Skill Building

Lesson Plans for KEB NEEDS A HOME level M

Building Skills

Phonics
Write the words Vowel Digraph and Vowel Team on the chalkboard or chart paper. Next, explain to children that the vowel digraph (or vowel team) ea can have a long and a short sound assigned to it. The long sound is more frequent in words that the short sound, like the words in Keb Needs a Home: seashore, sea, beat, teasing, and seaweed. When children encounter this vowel digraph in a word, they should try the long sound first. The only way for children to know which sound is correct is to try both sounds and see which forms a word that is in their speaking or listening vocabularies (assuming they have heard the words before). Help children brainstorm words with the vowel digraph ea and write them on the chalkboard or chart paper.

Tell children that when the vowel digraph, or vowel team, ea is followed by an r, it makes a sound like the one in ear or like the one in searched and heard. Help children think of other words that follow this pattern and write them on the board.

Word Work
Synonyms
Write the word Synonym on the chalkboard or chart paper. Explain that a synonym is a word that means the same or nearly the same as another word. For example, a synonym for the word big is huge. Write the definition on the chalkboard or post it on a poster for children to see and review. Locate words from Keb Needs a Home, write them on the board, and have children create synonyms for each of them. Then ask them to share what they have written. Use the following suggested list:

bad
spectacular
huge
soft
handsome

bask
biggest
enormous
smell
strutted

great
big
large
strange
envious

Compound Words
Explain to children that compound words are made by joining two whole words. The joined words may be two nouns (basketball, cookbook), two non-nouns (flashback, payoff), or a noun and a non-noun (blackbird, sunrise). When they form a compound word, the two words do not always keep the same meaning they had as separate words (brainstorm, shoelace). Some paired words are treated like compound words but use a hyphen between the two words (trade-off) or have a space between them (time clock, chart paper).

Have children reread the book to look for compound words. Ask them to write the words on a piece of paper or in a notebook. When they have finished, ask them to tell you the words they found. Then, write them on the chalkboard or chart paper. Discuss the kinds of compound words they found: two nouns, two non-nouns, a noun and a non-noun. Ask: Did some of the words have a space between them? When they were separate words, what did they mean? What happened when the two separate words were put together?
page 3: seashore
page 4: sunrises, sunsets
page 10: normal-sized
page 11: sideways
page 18: seaweed, fine-looking
page 19: seaweed
page 22: starfish
page 27: handsome
page 28: laughingstock

Have children work in pairs to form as many new compound words as they can. Next, have them use the words in sentences. When they have finished, ask them to read the compound words and the sentences they wrote using the words.

Nouns
Write the word Noun on the chalkboard or chart paper. Explain that a noun is a word that is the name of something. A noun can name a thing (Luke the dog, an apple), a person (a girl, a boy, Tom, the teacher), or a place (a state, California). For example, in the story, Keb Needs a Home, crab is a noun and Keb is a noun. Write examples on the board for children to see as you discuss nouns in sentences:
You see, Keb was a Hermit crab of spectacular proportions.
Sunrises and sunsets can be pretty spectacular.
Keb walked sideways up and down the shore.

Have children work in pairs to reread the story. Ask them to find examples of nouns. When they have finished, have them read their sentences and tell which of the words are nouns. Ask them to state the definition.

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