Lizzie Fain
Sneaky Snake
Emergent Literacy
Rationale:
Studies have found that prereaders' letter knowledge was the single
best predictor of first-year reading achievement, with their
ability to discriminate phonemes auditory ranking a close second (
Materials:
-primary paper and pencils
-Chart with “The sneaky snake slimed down the
stairs softly and slowly.”
-a picture of the “sneaky snake”
-Note cards with different pictures- some that include the letter /s/
and some that do not- snake, shirt, sun, boat, dog, school,
house, slug)
-The book “Swine Lake" by James Marshall
(published by Harper Collins 1999)
-Worksheet with different pictures on it-
(some that have the letter /s/ and some that do not-Snake, cat, snow,
snail, fox, fruit, child, sun, sand, bike)
Procedures:
1-
I will introduce the lesson by telling students that our written
language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what the letters
stand for- our mouth moves the way we say our words. Then I will
tell them that we are going to work on the letter “S.” The sound
of the letter “s” can be in the beginning, middle and end of the
sentence.
2- Do
you know what kind of sound a snake makes? It makes a hiss noise. I
will make the /s/ sound. The “ss” that you hear is the ss sound.
Let’s all make the “ss” sound together and move your arms like a snake.
3-
Let’s
try a tongue twister now(on chart). I will say the tongue twister, “The
sneaky snake slimed down the stairs softly and slowly.” Lets all
say it three times together. Now lets say is and, and this time,
lets stretch the /s/ sound like we did when he made the hiss sound.
“The ssssneaky ssssnake sssslimed down the ssstairssss sssssoftly and
sssslowly.” Make your arms move like snakes
everytime you hear the /s/ sound also.
Try
it again, and this time break it off the word: “The /s/ neaky /s/nake
/s/limed down the /s/tai/s/ /s/oftly and /s/lowly.
4-
Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We can
use letter s to spell /s/. Lets write it. I will first show
them by showing them to begin with your pencil just below the roof and
make a little c so that it sits on the fence. Now, without
lifting your pencil make a curve around the backside of the fence and
rest it on the sidewalk. Make 5 more. When you see the /s/ sound by
itself you know it makes the /s/ sound like a hissing snake.
5- Now,
I am going to hold up a picture card. I will tell them that,
"Some of them have the /s/ in them and some do not." When I show
the picture to you, I want you to slither your arm like a snake if the
picture has the /s/ in it. If it doesn’t, shake your head no. For
example, here is a picture of socks. I am going to slither my arm like
a snake and shake my head yes, because this word does have the /s/
sound in it. Okay. Let’s begin. (I will show them all the picture
cards- snake, shirt, sun, boat, dog, school, house, slug)
6-
Now it is time to use an easy book to emphasize the snake sound
/s/ in texts. Introduce the book, Swine Lake by James
Marshall. You can introduce the book by saying, "Have any of you
ever been to the lake. What do you normally see when you are at
the lake? I want you to listen to the story to see what we see at Swine
Lake, and I want you to keep your ears open for words that make the
same sounds as snakes. Every time you hear a word with the snake
sound I want you to hiss like a snake, making the /s/ sound!
7-
For assessment, I will give the students a worksheet with
pictures that have the letter s in them and some that do not.
They will draw the letter “s” on the pictures that have the sound /s/
in them.
Reference:
“Slithering
Silly Snake” by Shelly Horton
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invent/hortonel.html
Adams,
Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print.
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