The Slithering “S”
Courtney Walker
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale: This lesson will help children with the correspondence /s/, represented by the letter S. Students will learn to identify and hear the phoneme /s/ in different words, learn a memorable representation of /s/ (hissing like a snake), and practice writing the letter S.
Materials:
Procedures:
References:
“Brush your teeth with F” by Dr. Bruce Murray http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/cultivations.html
Worksheet
https://www.myteachingstation.com/reading/phonics/color-the-pictures-words-beginning-with-letter-s
Materials:
- Primary paper and pencil
- Chart with our tongue tickler on it. “Sammie sat on the sidewalk and saw a slimy snail.”
- Sam and Sap (Henderson)
- Word cards with MEAT, SEAT, SAT, HAT, SIP, and DIP on them
- Assessment worksheet for students to complete at the end
Procedures:
- Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /s/. We spell /s/ with letter S. S looks like a slithering and hissing snake, and /s/ even sounds like a snake when it hisses!
- Say: Okay class, let’s pretend we’re all snakes. We’re going to practice hissing like snakes. (Hiss like a snake with students) Very good! Now, when you hiss like a snake what does your mouth and tongue do? Your tongue touches your back teeth, and you blow air through the gap that your tongue makes. (show students as you tell them)
- Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word boss. I'm going to stretch “boss” out in super slow motion and listen for the sneaky snake to slither in. Bbb-o-o-osss. Slower: Bbb-o-o-o-sssss There it was! Did you all hear the sneaky snake? My tongue touched my back teeth and I blew air through the gap. So the hissing S was in boss.
- Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Here’s our tickler: “Sammie sat on the sidewalk and saw a slimy snail.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Ssssammie sssat on the sssidewalk and sssaw a ssslimy sssnail”. Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/s/ ammie /s/ at on the /s/ idewalk and /s/ aw a /s/ limy /s/ nail.”
- [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a great big snake! Let's write the lowercase letter s. It looks like a baby snake. Start at the fence. Start to make a little c up in the air, but then curve it back the other way down towards the sidewalk I want to see everybody's s. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
- Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in sun or gone? House or chair? Jump or skip? Stay or go? Tough or loose? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Hiss like a snake if you hear /s/: The, sunny, day, started, with, several, different, foods, for, breakfast.
- Ask children if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Sipper-sapper-soop, or Saffy-suddy-sot. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
- Show SEAT and model how to decide if it is meat or seat: The S tells me to hiss like a snake, /s/, so this word is sss-eat, seat. You try some: SAT: sat or hat? SIP: sip or dip?
- For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with S. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
“Brush your teeth with F” by Dr. Bruce Murray http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/cultivations.html
Worksheet
https://www.myteachingstation.com/reading/phonics/color-the-pictures-words-beginning-with-letter-s
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