Lesson Plans for FANTASTIC FLYING MACHINES Level L

Building Skills

Phonics: y as a Vowel
Review y as a vowel. Write these words on the board and have students listen as you say them: my, sky, fly, by, and why. Ask what vowel sound they hear in the words (long i). Ask what letter stands for the long i sound in these words. Write the words baby, happy, and funny on the board. Ask students to read the words and tell you the vowel sound the letter y stands for in these words (long e). Have students search the book and other familiar texts to find examples of words with y as a vowel. Have them categorize the words into long i or long e sounds. 

Grammar
Commas
Discuss the use of commas with students. Have students look at several pages of text and mark the commas they see. Discuss why the comma was used in each example they find. For example, “Leonardo Da Vinci, an Italian artist and inventor from the 1400s, drew plans for a helicopter.” Explain that the comma is used to set off the description of who Leonardo Da Vinci was from the main part of the sentence. Make a list of the different ways commas are used in the text and post the sentences in the room as examples. 

Word Work
Synonyms
Review that synonyms are words with similar meanings. Say the word big, and have students suggest synonyms for it: large, huge, jumbo, giant, etc. Select words from a page in the text. Have students first find the word on the page and read it out loud. Then have them suggest words that could be used as synonyms. Have them reread the sentence, substituting one of the synonyms, to see if the sentence still makes sense.

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