Lesson Plans for THE UP DOWN BOY level N

Building Skills

Phonological Awareness
To reinforce listening for the long e sound, have children put a thumb up every time they hear a long e in the story. You can also have them circle the words in the book that they think make long e sounds.
(Note, there are six words in this story— ceiling, being, cleaned, cheeks, street, and eat— that have a long e sound in them. Use these words to compare the long e sound within a word rather than when the y is at the end of the word.)

Phonics
Have children brainstorm words that begin and end with the letter y. For example; you, yuck(y), yummy, yes, yellow, etc. Once you have a list, have children tell you the difference in the sound of the y at the beginning and at the end of the words. This should help them to hear and understand the different sounds y can have in words.

Word Work
Exclamation Marks
Have children look through the story for exclamation marks. Ask for volunteers to read those sentences to you, reflecting the exclamation mark in their intonation. Have each child give you an example of a sentence in which an exclamation mark might be used.

Synonyms
Choose any of the describing words or adjectives from the High Utility Words section above and ask children to help you come up with other words that the author could have used to describe what the updown boy may have seen, felt, or heard. Point out that the words they come up with are called synonyms.


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