Dionise Ko

Dr. Cydis
April 10, 2018
Shared Reading

“Roaring Rockets”
Book Information:
Book: ​“Roaring Rockets”
Author: ​Tony Mitton
Illustrated by:​ Ant Parker
Level:​ Preschool - Kindergarten

Introduction:
“Roaring Rockets” by Tony Mitton is a great book for emergent readers and corresponds
with my e-unit’​s theme of Outer Space. This book also makes a great shared reading book
because the variance in the vocabulary demonstrates the concepts of print, sight words, alphabet
knowledge, and phonics. In addition, this book also demonstrates phonological awareness
through its rhyming sentences and structure. Some sight words in this book include, they, and,
have, with, big, when, up, and out. Through this book students will learn all about rockets, in a
fun and appropriate level in which they can understand. The rhyming structure allows the readers
to develop phonological awareness as well as rhythm, and fluency in their reading voices.
Moreover, students will discover what it’s like to explore the outer space. At the very end of this
book, there is a fun little glossary page included, providing additional information, as well as
pictures, about some vocabulary words and terms that are correlated to rockets. These terms
include: moon boots, lunar lander, oxygen helmet, and fuel tanks.

Day One- Concepts of Print/Alphabet Knowledge

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.1
Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

Activity to Teach Concepts of Print:​ Dictation

This activity requires the teacher to collect stories children have dictated, illustrated, and
shared. Its purpose is to help children notice different concepts of how print works. For example,
understanding that text should be read from left to right and from top to bottom. This activity can
also demonstrate to the students that each word said can be transformed into a written word,
which is important for emerging readers to realize. Moreover, this activity can be used to show
the use of space on both sides of each word and how a punctuation reflects pauses in reading.
During this activity, the teacher will Introduce the book “Roaring Rockets” to the class.
Together, the teacher will have the students look at the illustrations on the first few pages and
dictate the words that they feel go along with the picture being shown as the teacher writes them
down. This will allow students to see how the words they are speaking correspond with the
words being written on the whiteboard. In addition, by seeing the illustrations on the first few
pages, it allows them to get a preview of what the book might be about.
 Alphabet Knowledge
Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.D
Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet (and their sounds).

Activity to Teach Alphabet Knowledge:​ Letter Rainbowing

All you will need to do this simple activity are paper and crayons. Largely draw letters of
the alphabet on a piece of paper (uppercase and lowercase) and make copies of it so that each
student receives one. Have the students trace the letter with any color crayon of their choosing.
As they are tracing the letter, have them say it out loud, as well as the sounds that each letter
makes. Then have the students repeat this same process but with a different color crayon. Ideally,
this activity calls for using 7 different crayons for the colors of the rainbow, but it can be
tweaked into more or less crayons used. This activity is a great and easy way to get students to
do repetition without making it seem so redundant. It makes re-writing the letters seem more fun
to the students when they are getting to do it in different colors! At the same time, the more they
trace the letters, the more practice they are getting in saying it, as well as recognizing the sound
each one makes. It is also great for handwriting and pencil grasp practice, in addition to the

recognition of letters.​
 Day Two- Phonological Awareness

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.A
Recognize and produce rhyming words.

Activity to Teach Phonological Awareness:​ Erase a Rhyme

For this activity, the teacher will draw a simple picture on a dry erase board (it would be
wise to do this before class begins so that the students are not waiting while you draw). An
example of a simple picture includes things such as grass, sky, tree, flower, and sun. The teacher
will then say a word and a student has to come up and erase what rhymes with that spoken word.
For instance, if the teacher says the word “fun”, the student that comes up would have to erase
the sun. “Tower” would result in the erasing of the flower, “glass” would result the student to
erase the grass and so forth. Repeat this process until the whole picture is erased! This activity is
a great way for students to develop phonological awareness through rhyming. In addition they
will be able to make the connections between the words being spoken to their corresponding
rhymes and to their corresponding pictures. Eventually, the teacher can even have one of the
students volunteer to draw the picture on the erase board on another day.

For “Roaring Rockets” the teacher can project an image from the book on the whiteboard
and trace it prior to the beginning of class. The teacher will then shut off the projector so that
only her tracing of the chosen image remains. When class begins, they can conduct the “Erase a
Rhyme” activity with the traced picture from the book. Since the book itself is in rhymes, the
teacher can use words directly from it, thus allowing the students to get practice and recognition
of the words being used in the story, all the while working on their phonological awareness!
 Phonemic Awareness

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.D
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds
(phonemes).

