Say: To become an expert reader, we need to learn the special code that tells us how to pronounce words. We already learned how to read short vowel words with o like, hop but today we are going to learn about the long O and the sneaky e that tells us that O says it name, /O/.  When I hear /O/ i think of when I am confused about something, and I finally understand it "Oh! I got it!". There are many spellings to make the /O/ sound, but today we are learning that when a word has the letter o and also has an e at the end of the word, that tells us that O says its name! {write o_e on a piece of paper}. This little line tells us that there is a consonant after o, and at the end of the word there is a little sneaky e signal. 

Before we learn about the spelling of /O/, we have to listen for it in words. When i listen for /O/ in words, I think of how my mouth moves when I hear o say its name. My mouth makes a little o shape like this when I say /O/ (make an o with your hand). Here I'll show you! Bone, I heard o say its name and I felt my mouth make a little o (do the hand motion). Now, lets see if I hear o say its name in top. Hmmm. I didn't hear o say its name and my mouth didn't make a little o. Now you try! I am going to say a word and if o says its name, I want you to make an o with your hand and say "Oh! I got it!" if you don't hear o say its name then say "no no no!". rose, hop, tone, hope, stop, clap, nose? 

What if I want to spell the word froze? "it got so cold outside, my pool froze!". Froze means when when water turns to ice in this sentence. To spell froze in our letterboxes, we need to know how many phonemes are in the word. Lets stretch it out to see, /f/ /r/ /O/ /z/. Okay! I need 4 boxes for froze. I heard our /O/ just before the /z/ so I am going to put a z in the fourth box, and our o in the third box. We put e on the outside of the last box because it is our signal that o says its name and does not make a noise! Now lets say it slowly to get the rest of the word. /f/ /r/ /O/ /z/. Okay! so the word starts with /f/ so lets put an f in the first box, and after /f/ comes /r/, so lets put an r in the second box. That is how we spell a tough word. 

Now I will show you how to read a tough word. Stone. (write the word stone on the white board). I', going to start with the o_e because that tells me that o says its name. Now I am going to look at the beginning letters /s/ /t/ /O/ that says /stO/. Now lets put that together with the end of the word. /stO-n/. Oh! that spells stone! 

Now I am going to have you spell some words in my letterboxes. Lets start out easy with only two boxes for the word owe, as in, "sally, you owe me money!" Remember that we put our sneaky e outside of the boxes because it is a signal that o says its name and it doesn't make a sound! I am going to walk around the room and check your spelling for owe. 

You will need 3 letterboxes for the next word rope. Lets listen for the beginning sound to find the letter for the first box, and remember what our sneaky e does to our o and remember to keep e outside of the last box. Remember the word is: rope as in "I like to climb rope". 

Repeat the process for the remaining words: bone, cone, broke, slope, smoke

Now I want you to read the words you spelled. (show the words: owe, rope, bone, cone, broke, slope, smoke, and add extra words pant, drop, and clope.) Have the students read the words all together, then call on each student individually to read a word until you run out of words.

You are doing such a good job reading words with our new spelling for /O/: o_e. Row we are going to read a book called Is Jo Home? This story is about a dog who is best friends with a girl named Jo. The dog really hopes that Jo is home so that they can do all of the fun things the dog has planned. Do you think Jo will be home to do everything this dog has planned? Lets pair up and take turns reading Is Jo Home? to find out if Jo is home to play with the dog. (have the children get in pairs to take turns reading the book while you walk around the room monitoring their progress. When they finish reading, read the book to the class and discuss what happened in the book.)

Before we finish up our lesson about how the sneaky e makes o say /O/, I want to see how well you can tell the difference between short o words and o_e words. There will be a picture and for each picture it will give you two spellings of the word. You need to decide if the word is spelled with the short o or o_e. (collect worksheets to view progress)