Learning S with Sally Snake

Emergent Literacy

Sarah Kowal

Rationale: This lesson will help a child to identify the phoneme /s/, a sound that is represented by the letter S. Through the lesson will enable the student to recognize the phoneme /s/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (as the snake slithers it goes ‘ssss’), practice finding /s/ in words, and learning a tongue tickler filled with /s/. Students will also learn to distinguish the letter /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials:

• Picture of the Letter S snake

  • http://www.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_images_n300/snake.jpg

• Chart with tongue tickler “Sally snake slithered through the swamp”

• Primary Paper (1 piece per student)

• Pencils (1 pencil per student)

• Word Cards with SAW, SLAM, SEND, and SAT

• Assessment Worksheet

  • http://twistynoodle.com/fill-in-the-missing-letter-s-worksheet/

• Book: Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt

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- the mouth moves as we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /s/. When we spell /s/ we spell it with the letter S. S looks like a snake slithering and /s/ sounds like the noise a snake makes “ssss”.

2. Now let’s practice making the noise a snake makes- /s/, /s/, /s/. Notice where your tongue is? Your lips are apart but your teeth are together. Now when you make the /s/ sound, press your hands together and make the motion of a snake slithering. Everytime we make the /s/ sound we are going to make the slithering snake hand motion.

3. Now I am going to show you how to find /s/ in the word saw. I will stretch the word out slowly and I want you to listen for my slithering snake sound. Ssss-aaaa-www. I will try it slower: Sssssss-aaaaaaa-wwwwww. I could feel my lips were apart and my teeth were together at the beginning of the word.

4. Say: let’s try the tongue tickler that is on the poster: “Sally Snake slithered through the swamp.” Let’s say it together. Now stretch out the /s/ at the beginning of every word. “Sssally Ssssnake sssslithered through the sssswamp.” This time we are going to break it off in the beginning of the word: “/s/ally /s/nake /s/lithered through the /s/wamp”.

5. I am going to saw two words to you and I want you to tell me which one you hear /s/ in. Do you hear /s/ in sat or pat? Slob or blob? Sack or back? Now let’s see if you can recognize the motion of /s/. When you see /s/ make your slithering snake motio, if you do not hear /s/ then put your hands in your lap: say, play, sing, jump, silk, feed, salad.

6. Pass out primary paper and a pencil to the students. “We use S to spell /s/. Lets practice writing a capital S. First, you will form a cup in the air between the rooftop and the fence, and then you will swing back.” I will then model this on a whiteboard and ask them to write uppercase S, ten times. While they are doing this, I will walk around to see if any are having trouble with it. Once they are finished I will say “now let’s try a lowercase s. To make a lowercase s you make a tiny c up in the air and then you swing back.” I will model this again on the whiteboard. “Now let’s practice the lowercase s ten times.” I will walk around again to see if anyone needs any help.

7. We are going to read our letter /s/ book, Scaredy Squirrel. Book talk: “Scaredy Squirrel is a nervous little guy who is perfectly comfortable staying in his tree all day. He’s just not ready to face the dangers that lurk in the great unknown. One day, when he accidentally leaves the comfort of his nut tree, Scaredy discovers that there’s more to the outside world than he thought. You are going to have to read the rest of the book to find out what happens to Scaredy Squirrel.”

8. Show SEND and show the students how to decide if it is send or bend: The S tells me to make my slithering snake; /s/, /s/, /s/. So this word is sss-end, send. Now I want you to try some: SAW: saw or law? SLAM: glam or slam? SAT: rat or sat?

9. To assess the students on s=/s/, I will pass out the worksheet. Have the students color each picture of the object that begins with s. Then have students write S in front of the words that have an S in the beginning. Walk around and help the students who have not grasped s=/s/. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

References:

            http://morgan12bhs.wixsite.com/misstedder/emergent-literacy

            Watt, Melanie (2008), Scaredy Squirrel, Kids Can Press

            https://www.themeasuredmom.com/letter-s-books-2/