Learn about Sammy the Snake with S
Emergent
Literacy Design
Rationale:
This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by
S. Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a
meaningful representation (hand gestures of a snake) and the letter
symbol S, practice finding /s/ in words, and applying phoneme awareness
with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from
beginning letters.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil; chart with Sammy the snake slithers slowly
and softly; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss ABC (Random House,
1963); word cards with SO, SIX, SOCK, MOON, FORK, and SEE; assessment
worksheet identifying pictures with /s/:
http://www.first-school.ws/THEME/alphabetp4.htm#s
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code with many letters. The
tricky part is learning what letters stand for the mouth moves to help
make the sounds that we say come out right. Today we are going to work
on spotting mouth moves to /s/. We spell /s/ with the letter S. S looks
like a snake, and /s/ sounds like what a snake would make.
2.
Lets pretend your hand is a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/. Move your wrist and
hand like a snake while making the sound. Notice that both of
your top and bottom teeth are touching, and your tongue lays flat in
your mouth, and you blow air through your teeth to make the sound.
3.
Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word Boston. Im going to stretch
Boston out in super slow motion and listen for my snake.
Bbb-oo-sss-tt-oo-n. There is was! Did you hear it? I felt my teeth
touch together and blow air. I can feel the snake /s/ in Boston.
4.
Lets try a tongue twister [on chart]. Sammy the snake slithers slowly
and silently. Everybody say it three times with me together. Now say it
again, and this time stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words.
Ssssammy the sssnake sssslithers sssslowly and sssilently. Try again,
and this time break it off the word. /s/ammy the/s/ nake /s/ lithers
/s/ lowly and /s/ ilently.
5.
[Have students take out primary paper and pencils]. We use letter S to
spell /s/. Capital letter S look like a snake and so does a lower case
S. Lets write the lower case s. Start at the belt and go down to the
shoe in a curvy motion going left then to the right. Do not pick you
pencil up off the paper until you are done writing the letter s. Do the
same thing with the upper case but this time you are going to start at
the hat and then go down to the shoe in a curvy motion. I want to see
everybodys Ss. After I put a star on it, I want you to make eleven more
just like it.
6.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear/s/ in
rock or sock? mix or six? No or so? Like or bike? Star or Far? Say:
Lets see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some other words. Move
your hand like a snake if you hear /s/: The, soaking, wet, spider, saw,
stars, in, the, sky.
7.
Say: Lets look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny
creature whose name starts with a S. Can you guess? Read the pages of
S, drawing out /s/. Ask students if they can think of other words
with /s/. Ask them to make up silly creature names like siffer or sear.
Then, have each student write their silly creature name with invented
spelling and draw a picture to show what it might look like. Display
work at the end.
8.
Show SO and model how to decide if it is SO or GO: S tells me to snake
my teeth /s/, so this word is sss-o, so. You try some six or fix? Meet
or soap? Rack or Sack? Sky or Moon?
9.
Assessment: distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the
partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with S. Call
students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
http://www.first-school.ws/THEME/alphabetp4.htms#4
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading����_genie/phon.html
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/projects/garnettel.html