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Four Fur Feet

TITLE:

AUTHORS:

Monique Richard, Professor, School of ECE, Ryerson University

RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE:

Research suggests that the two main phonemic awareness skills that children learn early on are rhymes and alliterations. Once children are adapt at recognizing rhyming words, they become aware that some words start with the same onset. Alliteration poems make a child aware of the individual sounds of language in a different learning context than the ordinary conversation or within a story, she/he must slow down in order to enunciate clearly the words. Children are introduced to the concept of alliteration in poetry as a poetic device and significant sound effects which enhance the meaning. Research demonstrate that exposure to rhyme/alliteration enhances phonological sensitivity in preschoolers. Reading aloud and writing poetry activities are designed to make a phoneme memorable for children. (Hayes, 2001)

Poem picture books provide an aesthetic combination between words and illustrations. Finger-pointing reading (voice-to-print match) of poems, rhymes, songs and any familiar text facilitate children's ability in phoneme segmentation, invented spelling, and the ability to remember specific words from the text. (Uhry, 2002; Uhry, 1999).

RESOURCES:

Four Fur Feet, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hubbard A stick puppet representing Four Fur Feet. Copy the chorus onto chart paper		Anthony has copied the chorus on chart paper by using a different colour of markers for the alliteration. The text can easily be seen and copied by the children and
		Anthony has posted the chart on the two-part easel. On the right the has placed the chart and the left side is used for the following steps of the lesson. The use of a chalkboard is very useful for such activity as it allows for erasing as often as necessary.

• Laminated words: four fur feet.

OBJECTIVES:

• Children will develop an understanding of the concept of alliteration and will be able to compose at least one with at least three words.

• Children will create sentences that contain examples of alliteration .Children will match words with the onset /f/.

• Children will practice finger-reading.

  
  

Instructional SequencE:

1	PRE READING	Show the puppet and help children describe it using prompts such as "What colour is the animal?. How many feet does it have? "What the feet are made off" . Write the answer on a chart paper: Four Fur Feet. Have a hand puppet demonstrates alliterations. Start with short sentences of three or four words. Invite the children to create their own alliterations. Explain that poets often use this device to create a special effect. Sometimes they sound great, sometimes they are funny, and sometimes they are just pleasant to listen to. Introduce the rhymed story by explaining that in the rhymed story, someone repeats frequently the chorus "Four Fur Feet".
2	SHARED READING	Read the book once without showing the pictures and let the children imagine the images. Read the book for enjoyment. On the third reading, change the order of the words four/fur/feet and delete the initial consonant and have the children guess which words you are trying to say. For example:                                                      _ur _eet __our __our___eet___ur ___ur___eet___our Invite the children to join in the chorus with the puppet.
			Anthony introduces the lesson by explaining to the children that the stuff rabbit was his childhood favourite stuff toy. He helps the children to anticipate the theme of the story is about a four fur feet animal. Then he explains that he will read a story that has a a chorus that is written on the chart paper. He brings children's attention to the alliteration and helps children become aware of the construct of it.
			Anthony starts reading the story and invite the children to take turn to hold the toy hence helping the children to grasp the concept of a four fut feet animal. The toy also sustains children's attention.
			The children enjoy feeling a toy so furry and are a little bit distracted but more readings of the story will follow.
			Anthony reads the story and invite the children to join in for the chorus by pointing (finger reading) to it on the chart.
			Anthony helps the children to stretch the "o". Children are curious about the hair and the snout of the character. Is it a tiger?
3	GUIDED READING	Model finger-point reading by matching voice-print of the text written on the chart. Subtly exaggerate the initial sounds of the speech as pointing to the initial letter of each word. Repeat this routine over few days. Then invite one child at a time to read the chart. Assist children who have not yet develop the ability to synchronize their voice with print in recited text by using the hand-over-hand method. Distribute to each child a /f/ word. Together children start reading a sentence, and stop at each /f/ word. The child who has the matching word comes to the wall chart and places it over the word on the strip. Prompt the children to explain which visual cues they have used to match them: number of letters, length of the word, guess.
			Although this was not the first children's experience with finger reading, again Anthony demonstrates "finger reading". He explains how to move from one word to the next by paying attention that there is a two-finger space between each word. A child notices that there is only one finger between each letters of a word. By pointing slowly to each word, Anthony reinforces the children's skill of print orientation. A music stick is as good as any other pointer. It is long enough for the teacher to be able to stand further away from the chart and be able to look at all the children. Anthony uses the "hand-over-hand" technique to help a child finger read the chart. Very quickly the child masters the skill. This child, who is younger than the previous one, learns to finger-point read by holding Anthony's arm to feel the motions of the arm. This child finger-point reads with great competence.
4	INTERACTIVE WRITING	Draw a web on chart paper, placing the consonant /f/ in the circle. Attach strands to it, and write the link them to the three words from the chorus. Help children read the words and become aware that the words start with the same letter. Brainstorm with the children other /f/ words that could be added to the chorus. Make sure that the second letter of the words is a vowel such as family, fan, far, few, follows, full. Share the pen with the children who can write with or without the teacher's assistance. Model using other words to extend the chorus by adding more words that begin with the same letter /f/. Invite the children to find other words. Using those words, help the children to create silly sentences using as many alliterations that they may create. Circle the /f/ with a different colour marker. It is suggested to write the texts on sentence strips and to place them in a pocket chart. Distribute one white board to each child for them to copy the /f/ words.
			Anthony is making a web of "T" words. Words are suggested by the children. Sometimes they need to be prompted by the teacher.
			This k-poet is copying down the alliteration poem that was composed by the group of children. She added drawings which indicate that she understands that both print and drawings are part of the same semiotic system. She has circled all the "Ts".
			Those two poets have beautified their transcription of the poem.
			The poetry writing buzz with children lying down on the floor for space and socializing. Clipboards are used for structure and tracking of children's individual work. Writing sheets are of different colors for interest and personalization of work. All authors write their names of their work, and then the teacher keeps them in their portfolios.
			Anthony has copied the poem with a yellow marker to help children who are style learning to form letters. Those photos which were taken in April illustrate how individual children were able to overwrite faster than few months ago.
5	LITERACY WORK SITUATIONS	Literacy Work Stations individually or in pairs, the children match the movable words with the sentence strips. The children draw and write about a "Four Fur Feet animal". The children copy one sentence used previously and illustrate it.