Rationale:  In order to read and spell, children must acquire the understanding that letters represent phonemes in spoken words.  This lesson will support recognition of /s/ in spoken words and its correspondence ‘s’ through speaking, writing, and reading activities.

Materials:  primary writing paper, pencils, chart with “Sam the snake slithered slowly away from the sun.”, Oh Say Can You Say? by Dr. Seuss, picture page with illustrations of snake, bird, sun, stick, yo-yo, bus, tub, squirrel, top, and sock

Procedure:
1. Introduce lesson by telling class that we are going to be snake hunters and that we received a call from the zoo saying that their snakes got loose and are ssslithering all over the zoo.  Today we are going to work on spotting all those pesssky snakes in our words.
2. Have you ever heard a snake say /s/?  Well, that’s what we are hunting for in words.  In order to capture the /s/ in a word, we have to stretch it out.  I’ll try silly, sssiilly.  Did you hear that?  I heard a sssnake in sssilly!
3. (Show chart to class) Let’s try a tongue twister so you can sharpen your listening ears.  “Sam the snake slithered slowly away from the sun.”  Let’s all say it together.  Now say it again but let’s ssstretch it out and sssearch for those sssnakes.  “SSSam the sssnake ssslithered ssslowly away from the sssun.”  How many of you identified /s/ in that sentence?  Very good work!  I think we might catch those sssilly sssnakes after all!
4. (Have class take out primary paper and pencil) We can use the letter ‘s’ to spell /s/.  Let’s practice identifying the ‘s’ by writing it.  Start at the fence and without picking up your pencil, curve to make a ‘c’ and then back the opposite way.  I want to see everyone’s ‘s’.  After I write sssuper on your paper, continue to write s across the page.  Whenever we see a ‘s’ in a word we can think, “I see a ‘s’, must be a sssnake!”
5. Call on random students to find /s/ in words.  Bird or snail?  Basket or bucket?  Toys or bike?  If you agree with their choice I want to hear you say /s/.
6. Read “Rope Soap Hoop Soap” from Oh Say Can You Say?  and talk about what is happening.  Read it again and have students snap every time they hear words with /s/.  Have students write about how they would wash soup off a rope and post their ideas around the room.
7. Assessment:  Hand out page with pictures.  After naming each picture, have class circle those pictures whose names have /s/.

References:
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/elucid/fergusonel.html ­Brandi Ferguson-I’m Feeling Hot, Hot Hot!
Eldredge, J. Lloyd.  Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms.  Prentice
Hall Inc., 1995.  50-70.

Click here to return to Inroads