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 (slithering snake) and the letter symbol S, practice finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

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Materials:

• Primary Paper

• Pencils

• Picture of the Sally the sneaky snake

• Chart with tongue tickler “Sally the sneaky snake swallowed the seashell by the seashore”

• Crayons

• Book: The Itsy Bitsy Spider (Iza Trapini, 1998)

• Word cards with STOP, SAD, SIT, SAW, SAPPY, SAKE

• Assessment worksheet: Letter S Alphabet Coloring Worksheet and All About the Letter S

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Procedures:

1. Say: “Our written language is a secret code. It can be tricky at times because we may not know what letters stand for. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /s/. We spell /s/ with letter S. For example, when you see a snake slithering along." 

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2. Say: "Lets pretend to slither like a snake using our hand [pantomime slithering snake], /s/, /s/, /s/. Notice how our mouths move to make this sound. When we say /s/, our teeth clench and we push air between them.”

 

3. Say: “Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word sit. I am going to stretch sit out in super slow motion, and I want you to listen for my slithering snake. Ssss-iii-ttt. There it is, right there at the beginning! I felt my teeth clench and air push out between them as I made my /s/ sound. The slithering snake /s/ is in sit.”

 

4. Say: “Lets try the tongue tickler that is on the poster. Sally is a very sneaky snake who roams the seashore looking for seashells. Sally got confused one day and thought the seashell was food and accidently swallowed it. Here is our tickler: ‘Sally the sneaky snake swallowed the seashell by the seashore.’ Everybody say it three times together. [Model with class] Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. ‘Ssssssally the ssssssssneaky sssssssnake sssssssswallowed the sssssssseashell by the sssssssseassssssshore.’ Try it again, and this time break it off the word: ‘ /s/ ally the /s/ neaky /s/ nake /s/ wallowed the /s/ eashell by the /s/ ea /s/ hore.’.” 

 

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. Say: “We use S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake slithering along the ground. Lets write the lowercase letter s. Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little c up in the air, then turn it around and make a backwards c touching 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 these questions:] Say, “ Do you hear /s/ in last or fat? Apple or stop? Pillow or vest? Cast or radio? Weak or strong? Lets see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Slither your snake if you hear /s/: Bat, fast, stung, water, simple, waste, up, fly, went, spit”.

 

7. Say: “Lets look at an alphabet book. Author Iza Trapani tells us about an itsy bitsy spider that climbs up the waterspout.” Read page 3, drawing out /s/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Small-Speckled-Spider, or Scary-Strong-Spider. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work. 

 

8. Show STOP and model how to decide if it is stop or flop: The S tells me to slither the snake, /s/, so this word is ssss-top, stop. Say: “You try some: SAD: sad or mad? SIT: sit or mitt? SAW: saw or raw? SAPPY: sappy or happy? SAKE: sake or rake?”.

 

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the capital and lowercase letter s first, color the images that start with the letter s next, then color the circles with the capital or lowercase letter s in them last. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

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References:

Assessment Worksheet: 

• Letter S Alphabet Coloring Worksheet:

  •  https://www.kindergartenworksheets.net/alphabet-worksheets/letter-s-coloring-worksheet.html

• All About the Letter S: 

  • letter-s-coloring-worksheet.html

• Book: The Itsy Bitsy Spider By Iza Trapani

• Lesson Design: 

  • Hannah Hardin - Cade Clicks His Camera To Capture His Cat Cassie: 

    • ​https://hanhardin1020.wixsite.com/readinglessondesigns/emergent-literacy-design

  • Sean Lucas – Sally Snake Sizzles Sausage: 

    • https://seanman92.wixsite.com/mysite/copy-of-gf-design

  • Bruce Murray – The Reading Genie: 

    • http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/communications/