Can
You Slither
Like a Snake?
Emergent
Reader
Phoneme
Awareness
Rationale:
It is crucial for children to be able to identify letters and the
sounds that
they make, in order for them to read. The letter-sound
correspondence
will be the basis of reading, being the main reason it is important for
teachers to go over and specifically teach each letter of the
alphabet.
The students should learn the letter or the grapheme along with the
sound or
the phoneme. For this lesson I will teach the letter s.
We
will go over the sound that the letter s makes as well as the
appearance
of the upper and lower case letters. I will do this to make sure
that the
children can identify the s in reading and know the
corresponding
sound. My objective today would be to make sure that each student
is able
to write both the upper and lower case forms of the letter s.
I
will also make sure that each student will be able to know the phoneme
of the
letter s. I want them to be able to identify s in
written
form as well as be able to identify objects or words that begin with
the letter
s. Each letter is crucial to the success of a child’s
reading and it is important for students to learn this letter and
accomplish
this goal to move forward in reading.
Materials:
1.
Big Book
(Silly Sally)
2.
Pencils
for each student
3.
Primary
Paper for each student
4.
Large
writing tablet (to go on easel)
5.
Easel
6.
Blank
drawing paper
7.
Pictures
of different objects, some that begin with /s/ and some that do
not. Ex:
a
shoe, a
table, the sun, a cookie, a sock, a car, a shirt and a monkey
Procedures:
1.
Explain
Why: I will begin by stating to the children, “We have been
learning different letters of the alphabet and the sounds they
make.
Today we will learn a new letter and the sound it makes. Who knows why
it is
important to learn all the letters and the sounds they
make?”
I will listen to the responses from the children and say; “Knowing the
letters and the sound they make helps us learn to read or because it
will make
us better readers.”
2.
Review:
We would first review all the letters that we have studied so far
and after
we are finished I will introduce the letter s. To do
this I will
ask the children to say recall the letters that we have previously gone
over. All of the letters will be placed on the board so that the
children
will have something to look at to connect the phonemes to
grapheme. I
will call only on the children who have raised their hand to make sure
other
children who my not be sure of the phoneme/grapheme will not be
misguided by a
wrong answer. “Trey, what is this letter and what sound does it
make (pointing at the letter A).” “That’s great, a =
/a/ and sometimes A = /A/.” We will continue this until we have
gone over all of the letters we have previously covered. After we
finish
going over the letters, I will point to the letter s and ask
what the
letter is and what sound it makes. “Can anyone tell me what this
letter is (pointing at the letter s) and what sound it makes?”
After receiving responses, “That’s right, this is the letter s
and it makes the /s/ sound.” “This is the letter we will be
learning today, the letter s.”
3.
Explain
How: To begin the lesson of the letter s I will
explain to the
students the way we will move through the lesson. “I have a book
that will help us to learn the sound the letter s makes and
then we
will learn how to write the letter s. After we
learn the
sound and how to write the letter s, we will locate different
pictures/things
that start with the letter s."
4.
Model:
“Today I am going to introduce you to the book Silly Sally.
Silly Sally is going to help us learn more about the letter s.
Will someone tell me the sound the letter s makes again? That’s
right, sssss. That is the sound you
would hear
if a snake was near, the snake will make the sound, sssss.
Put your teeth together, flatten your tongue and put the middle of your
tongue
behind your teeth and make a hissing sound by pushing air through your
front
teeth to make the sssss sound. Let’s
all
say it, and put your hands together and move your arms in the way a
snake would
move. I have a sentence that we will all learn that has a lot of sssss sounds in it; I want you to listen to my
sentence
first. After I have said the sentence with the movements, I want
you to
repeat it with me. Each time we hear the sssss
sound, move your hand in a snake like motion. “Silly Snail Slips
Sideways at the Disco.” The students and I would all go through
the
sentence several times, moving our hands in a snake like motion to
help us
remember the phoneme of the letter s.
5.
Simple
Practice: We will learn how to write the letter s,
both
capital and lower case. “Let’s get out your writing paper and
your pencil. We will learn how to make the upper case s
first. To make the upper case s, you must first form a c
cup in
the air between the rooftop and the fence and then swing back. (I
will
demonstrate the writing on the big writing tablet on the easel).
Let try
that together. After the students have finished making the big s,
we will move on the lower case s. Okay, boys and girls,
let’s make the lower case s. To make the lower case s,
form
a tiny c up in the air, and then swing back. (I will demonstrate
making
the lower s in on the tablet) After the children have
practiced
the lower case s on their paper, I will have the write the
upper case
and the lower case s on their paper ten times a piece.” I
will walk around the room to make sure the children are making the s
the proper
way and if not, I will guide them by giving them verbal directions on
how to
make the upper and lower case letter s. “Now that you
understand what the letter s looks like, I want you to draw a
picture of
something that begins with the sssss
sound. Get
out your blank paper and your pencil and try to think of something
that
starts with sssss, and draw it the best
way you
can. It does not have to be perfect, but I do want you to give it
your
best.”
6.
Whole
Texts: For some of the children, it will be the first time
they have
made the connection of s = /s/, the appearance of the letter s
and how
to write the letter, so I will read the big book of Silly Sally.
Book
Talk: “This book is about a lady named Silly
Sally. Silly Sally is going to town, walking backwards upside
down.
On her way to town she meets many different animals and people and they
add
many different things for her to do on her trip to town. You must
pay
attention to me reading the book to find out what will happen on her
way to
town or if she will get to town.” After reading the book, I
will ask the students to raise their hands to come and point out a word
that
starts with the letter s or have an s in the word.
7.
Assessment:
I will place the different pictures on the white board vertically and
each
picture will have a number on the side of it; some of the pictures will
begin with
the letter s and some will not. The children will take
out a sheet
of paper and number to eight. They will put an s by the number
that
corresponds to the picture that begins with the letter s.
If the
directions are not clear and the students do not understand what to do,
I will
do the first two with them. At the bottom of the paper, I will
have the
student’s use inventive spelling to write a sentence with the letter s
sound in the sentence. I will then use each child’s paper to
see how well they understood the letter s and how to make the
letter
s.
References:
Wood,
Audrey.
Silly Sally. Red
Wagon Publishing, March 1999.
Abby
Alligator by: Lindsey Mizzell
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/mizzellel.html
Sally
the
Silly Snake by: Erin Carey
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/careyel.html
MMMM
MMMM Good by: Gina Thomas
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/thomasel.html
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