Sawing Saws
Emergent Literacy
Rationale:
This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S.
The students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a
meaningful representation (sawing with a saw) and the letter symbol S, 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; chart with tongue twister "Sally sees silly signs";
cue cards with SICK, SIP, SEAT, SEAL, SAY, and SAND; and assessment worksheet
for identifying words with beginning /s/ sounds.
Procedures:
1. Our written language is hard to learn sometimes. We have to pay
attention to the way that our mouth moves when we make certain sounds.
Today we are working on how to find the mouth movement for /s/. /s/ is
spelled with the letter S. S looks
like a snake and sounds like a saw sawing.
2. Let's pretend that we are holding a saw. Move the saw back and forth like you
are cutting a piece of wood, /s/, /s/, /s/. [Move arm back and forth over other
arm as if cutting it.] Notice where your tongue is? (Tip of tongue touches
above top teeth). When we say /s/, we put our tongue above our top teeth
and blow out air making a sound like a saw cutting wood.
3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word star. We are going
to say the word really slowly while stretching and listen for the saw sound.
Ssssss - tar. There it is! I felt air blowing out of my mouth over
my tongue. I can feel the sawing in
star.
4. Let's try a tongue twister. "Sally sees silly signs". Let's say
it together three times. Now, let's say it again but this time really
stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Ssssally sssees sssilly sssigns".
Now, let's try that again and this time instead of dragging out the sound, let's
separate that sound at the beginning from the rest of the word. "/s/ ally
/s/ ees /s/ illy /s/ igns"
Remember to saw your arm when you hear the /s/ sound.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell
/s/. Capital S looks like a big snake, and little s looks like a baby snake.
Let's write the lowercase letter 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 check everyone's little s's, I want you to make five more just
like it using the same steps we just did.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew:
Do you hear /s/ in spoon or fork?
Sun or moon?
Smile or frown?
Summer or fall?
Small or big?
Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Start sawing if you
hear /s/: Sleep, mask, door, run, snack, switch, ham, less, bag.
7. Phonetic cue reading. Show SICK and model how to decide if it is sick or
lick: The S tells me to saw, /s/, so this word is sssick, sick. You try
some: SIP: sip or dip? SEAT: meat or
seat? SEAL: meal or seal? SAY: say or pay? SAND: band or sand?
8. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to draw lines to
and color the objects that start with S. Call students individually to read the
phonetic cue words from step #7.
References:
Dr. Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie, Mouth Moves and Gestures for Phonemes.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/mouthmoves.html
Beginning Constants Worksheet.
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins1.htm