It's The Real Thing

Today I will engage my students in a discussion about the new vocabulary.  The vocabulary is the name of vegetables that go into a salad.  My students are ELL students and do not know the English word for these vegetables.  I will use the sentence frame from the weekly pre-decodable book;        I like ____.  Repeating the sentence frame using the new vocabulary in this warm up activity will help my students learn the vocabulary.  When I teach vocabulary words I like to use the real object or a picture of the word. Multiple exposures to the sentence frame and vocabulary help my students with their reading abilities.

I gather my students in a large circle on the carpet.  We will be passing the vegetables and orally repeating the sentence frame; I like ____.

"We will be reading a book this week that is called,"The Salad".  A salad is a mixture of chopped up vegetables.  Here is a bowl of vegetables.  I will teach you the name of all the vegetables by using the sentence frame; I like  _____.  This first one is a carrot.  I like carrots.  As I hand it to you, I want to you say, I like carrots.  And then pass the vegetable to their neighbor. Ready?"

passing carrot

passing celery

passing lettuce

passing onion

passing pepper

passing tomato

The vegetables go around the circle and are tossed, rolled, smelled and rubbed.  I am glad my students are taking advantage of touching, looking at and smelling the vegetables.  They will remember the name of the vegetable after several days of this activity.

I will be checking for understanding of the vocabulary words in small groups.

"Let's see if you can remember what the vegetables are as we begin to read the book, The Salad.  As we come to each page I will hold up the vegetable and see if you can remember it's name.  Then I want you to find the vegetable in the story."

The Salad - small group comprehension check.

 My students get so excited when they can remember the words.  They always get salad and lettuce mixed up.  It is confusing to them that lettuce comes chopped up in a bag and we call it salad.  Celery is another word that many of my ELL students do not know about.  Bringing the real thing in for them to touch, smell and see, makes the word real to them.  

"Wow, you all did really well reading the story.  I am so proud of you."