The Cave - Tip Sheet

An image of the Cover of the book "The Cave" showing a large grey rockface on the side of an ocean or lake

- IT IS ESSENTIAL TO PRE-TEACH THE CONCEPTS INTRODUCED IN EACH BOOK PRIOR TO READING! -

The Cave - Teacher Tip Sheet

Purple Series - Book 1 - The Cave

Grapheme/Phoneme Correspondence

Tips and Activities to Try

Introduced in This Book

long <i>/ī/, long <a>/ā/, long <o>/ō/ (in VCe pattern)

Previously Introduced

Vowels

all short vowels, <u>/o͝͝o/
<o>/ō/, <e>/ē/, <y>/ī/, <ee>/ē/, <ay>/ā/, <ai>/ā/, <y>/ē/

Consonants

all single consonants and clusters
<ng>/ng/, <nk>/nk/
<s>/s/ and /z/, <c>/s/

Digraphs/Trigraphs

<th>/TH/ voiced, <th>/th/ unvoiced, <ck>/k/, <ff>/f/, <zz>/z/, <ss>/s/, <ll>/l/, <sh>/sh/, <ch>/ch/, <qu>/kw/, <-tch>/ch/, <-dge>/j/, <wh>/wh/

Additional Concepts

<al> (<a> as short /ŏ/ before <l>)
<wa> (<a> as short /ŏ/ after <w>)
<er>/er/, <or>/or/

Key Concepts to Understand

one job of marker <e> (often referred to as “magic <e>”) is to mark the preceding vowel as long

Note: “The Cave” includes i-e (“i consonant e”), a-e (“a consonant e”), o-e (“o consonant e”) so ensure students have had a lot of practice with VCe before reading this book.

Review soft <c> from “Recess” (Blue Series)

<c> when pronounced /s/ is often referred to as soft <c>
in complete English words, <c> is usually pronounced /s/ when followed by <e>, <i>, or <y> (e.g., ice)

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.:

blame, scale, state, shame, crave, grade, crime, shine, spine, white, size, drive, broke, chore, spoke, slope, globe, stole
words with soft <c> → price, slice, splice, place, space, grace, dice

Here are phrases that can be used for reading and/or dictation practice. These phrases can be combined to create sentences. A good opportunity arises to address syntax if the resulting sentence is not grammatically correct.

Noun Phrase	Verb Phrase	Prepositional Phrase
the white hose on sale	was laying	by the home
the ripe lime	rolled all the way (refer to Bobcats Tip Sheet)	to the slope
the nice bride	was awake	by the lake
her safe plane	was going to race	to the rare rose

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

Orthographic Conventions/Patterns and Generalisations

Tips and Activities to Try

review <wa> (<a> as short /ŏ/ after <w>)

Key Concepts to Understand

when <a> follows <w> it is usually pronounced /ŏ/
when <wa> is followed by /g/ or /k/ (velar stop) the <a> represents a short sound /ă/ (e.g., wag, whack, wax)

Word Sort

Provide students with the following (unsorted) words:

<a> as /ŏ/	<a> as /ă/
wand, watch, want, water, wasp, wall, wafted, swan, swamp, swap, swat	wagging, whack, wax, wago

The goal is for students to notice that the <a> is pronounced /ă/ when followed by /g/ or /k/ (velar stop).

Morphology

Tips and Activities to Try

Previously Introduced

suffix <-s> third person singular, plural, and possessive
suffix <-ing> as present participle
suffix <-ed> as past tense of a verb
compound words

Key Concepts to Understand

Note: It is important to ask students to cover the suffix with their finger in order to focus on the base when consonant clusters are in final position and have an attached suffix. When reading drifting, ask students to cover the <-ing> and read drift, ask them to release their finger and reread the entire word with the <-ing> - drifting.

Comprehension Corner - The Cave

Vocabulary Development

What is a tunnel? How are tunnels formed?

Making Connections

How would you feel if you were exploring a cave?

Inferencing

The author writes, “Dad, Tess, and Zack went along the walls to get inside the cave.” Why do they go along the walls?

Retelling/Summarizing

What is your favourite page in this book? Why?
What activities did the family do when they were camping?