sausage

Sizzling Sausage

Emergent Literacy
Elizabeth Stevens

Rationale: “To appreciate the alphabetic significance of letters, children must gain conscious access to phonemes.” (Adams, 1990) In order to read, children need to know the sounds that each letter represents. If they did not know that a letter represented a sound, the letters would merely be symbols with no significant meaning. This lesson will help students to identify s = /s/. They will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a representation of the sound and a letter symbol. They will also practice finding the /s/ sound in words.

 Materials:

 Procedures:

1. Introduce the lesson by telling the students that we will be talking about the sound /s/. “Watch me as I say the /s/ sound. ‘Sssssss.’ Now I want you to try. Repeat it after I do. ‘Ssssss.’” Next I will show the pictures asking which starts with the /s/ sound. The pictures will be taped on the board in no particular order.

 2. Ask students: “Have you ever seen someone cooking sausage and noticed that the sausage in the frying pan made the /s/ sound? I surely have. Let’s pretend someone is cooking breakfast for us, and we’ve just walked into the kitchen, and we hear the sausage sizzling in the pan. What sound will we hear? We will hear the /s/ sound!

 3. Now I want you to help me with a tongue twister. I’m going to say it first, so listen and repeat after me. “Sam cooked the sizzling sausage Saturday morning.” Now you try it. Now say it three more times and after that we are going to stretch out the /s/ sound. “S-s-s-am cooked the s-s-s-sizzling s-s-s-saus-s-s-sage S-s-s-s-Saturday morning.” Very good! Now this time we are going to say the /s/ by itself and then the other part of the word. /S/ am cooked the /s/ izzling /s/ au /s/ age /s/ aturday morning.

 4. Now I want you to take out your primary paper and pencils. We can use the letter s to spell /s/. We should write it. Start at the fence, form a tiny c up in the air and then swing back. I want to see everyone’s s. After I see everyone’s I want you to finish out the line on the primary paper with the letter s.

 5. Now I want to show you how to find /s/ in the word baseball. I’m going to stretch out the word baseball in slow motion. Now listen for the sizzling sausage. B-b-b-a-s-e-b-a-l-l. B-b-b-a-a-a-s-s-s….There it is! I hear the sizzling sausage in baseball, can you?

 6. I’m going to call on you to see if you can find /s/ in some of one of the two words that I say to you. Do you hear /s/ in sun or fun, sink or float, sock, toe, stand, lay?

 7. Now we are going to read some of the book, Silly Sally. The first time I read it, we are just going to listen and enjoy the book. “Silly Sally went to town, walking backwards, upside down.” Along the way, Silly Sally meets new friends. Do you think they will all walk upside down to town? Let’s read on and find out! I will read the book through once and then again. On the second read though, the students will raise their hands when they hear /s/. The students will write down their word that they raised their hand for. The students will be able to use invented spelling to try their best to convey the correct spelling of their word. All of this will be written on their primary paper.

 8. The students will be assessed on their ability to write the letter s on their primary paper, their ability to write a word with the letter s, and their ability to raise their hands at the right time during the Silly Sally reading.

 References: Adams, Marilyn Jager. (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print. Preparing Young Children to Read, 53.

 Bell, Elizabeth. Slinky Scaly Snakes. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/bellel.html

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