Short a; consonants m, n, s, t, x

Grade K · Day 3 · Alpha-Phonics Lesson 1 · p.3 · 25.0 min · continued · teacher run sheet

Before you start

Book open to p.3 (spliced pages are in 40_Book_Pages/). Mini-whiteboards and pens out. Pointer in hand. Today's page has 5 build chains.

WARM-UP0:00

NOTEFirst day of the track — there is nothing taught yet to recall. Skip the warm-up and go straight to the sound.

BUILD4:30

SAYWe are going to build words out of the sounds we know.

SAYa … then m … put them together: am.

SAYa … then n … put them together: an.

SAYa … then s … put them together: as.

SAYa … then t … put them together: at.

SAYa … then x … put them together: ax.

NOTEBuild each chain on the board a piece at a time and LEAVE the pieces up. The child needs to see that the whole word is made of the parts still visible beside it — erasing the steps erases the reason it worked.

COLUMN20:30

NOTEThis lesson is short on paper. Run the column a SECOND time before you move on — random order, individual turns, and this time write down who missed what. Do not end the block early; there are 13 minutes here and they belong to accuracy.

SAYOpen to page 3. Finger on the first word.

SAYDown the first column. My pointer, your voice. Wait for the pointer.

NOTEPoint deliberately and hold. Accuracy before speed — if it is getting fast and sloppy, slow the pointer down, do not ask them to slow down.

SAYNow across the rows.

NOTEReading down a column can be done from memory. Reading ACROSS cannot. If a child was strong going down and falls apart going across, they were reciting, not reading — that is what this step is for, and it is the same reason the Qaida is drilled this way.

SAYNow I am going to jump around. Watch the pointer.

NOTERandom order over all 0 words. This is the real test. Anything missed here goes on tomorrow's warm-up.

SAYPartners. One points, one reads. Then swap.

NOTEWalk and listen to four children you have not heard from today. Note who to put in the warm-up tomorrow.

SHOW ME0:00

NOTENothing has been taught yet that can be asked for on a whiteboard. From tomorrow this segment runs every day.

If a child gets it wrong

My turn.	Say the word correctly, sounding it out the way you want it sounded out. Do not explain yet — just model it.
Together.	Say it with the child, slowly, while they look at the word.
Your turn.	The child says it alone.
Back to the top.	Return to the first word in the column and come down again. The child must meet that word once more and get it right. This step is the one that makes the correction stick.

If the SOUND is not in the mouth yet — a different problem, and the common one here.

Stop the column. This is not a reading error, it is a sound the mouth has not made before, and drilling the list harder will not put it there.
Go back to the mouth: show the diagram, name the part that moves, and have the child do the CHECK with a hand or a mirror.
Have them make the sound alone, five times, with no letter in front of them.
Only then put the letter back and return to the column.

Mouth diagrams: Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of Washington. Public domain (CC0). · Word lists and sentences are Blumenfeld’s, validated against the page. Teacher talk is ours.