Sammy Slinks Down the Slide into Sand
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 (throwing hands in the air as if on a slide) and
recognize the letter symbol
S.
Students will practice finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness
with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning
letters.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil
Picture chart with embedded letter and tongue tickler: “Sammy Slinks Down the
Slide into Sand”
Drawing paper and markers
Dr. Seuss’s
Oh the Places You’ll Go
Word cards with SAD, SIT, MOLD, SET, LEEK, SOOT
Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/
Procedure:
Introduction
1. Say:
The words we write are a secret code and it is our job to figure out what
each letter stands for. Each letter
tells us to move our mouth in a specific way in order to say words.
Today we’re going to learn to spot the mouth move in /s/.
We can spell /s/ with
S
(show picture chart with embedded letter).
S
looks like a windy slide at the park and /s/ sounds like our bodies slinking and
swooshing down the slide: S...s, swoosh!
2. Say:
Let’s pretend we are slinking and swooshing down the slide at the park,
/s/, /s/, /s/ (throwing hands in the air as if on a slide).
Notice that our lips are open slightly and our front teeth are closed
together (point to teeth). When we
say /s/ we blow air through our closed teeth.
Teacher models
3. Say:
Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word
sand.
I’m going to stretch
sand
out very slowly; make sure you listen for s...s, swoosh like we are slinking
down the slide. Sss-aa-nnn-dd.
Now I will say it even slower:
Sss-aa, I heard it! I felt
air blowing through my closed teeth.
I heard myself say /s/ in
sand.
Activities - practice becoming familiar with phoneme
4. Say:
Now let’s try a tongue tickler (show picture chart).
“Sammy Slinks Down the Slide into Sand.”
Now let’s all say it together three times.
Remember to throw your hands in the air as if on a slide whenever you
hear /s/. When we say it this time,
let’s stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words as I point to them on the
picture chart. “Sssammy ssslinks
down the ssslide into sssand.” This
last time, let’s break /s/ off of each word: “/S/ammy /s/links down the /s/lide
into /s/and.”
Activities - practice writing grapheme
5. Say: (take out primary paper and
pencil for each student) We use the letter
S
to spell /s/. Capital
S
looks like a slinky slide at the park and lowercase
s
looks like the slinky slide for babies at the park.
Let’s write the lowercase letter
s.
Start at the fence, make a small
c,
half the size it would normally be, and then make a backwards
c,
ending at the sidewalk. I will come
around and put a star by your paper once you have gotten it.
Then, write five more lowercase
s
just like it.
Activities - practice finding phoneme in spoken words
6. Say:
Do you hear /s/ in big or
small?
Forest or
swamp?
Rough or
soft?
Snow or
rain?
Chop or
slice? (call on students to answer
and have them explain their distinction).
Now let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some new words.
Remember to put your hands in the air as if on a slide when you hear /s/:
candy, sweets, cupcake, snickers,
brownies, cookie, sour patch kids, chocolate.
Practice with a connected text
7. Say:
Let’s look at Dr. Seuss’
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Dr. Seuss tells us that we can do anything we want in life.
But, sometimes things don’t always go our way.
How do we make things better for ourselves?
As I read, throw your hands in the air as if on a slide whenever you hear
/s/ (read page 2, drawing out /s/).
If you could do anything you want in life, what would it be?
What are some jobs that start with /s/?
I want each of you to write what you want to do in life and illustrate it
(students can use invented spellings; when students are finished display their
work).
Practice reading grapheme of new phoneme
8. Say:
I am going to look at SAD and decide if it is
sad
or
mad.
The
S
tells me to throw my hands in the air as if on a slide, /s/, so this word is
sss-ad, sad.
It’s your turn now: SIT: sit
or fit?
MOLD: mold or
sold?
SET: set or
let?
LEEK: leek or
seek?
SOOT: soot or
foot?
Assess phoneme awareness
9. For assessment, I will
distribute the worksheet (see attached).
Students will complete the spellings of words, using
s
when appropriate, and color pictures of words starting with
s.
Students will read the phonetic cue words from step 8 as I call them up
individually.
References
"Color the Pictures - Beginning Letter Sounds."
Kidzone - Fun Facts for Kids!
Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins2.htm>.
Murray, Geralyn. “Creating Literacy
Design.” 10 Feb 2012.
https://sites.google.com/site/readingwritingconnection/designing-emergent-literacy-lesson
Seuss.
Oh, The Places You'll Go!
New York: Random House, 1990. Print.
Whitcomb, Amy. “Sammy the Slimy
Snake.”
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/whitcombel.html