“S,
s, sssssss” Says the Snake!
Emergent
Literacy
Rationale:
This lesson will help children
identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S. Students
will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a
meaningful representation and the letter symbol S,
practice finding /s/ in words, and learn to write the lowercase
and uppercase s/S.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil; picture
chart with embedded letter and tongue tickler: "Sally saw a
silly snake slithering down the street"; drawing paper and
crayons; The Berenstain Bears’ Seashore Treasure; word
cards with SAD, SAY, SEED, SING, SEAT, SHINE; assessment
worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL link below).
Procedures:
1.
Letters tell us to move our mouth a certain way to say
words. Today we're going to work on the letter /s/. We spell /s/ with
letter S. [show picture-sound card].
S looks like a squiggly snake.
2.
Not only does /s/ look like a snake but it also sounds
like what snakes say: ssssssss! Let's pretend to be a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/.
[Pantomime slithering your arm like a snake.] Watch me say
snake, when you say,
“snake” your lips
move apart and your tongue hisses. Can you hiss like a snake?
3.
Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word smile.
I'm going to stretch smile out
very slowly and listen for ssssss.
Sss-mm-i-i-i-lll. Slower:
S-mm-i-i-i-lll There it was!
I felt my lips move apart and my tongue ssss. I can hear
myself say /s/ in smile.
4.
I will now write a tongue twister on the board for the children:
Sally saw a silly snake slithering
down the street. Everybody say it three
times together and slither your hand each time you hear /s/.
Then we will all say it together. Now, I will demonstrate
drawing out the s=/s/ sound. Now I will say the tongue twister by myself and I want
each of you to listen carefully:
SSSSSally ssssaw a ssssilly
sssssnake ssssslithering down the ssssstreet. Did you all notice that I drew out
the s sound just like ssss? Can you say it now? Remember to draw
out the S sound like I did!
Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “S/ally /s/aw a /s/illy /s/nake
/s/lithering down the /s/treet
5.
[Have children take out their primary paper and pencil] We use
the letter S to spell /s/.
For capital S, first form a c up in the
air between the rooftop and the fence, then swing back.
For
lowercase s, form a tiny c up in the air,
and then swing back.
Lets practice!
6.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear
/s/ in less or more? face or nose?
Snow
or happy? Dish or bowl? Sink or Water?
Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words.
Slither your hand when you hear /s/: fish, safe, horse,
rose, ship, cookies, sweet, house, kisses
7.
Say: "Let's look at one of my favorite books to practice our
/s/.
Book talk: The entire bear family goes to the beach. When
they drive up to the house they decide they want to go swimming.
As Papa Bear is putting on his swimsuit he discovers a treasure
map. Will the bears find the treasure? Read the book, drawing
out /s/. Tell
children to slither their arms whenever they hear /s/.
Write down the words that start with a /s/. Ask them to
draw the treasure (sea shells) on their paper and then have them
write the word seashell below their picture (with invented
spelling).
8.
Show SAD and model how to decide if it is sad or mad:
The S tells me to slither my hand and pull my lips
apart, /s/, so this word is sss-ad,
sad. You
try some: SAY:
say or day? SEED: deed or seed? SING:
sing or ding? SEAT: seat or meat? SHINE:
dine or shine?
9.
Assessment: For assessment, distribute the worksheet.
Students are to complete the partial spellings by adding
s and color the pictures that begin with S. Call
students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step
#8.
References:
www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/catalysts/hallel.html
Lecture Notes from CTRD 3710
Assessment Worksheet:
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins1.htm
Berenstain, Stan, and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstain Bears' Seashore Treasure. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.