Week 5, lesson 1 Long and Short "oo" - Phonics Phase 3 - Lesson plan

Week 5, Day 1 of the phonics curriculum introduces the digraph , which is unique in representing two distinct sounds. The objective for the day is to help students differentiate between the long and short "oo" sounds with the aid of two character flashcards: Oon on the Moon and the Ook with a Book. These characters are central to a story that will be used to demonstrate the two pronunciations of the digraph. The lesson begins with a Quickdash activity to review previously learned graphemes and pictophones, where children excitedly shout out the corresponding sounds.

During the teaching phase, the story of the Oon and the Ook is told, with each character's flashcard raised whenever their respective sound is mentioned. This narrative approach helps children to associate the long "oo" sound with surprise, as expressed by the Oon, and the short "oo" sound with the Ook's grunt while reading. The class is then divided into two teams to reinforce the phonemes through a playful action activity. Practising continues with finger writing the grapheme in the air and on a friend's back, followed by a word sort exercise where students categorise words by their phoneme. Finally, the lesson moves to applying the learned concept with mini whiteboard work, where children write the digraph and dictated words from the provided list, reinforcing their understanding of the long and short "oo" sounds.