• 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 “a”, “e,”, “i”, “o”, and today we are going to learn about the short vowel u and its sound, /u/.  When I say /u/, I think of a caveman saying “uhh”! [show image of caveman].  Now, when we see the letter u today, we know it says /u/ like a caveman. [write the letter u on the board].

• Say: Before we learn about spelling words with /u/, we need to listen for it in some words.  When I listen for /u/ in words, I hear the “uhh” like a caveman sound. (Show the student how your mouth is shaped when making this sound.) I’ll show the first word sub say the word and feel the way that your lips are… jump—/j/ /u/ /u/ /u/ /m/ /p/. I heard the caveman say “uhh”. There is a short u in jump. Now I am going to see if it’s in dog—/d/ /o/ /o/ /o/ /g/. Hmmm, I didn’t hear the caveman say “uhh”. Now, you try. If you hear the /u/ sound, say “uhh” like the caveman. If you don’t hear /u/, say, “Caveman can’t talk.”  Also see if you can feel your mouth open and you tongue is resting at the bottom of my mouth because that means the caveman is saying “uhh”. Is /u/ in bug, bit, cat, cut, drag, truck?

• Say: What if I want to spell the word “stuck?” “I got stuck when I was climbing on the playground.” Stuck means to be jammed in one place. To spell “stuck” in letterboxes, I first need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s/ /t/ /u/ /ck/. I need 4 boxes.  I heard that /u/ just before the /ck/, so I am going to put a /u/ in the 3rd box.  The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need a “s.” Now I am going to say it slowly, /s/ /t/ /u/ /ck/.  I heard a /t/ so I am going to put a “t” right after the “s”.  I have one box left after the /u/ now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word /s/ /t/ /u/ /ck/.]  I heard the /ck/ after the /u/, so we’ll put a “ck” there, because in this word the “ck” sound is made by putting the letters “c” and “k” together.  /s/ /t/ /u/ /ck/, stuck! Great job spelling out “stuck!”  Now I will show you how I would read a tough word. [write the word “brush” on the board and model reading the word.] I am going to start with the “u”, that letter says /u/. Now I am going to put the beginning letters with it: b-r-u, /bru/. Now I will put that chunk together with the sh, /brush/, brush. Oh, brush, like, “She used a brush to fix her hair.”

• Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes.  You will start out with 3 boxes for “bug.” “The bug was in the car.” Listen for that /u/ sound. I will check your spelling as I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] Now try another 3-box word.  This one is “tuck.”  “Elizabeth learned to do a back tuck at gymnastics.”  You will need 4 letterboxes for the next word.  Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box, then listen for /u/. Here is the word: “shrub.” “My mom planted a shrub in the front yard.” [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences and correct number of letterboxes for each word:

  • 4 letterboxes: stuck, drum, silk, smack

  • 5 letterboxes: skunk

  • Challenge word: umbrella

• 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 the word crust on the smartboard and model reading it first].  First, I see there’s the “u” in the middle- there’s my caveman saying /u/.  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.] /c//r/=/cr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /u/=/cru/.  Now I need to do the next letter, which is “s.” /cru/+/s/=/crus/.  Now all I need is the end, /t/=/crust/.  Crust, that’s it!  Now it’s your turn, and I want you all to say them together!  [Show the words stuck, drum, silk, smack, shrub, skunk, and umbrella. Then show them the pseudoword plut. Have children read the words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

• Say: You’ve done a great job at reading words with u says /u/. Now we are going to read a book called Fuzz and the Buzz. “Fuzz is a young bear that has a lot of energy. One day when he is running around playing outside, he sees a tree. A nut drops from the tree, which makes Fuzz mad. When he screams he wakes up the bees living in the tree. Now Fuzz has to somehow escape from the bees. Let’s read to see how he escapes.” [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class re-reads Fuzz and the Buzz aloud together, stopping between page turns to discuss the plot of the story and how it’s going.]

• Say: That was a fun story!  Who was your favorite character?  I really liked the baby bear; he was so cute!  Before we finish up our lesson on the /u/ sound, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have words that have the /u/ sound, and words that don’t.  Read each word and follow the directions to figure out what the picture is supposed to be. Read the words carefully to make sure your answers make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

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