Say Say Oh Playmate is more than just a software program. This section describes a variety of curriculum materials that provide many opportunities to extend learning from the computer screen into the classroom. This section is divided into three areas, classroom environment, individual or group activities, and classroom games.

The following activities strengthens the students’ comprehension of the program. The purposes of these activities is for the students’ enjoyment and to enhance their self-confidence in reading. These activities allows the students to learn in a natural setting, which encourages informal and written interactions. They are not intended to act as formal reading lessons.

Word Walls are areas in the classroom where specific words are displayed for all children to view. The purpose of the Word Wall is to highlight new, exciting, frequently misspelled, unit, or trouble words. The effectiveness of the Word Wall comes from drawing the students’ attention to it daily (only a few minutes to review). These words can change weekly, monthly, or by the unit.

The book corner is an area in the classroom where the student can go and select a book to read. This area should be in quite section of the room where there is not a lot of traffic of people coming and going. The purpose of this area is to have the students obtain access to books in the classroom. When a student selects a book to read, he/she signs in and writes the book he/she has selected. This gives the teacher a record of the books that his/her students are reading.

The song bulletin board is used to display a song. The teacher can use the lyric strips to place a complete song on the bulletin board. The purpose of the bulletin board is to highlight a particular song the students are learning or to introduce a new one.

Materials: Computer and Internet Access

Duration: 5-15 minutes (Time may vary)

The Say Say Oh Playmate Website has a variety of activities and information for students and teachers. The students can try their hand at electro-magnetic poetry, communication with other students, and download new clapping songs created by other children from around the country. Teachers can also check the site for updated information about Say Say Oh Playmate.

Website for the student

1. Talk to Sam
2. Look for Lyrics
3. Rearrange Songs (electro-magnetic poetry)

1. The student(s) click on the activity he/she wants to do.
2. The computer tells the student how to do the activity.

Website for the teacher

1. Curriculum
2. Software
3. Medal
4. Activity Room
5. Publications
6. School Partners

1. The teacher clicks on the category that she/he wants to find information in.

Duration: 5-15 minutes

Activity for the Individual Student

1. The student selects the flashcards of a particular song that she/he wants to work on.
2. The student reads the word from the flashcard and writes it down.
3. Then he/she writes a sentence that corresponds to the word.
4. The completed sentences can be placed on the song bulletin board if the words correspond to the song on display.

Activity for the student that work with a partner

1. The students select the flashcards of a particular song that they want to work on.
2. One student reads the word off the flashcard.
3. The other student tries to spell it correctly. He/she can spelling it out loud or write it on a piece of paper.
4. The students switch turns after each word.
5. If there is time, then the students helps each other to write sentences with each word they spelled incorrectly.
6. The completed sentences can be placed on the song bulletin board if the words correspond to the song on display.

Duration: 5-15 minutes

This activity allows the student to review the song that he/she just learned by playing Say Say Oh Playmate.

1. The student goes to the book corner to select to read one of the songs on Say Say Oh Playmate.
2. The student returns to his/her own seat to read the book.

Duration: 5-15 minutes

Self-Correction: All the strips are numbered in the order that they should be placed. The student can look on the back of the strips to see if he/she placed them in the right order. Each verse is on a separate piece of paper

For example: "A Sailor Went to Sea"

Front of the card Back of the card

A sailor went to sea, sea, sea 1

To see what he could see, see, see. 2

But all that he could see, see, see 3

Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea. 4

Duration: 5-15 minutes

The student can work individually or with a partner.

1. The student chooses the flashcards of a song that he/she wants to work on.
2. He/she places the flashcards on his/her desk and scrambles them up.
3. Then he/she put them back in order.
4. Finally, he/she corrects his/her work.

Self-Correction: All the flashcard of a particular song are numbered and alphabetized in the order that they should be placed. The student can look on the back of the strips to see if he/she placed them in the right order. There is a flashcard for each word.

For example: "A Sailor Went to Sea"

To see what he could see, see, see. 1b, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b, 8b

But all that he could see, see, see 1c, 2c, 3c 4c 5c 6c, 7c, 8c

Materials: paper and pencil

Duration: 5-15 minutes

The student can work individually or with a partner

1. The teacher assigns the student to work with one or two blends. (The most common vowel —consonant, and vowel-consonant-consonant blends are at, am, ag, ack, ank, ap, an, ab, ell, est, ed, ill, ip, ick, ing, in, ink, im, ot, op, ob, ock, unk, ug, uck, and um. The most common vowel-consonant-silent e, and vowel-vowel-consonant are ay, all, ain, ake, eed, and ine.)
2. He/she tries to write as many as words as possible with the given blends.
3. Then he/she writes a song using those words.

Materials: paper, pencil, glue, 2"x4" strips of color construction paper

Duration: 10-20 minutes

1. The teacher divides the class in-groups of four.
2. The writes a word on the board.
3. The team must think of words that rhyme with the given word. (6-9 minutes)
4. One person in the group will record the words.
5. After the allotted time period, students record all their rhyming words onto 2"x 4" strips of color construction paper (one strip for each word)
6. Using glue, students will create word chains by looping one strip through the other and gluing.
7. The group will create a rhyme chain for each color.
8. The team with the longest strip wins.

Duration: 10-15 minutes

1. The teacher hides the lyric strips of six different songs throughout the classroom before the students enter the classroom.
2. The teacher divides the class in six groups.
3. The teacher tells each group which song they need to find and form by using the lyric strips.
4. When the group has found all the lyric strips they sit down and form the song.
5. When they have finished forming the song, they raise their hand.
6. Then they sing the song.
7. The first group to finish wins.

Duration: 10-15 minutes

1. The teacher divides the class in five teams and gives each team a set of flashcards.
2. Each team comes up with a name.
3. The teacher writes the name on the board.
4. The teacher explains that he/she will call out a sentence and the teams have to form it.
5. When the team finishes forming the sentence, the students raise their hands.
6. The first team to finish forming the sentence first earns a point.
7. Then the teacher calls out another sentence.
8. The team that has the most points wins.