Emergent Literacy
                                                                             Mitzi Milam

Rationale:

Children can better their development of the alphabetic principle by learning to recognize sounds in spoken words.  Better awareness leads to sound-to-letter correspondences of our alphabet.  This specific lesson will help children identify sh=/sh/ correspondences due to exposure to material that children my already be familiar or accustomed with. (ex. the Sh! Sh! Stop That Noise chant) Also, children will practice finding the correspondence in written words.
 

Materials:

1) Primary paper
2) pencils
3) chart with Sh! Sh! Stop That Noise!
4) Dry erase board
5) Items that have the /sh/ phoneme and some that do not (ex. shampoo bottle, a shoe, a small toy ship, a piece of trash, a shell, a book, a sock, a block of soap, a candle)
 

Procedure:

1) Start the lesson by explaining to the children that understanding our writing helps us learn which letters should go with each sound that we hear in speech.  We are going to see and hear what sounds we say when we see the letter.  What’s neat is that soon you will be able to heat and see a sound/letter that are in a lot of words.
 
 

2)  Has your teacher or mom ever told you Sh! Please be quiet! Well, that first sound I made with my mouth, /sh/, is the sound that we are going to talk about today.  Now I want you to say it /sh/. (children practice the sound) All right, this time make the sound, but stretch it out. Great job!
 

3) Shelby shampooed Shaggy’s hair while wearing her shiny shoes.  Now everybody say the tongue twister with me this time.  (repeat with the children) Good! Now this time say it again and stretch out the /sh/ in each word.  Great! This time say each word by breaking the /sh/ off each word. (model)
 

4) (writing activity)  Now, lets try to write the /sh/ sound. (demonstrate) Start in the middle between the ceiling and the floor.  The h will start at the ceiling and then makes a hump in the middle. Now, you try it on your paper.  Fill up one whole row with the letters. (teacher uses the dry erase board that has lines drawn on it)
 

5) I’m going to read you a list of words. If you heat the /sh/ sound in the word stand up.  If you don’t sit down.
 

          Trash                       shine                     cash            smash
           Shop                       clash                      car              sweep
           Shoe                        bush                     stan              soap                                ceiling                  park
 

 Now let’s try a chant together. (read chant Sh! Sh! Stop that Noise!; repeat 2-3 times)
 

6) Have children draw a picture or write a word including /sh/ in it that they pick freely.  If they cannot think of a word encourage them to practice writing sh on their lined primary paper.
 
 

7) For assessment, set out the items and have children group the ones that have the /sh/ phoneme together and make another pile of the items that do not include the /sh/ phoneme.
 
 

Reference:

Eldredge, J Lloyd. Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Ohio: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1995.
 

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