Grade 1 · Lesson 4 — Big words, small words

U0 · Square One · What a word is · student sheet is G1_L04_Worksheet.html
Touch each word. Ask: can I say it on its own? Write how many.

How we did it together — keep looking at this

I11 hop2elephantel · e · phant — 3 soundsstill 1 hopsmallest wordand a long word— both ONE.I did not count the sounds. I asked: can I say it on its own?
Before you mark: Items 1–2 have the smallest words there are. Items 3–4 have long ones. Both directions of the length trap, on one sheet.
  1. I sat.
    how many words?
    2
    I is a whole word by itself.
    If they sayone too few — they did not count ISay“Can I say it on its own? Then it is a word, even a tiny one.”
  2. A dog barked.
    how many words?
    3
    A is a whole word by itself.
    If they sayone too few — they did not count ASay“Can I say it on its own? Then it is a word, even a tiny one.”
  3. My grandmother is kind.
    how many words?
    4
    grandmother is long — and still one word.
    If they sayone or two too many — they counted the sounds in grandmotherSay“That was 3 claps for ONE word. Can I say it on its own?”
  4. We eat together.
    how many words?
    3
    Three words. together is three sounds and one word.
    If they sayfive — they counted to-geth-er as threeSay“That was three claps for ONE word. Long words still get one hop.”
Secure looks like: Given a four-word sentence containing ONE multisyllabic word and ONE one-letter word, the child counts it correctly both by ear and on the page, and can answer “how do you know?” with the spot test rather than by guessing.
As-Suffah Academy · Language Arts Lesson 4 · TEACHER EDITION