Cat Nap - Tip Sheet

Cat Nap - Teacher Tip Sheet

Yellow Series - Book 1 - Cat Nap

Grapheme/Phoneme Correspondence

Tips and Activities to Try

Introduced in This Book

• short <a >/ă/, short <o >/ŏ/
• <c >/k/, <g >/g/, <s >/s/ unvoiced, <d >/d/, <h >/h/, <m >/m/, <n >/n/, <p >/p/, <t >/t/

Note: Specific ideas for teaching and consolidation activities can be found in our Grapheme/Phoneme Corresponence Background Information Sheet.

Key Concepts to Understand

• /m/ and /n/ are nasal phonemes, which means the air stream created during articulation is directed through the nasal cavity - nasal phonemes are fun to explore, because the sound stops when you plug your nose
• nasal phonemes can also change the sound of the preceding vowel - be aware of this when reading and writing words that contain <an >and <am >- if your students are not ready for this - save these words for later lessons
• be aware of “stop phonemes” and “continuous phonemes” when having students read and spell words - blending from a stop phoneme to a vowel can be difficult, so it is a good idea to start with continuous phonemes

Words and Phrases for Reading and Writing

Here is a list of words that can be used for phonemic awareness activities, reading, dictation, games cards, etc.:

• at, cat, nap, sat, dad, sap, had, tap, sad, gap, mad, hat, an, man, pan, tan, can, am, ham, on, cot, hot, hop, dot, nod, dog, hog, mop, pot, sod

Here is a word chain you could complete with blending cards:

• mat → map → mop→ top→ tap→ tad → dad → sad → sat → pat → pot → hot → got → not → cot → cat

Here are phrases that can be used for reading and/or dictation practice. These phrases can be combined to create sentences.

You can differentiate for your students by dropping some of the words in these phases (e.g., “went to the mall” can just be “went”).

Orthographic Conventions/Patterns and Generalisations

Tips and Activities to Try

• short vowel sounds in closed syllables

• <c >as default grapheme for /k/

Key Concepts to Understand

• closed syllables have a single vowel that is followed by one or more consonants - the vowel usually makes its short sound
• we use <c >to represent /k/ unless it is followed by an <e >, <i >or <y >(then it is pronounced as /s/), or when /k/ is found at the end of a base (e.g., milk, bank, sick)
• some words such as kangaroo , kayak , etc., are not full English words, and therefore do not follow this convention
• when teaching <c >/k/, be careful to stay away from phases like “<c >says /k/”, because <c >also represents other phonemes and can be part of other digraphs such as in s ch ool, sc ience, and ba ck

Activities to Try

• students need practice recognizing and reading words with short vowels - here are some consolidation activities:
  • Sticky Note Pile Up: have students become detectives and look for closed syllable words on classroom displays, on signs in the school, in books, etc. - write the words they find on sticky notes and place on an anchor chart
  • Word Sorts: to begin with, the teacher can create the sorts, then have students create their own - the purpose of sorts is to help students see what closed syllables are, and what they are not
  • More Ideas: https://alongthelearningjourney.wordpress.com/2019/11/12/post-6-consolidation-activities/

Punctuation/Text Features

Tips and Activities to Try

• concept of phrase and sentence

• period at end of complete sentence

• exclamation mark

• capitalization of proper nouns

Key Concepts to Understand

• a complete sentence contains a subject and a predicate:
  • subject: the what (or who) the sentence is about
  • predicate: what the subject is doing/what the subject is being
• a complete sentence must always end in punctuation
• when we see an exclamation mark, we need to read the sentence in an emphatic way
• proper nouns (a noun for a particular person, place or thing) are capitalized

High Frequency Words

Tips and Activities to Try

• “a” (<a> typically pronounced as a schwa)

Key Concepts to Understand

• the word a is usually pronounced with a “schwa” (unstressed vowel sound), rather than a short /ă/ or long /ā/
• English is a stress timed language (review concept from Grapheme/Phoneme Background Sheet)
• unstressed syllables are often reduced (not as clearly articulated or emphasized)
• vowels in unstressed syllables are pronounced as a schwa
• a is a function word - function words are defined as words that have a grammatical purpose/specify grammatical relations, as opposed to content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs which have a distinct meaning
• function words are often unstressed in a phrase or sentence, thus are pronounced with a schwa

Activities to Try

• Have students explore the concept of stressed and unstressed words and syllables by saying simple sentences. For instance, say the sentence, “I have to go to a doctor” and have students repeat, stressing every word (like a robot). Repeat the sentence with natural stress and intonation. Hearing the contrast helps students notice that we tend to stress I , go, and doctor , while the have to and to a , squish together and are said quickly and are unstressed.

Comprehension Corner - Cat Nap

Vocabulary Development

• What is a nap ?
• Do you like to take naps?
• Is a nap different from going to sleep at night?
• Do you have a pet that likes to take naps?

Making Connections

• Do you have a pet?
• Does your pet have a favourite human?

Inferencing

• Why do you think Dad is sad?
• Does Dad stay sad?

Retelling/Summarizing

• Can you retell the story?
• Do you think “Cat Nap” is a good title for this book? Why or why not?