          4. Imitating jobs

Now, to achieve the fourth ingredient, we are going to play a game in which pupils have to imitate jobs. These jobs or occupations are in written cards and they contain the er sound. The teacher will read these words with them before starting to play.

After, she will come out one child to imitate one of the written words. The rest of children have to guess what the partner is.

If they know it, they have to put their hand up. They will have all the written cards spread on the carpet to help them to say the specific word the child is imitating.

The teacher will choose a child to answer. She will say “Are you a…?” And the chosen child has to say the complete answer, for example “Yes I am”. If this child is wrong she will pass to another child with the hand up.

However, if he is right he will pick up the written word, stick it at the small board of the teacher which has the sentence “She/he is…” and finally everybody will read the sentence together.

          5. Writing with my finger

Now, to achieve the fifth ingredient, children have to know writing the er sound. For this, firstly the teacher will say the children how to write it at the same time children have to try writing in the air:

T: Do you remember how to write letter e? It curves up and goes around.

And do you remember how to write letter r? Very simple! A small line down and back up.

Later, children will do:

- Palm-writing: Children works in pairs. The first one chooses letter e or letter r. Then the second child closes his eyes. The first child draws the letter outline on the palm of the second child’s hand and the second child says the letter. Finally they check together.

- Back writing: the same procedure than before but writing in the back.

          6. Experts of the “sh” sound

To achieve the last instruction and finished our list of ingredients, children have to use the PDI to write correctly the er sound.

First they use graph paper.

Finally they have to complete the words with the er sound. The teacher will also ask for spelling, segmenting and blending.