Sssneaky Sssnakes
Emergent Reading
Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /s/, the phoneme represented
by S. Students will learn to
recognize /s/ in spoken language by learning a meaningful representation
(slithering snake) and the letter symbol
S, practicing finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in
phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: primary paper, pencils, "Sweet Susy sent Sam snickers" chart, cards
with SOCK, WRONG, SIX, SEND, FAKE, SING written on them,
Oh, the Places You'll Go, worksheet
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language can be kind of tough to learn sometimes. The tricky
part is learning what letters stand for. Our mouths make different mouth moves
as we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /s/. We
spell /s/ with the letter S.
S looks like a snake slithering
across the paper, and /s/ makes the same sound as when a snake hisses.
2. Let's pretend that our arms are snakes. /s/ /s/ /s/. [Wiggle arm back and
forth like a snake slithering] Notice where your teeth are when you say /s/.
They are touching in the front. Your tongue is touching the roof of your mouth
towards the back. We blow between our teeth.
3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word rest. I'm going to stretch out
rest in super slow motion and listen for my snake.
Rrr-ee-e-st. Slower:
Rrr-e-e-e-ssss-ttt. There it was! I
felt my teeth touch together and blow air. I can feel the snake /s/ in
rest.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. "Sweet Susy sent Sam snickers."
Everybody say it three times together. Now, say it again, and this time stretch
the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Ssssweet Ssssusy ssssent Ssssam
ssssnickers." Try it again. This time separate it from the word. "/S/ weet /S/
usy /s/ ent /S/am /s/ nickers."
5. Have the students take out primary paper and a pencil. We use the letter S to
spell /s/. Capital S looks like a big
snake and a lowercase s looks like a
baby snake. Let's write the lowercase s.
Start just below the fence. Curve it back up to touch the fence. Swoop down to
right below where we started and bend it back around to touch the sidewalk. Let
me see everyone's s. After I give you
a smiley face on your paper make nine more just like it!
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew. Do you hear /s/ in
song or
book?
Weak or strong?
Talk or
say? Strum or
beat?
Blind or
see? Say: Let's see if you can spot
the mouth move /s/ in some words. Move your arm like a snake if you hear /s/:
the, start, play, kite, sad, silly, mad,
ring, song, truck.
7. Show SOCK and model how to decide if the /s/ is in
sock or
dock: The
S tells me to slither like a snake,
/s/, so this word is sss-ock,
sock! You try some: SIX:
six or
mix? WRONG:
song or
wrong? SEND:
send or
mend? FAKE:
fake or
sake? SING:
sing or
ring?
8. Read Oh, the Places You'll Go.
Say: "I am going to read a book to you.
As I am reading, I want you to move your arm like a sneaky snake would
slither on the ground when you hear /s/." [read text]
8. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to color the pictures
that begin with S. Call students
individually to read the phonetic cue words from step 8.
REFERENCE
Dr. Murray, Bruce, The Reading Genie, Mouth Moves and Gestures for Phonemes,
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/mouthmoves.html