The Mix-Up Monster

Even kids who are far from being "ready to read" enjoy the absurdities of the drama. The plot's a bit thin, but our kids haven't yet complained.

Objectives

Children participating will be able to read simple words, gives phonetic sounds of letters, identify letters by naming, and they will attend to puppet show (large group activity). SE I

 

Materials

Mix-up Monster puppet; little girl puppet; blocks with letters C, B, S, F, A, and T.

Procedures

1. The girl puppet comes out and proudly explains to her audience that she has just learned to read a word and will be glad to teach them to read.

She lugs up three large blocks with the letters C, A, T, and spells out the word CAT phonetically (children may say letters with puppet).

2. Next she excuses herself for a few minutes (perhaps to check on the cake she is baking) and the Mix-up Monster appears. He also reads the word, but them substitutes a B for the letter C.

3. The girl returns and begins to read the word CAT. She is flustered and then realizes that a letter has been changed. She then practices reading her new word BAT.

4. The Mix-Up Monster returns and again changes the letter. Repeat this several times until finally the little girl catches the Monster in the act. In the end, they name all the beginning letters and read four and five words together. The little girl says she is tired of getting mixed up and that they should work together to learn how to read.

5. After this puppet show has been done a few times and the words become familiar, the Mix-Up Monster begins mixing up the order of the letters instead of changing the initial letter.