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 sound analogy (hiss like a snake) and the letter symbol S, practicing finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Silly Sam sang sad songs”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with SAP, MAP, SHARK, BARK, SELL, BELL, SAKE, LAKE, SOP and MOP; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/. 

 

Procedures: 

1. 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 snake, and /s/ sounds like a hissing snake.

2. Let’s pretend to hiss like a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/. [Pantomime “snake” slithering with arms] Notice where your tongue is? (Opening mouth wide). When we say /s/, we put our tongue right behind our front teeth.

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word test. I’m going to stretch test out in super slow motion and listen for my hissing snake. Ttt-e-e-est. Slower: Ttt-e-e-e-sss-t. There it is! I felt my tongue touch the back of my front teeth and blow air. Hissing snake /s/ is in test.

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sam is a silly boy who loves to sing. Sam writes his own songs to match his current mood. One day Sam stubbed his toe and felt sad. He wrote a sad song. Here’s our ticker: “Silly Sam sang sad songs.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. “Ssssilly Ssssam ssssang ssssad sssongs.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/s/ illy /s/ am /s/ ang /s/ ad /s/ ongs.”

5.  [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a slithering snake. Let’s write the lowercase letter s. Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little c in the air going down to the fence. Then make a backwards c starting at the fence and going down to 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.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in sad or mad? Sip or lip? Set or get? Stand or hand? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Slither your snake if you hear /s/: The, candle, smells, like, a, sweet, candy.

7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about Silly Sammy Slick and how he’s feeling after drinking some soda!” Read page 45, drawing out /s/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to make up a silly creature like Sesser-sassy-sis, or salsa-sippy-sap. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

8. Show SAP and model how to decide if it is sap or map: The S tells me to slither my arm snake, /s/, so this word is sssss-ap, sap. You try some: SHARK: shark or bark? SELL: bell or sell? SOP: mop or sop? SAKE: sake or lake?

9. 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. 

Adapted from: Murray, Bruce. Emergent Literacy Design: Brush Your Teeth with F.

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html

Bruce A. Murray, Fun and Games with Lad and Slim. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html

Assessment worksheet: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/212935888607135681/