Activity to Teach Phonemic Awareness​:​ ​Classroom Syllable Graph

Create a blank “Syllable Graph" for each student in the classroom.The purpose of this
activity is to have students properly color in the squares that correspond with the amount of
syllables in their names. The class will practice together by coloring in syllable squares for the
teacher’s name first. Then individually, the students have to color in the correct number of
squares that match the number of syllables in their name. Each student can have their own graph,
but at the same time, they can also collaborate to make one classroom syllable graph that
contains the syllables of all names of the students in the classroom. This activity can also be
made into a game, where the teacher can say the name of a student and the class would have to
color the squares that represent the correct number of syllables. This activity is a fun way to
combine phonemic awareness activities as well as have them practice math!
 For “Roaring Rockets,” the teacher will print out this same “syllable graph” for each
student. As a class, they will pick out words and use their graphs to color in squares that match
the amount of syllables in the selected word. For example, the word “rocket” would have 2
syllables, therefore 2 squares would be colored on the graph. The teacher should remember to
include or write the word under its correlating squares so that the students can remember which
word applies to which squares/syllables.The class can also decide to categorize these words
according to their syllables. For instance, they would use the color red on their graphs for words
containing 1 syllable, the color green for words with 2 syllables, and the color blue for words
with 3 syllables, and so forth.

 
Day Three- Sight Words

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.C
Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
Activity to Teach Sight Words:​ Swat the Sight Word

For this activity, a fly swatter and some colored sticky notes will be needed. In the absence
of a fly swatter, the students can also just use their hands. The point of this game is for students
to identify the sight word that the teacher will call out. All the sight words will be written down,
one per sticky note and laid out in the front of the classroom. For this activity, it might be a good
idea to use different colored sticky notes to color code the sight words by difficulty. For instance,
all the blue sticky notes can be the easier sight words, pink can be medium difficult ones and the
yellow can be the hardest. The sticky notes can be displayed on the board and students will take
turns coming up to “swat” the sight words called out by the teacher. The student must hit the
sticky note with the sight word that the teacher calls out. If the student gets it wrong, they are
given two more chances to try again. At this point, the teacher may even give the student a hint
by telling him or her the color of the sticky note that contains the sight word being said. If the
student gets it right, they pick the next person to come up and “swat” the next sight word before
returning to their seats. This process continues until all students have gotten a turn. Since, the
“Roaring Rockets” contains lots of sight words, it would also be beneficial to include some of
these sight words within the activity so that the students may gain familiarity with it. Through
this activity, students will be actively engaged and will develop the ability to recognize the
different sight words. The more the students play this game, the easier and quicker it will be for
them to recognize the words, thus allowing them to build fluency and accuracy in their reading
as well.
   
Day Four- Analogizing Words

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.B
Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major
vowels.

Activity to Teach Analogizing Words​: Two Vowels Together Song

For introducing the concept of long and short vowel sounds, the teacher can begin by
showing the class the “Two Vowels Together” song. This song will help teach the students how
long vowel sounds work in words. In the song, the lyrics states, “I see two vowels, I hear one.
First one does the talking and the second one keeps walking.” This is something that the students
can refer to when trying to understand how to say words with long vowel sounds. For example,
in the word “peak”, the vowels e and a are next to each other. Using the song lyrics, students can
identify that the first vowel, e, would do the talking, and therefore its sound will be the one
heard, while the second vowel, a, just keeps on walking (we do not hear it). A fun way to utilize
this song is also by having the students “act out” who does the talking and walking. For instance,
students can be assigned words that contain long vowel sounds. The teacher can pair them up,
assigning each student a vowel (i.e. ai, ea, ie, oa, or ue). The class will then review which vowel
will talk and which one will walk. The student who is assigned with the vowel who talks will
simply say out loud the sound that his vowel makes, while the student who is given the vowel
who walks will walk away silent to their seats. This activity is a great way to help students
develop an understanding for the long vowel sounds. As the students become more advanced,
this activity can be done with full words as opposed to just vowel pairs, thus allowing them to
further improve and develop their skills.

Day Five- Phonics

Standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.A
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the
primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

Activity to Teach Phonics: ​Ball and Cap Game

For this activity, all that will be needed is a cap or a hat and a ball. This game can be
played as a whole class or as a small group. First, the teacher will write letters (or
blends/digraphs) an about 15-20 different slips of paper and then put them inside the hat. The
students will be asked to stand up from their seats and form a giant circle around the room. The
teacher will put on music in the background. Students will then have to pass around the hat and
the ball. Ideally, the students should be passing the hat one way (clockwise or counter-clockwise)
and the ball in the opposite direction of the hat. The teacher will be the DJ, stopping the music as
pleased. When the music stops, the student with the hat has to draw out one slip of paper. They
then have to say the sound of the letter(s) on their paper. Make sure to emphasize that they must
say the sound of the letter and not the actual letter(s) itself. The student holding the ball will then
have to say the letter that makes that sound. This activity can go on until every student has had
the chance to be both the hat and the ball so that both may practice associating the sounds with
the proper letters. In the absence of music, the teacher can also just turn around as the students
pass around the materials and randomly yell “stop”. This activity is fun and engaging, tending to
kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learners. In addition, it is a great way to get every student
participating in the lesson and it will help them develop their knowledge of one-to-one letter
correspondences.