Emergent literacy Design: Slithering Snakes with S

Ashton Barnes

 

 

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

 

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with tongue tickler; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Suess’s book The Sneetches; words cards with SAME, SMELL, FEEL, SINK, MAKE, STOP; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL below).

 

 

Procedures: 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for-the mouth moves 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 the sound a snake makes when he slithers through the grass.

 

2. Let’s pretend to be a snake slithering through the grass with our hands, /s/, /s/, /s/. Notice what your tongue does when you say /s/. When we say /s/, our tongue presses against our front teeth as we blow air, making the /s/ sound.

 

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word past. I’m going to stretch out past in super slow motion and listen the snake. P-a-a-a-ssst. Slower: P-a-a-a-sssst. There it was! I felt my tongue behind my front teeth. I can feel the /s/ in past. 

 

4. Let’s try a tongue twister. Sally’s favorite thing to do is sing. Every day after school, “Sally sat in the sun singing silly songs” until her mother came to pick her up. Let’s say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. “Sssally sssat in the sssun sssinging sssilly sssongs.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/s/ally /s/at in the /s/un /s/inging /s/illy /s/ongs.”

 

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake. Let’s write the lowercase letter s. Start just below the fence, curve up to the left, curve down to the right and curve the tail back up. I want to see everyone’s s. After I put a sticker 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 here /s/ in house or car? Loose or tight? Close or far? Snow or rain? Ghost or witch? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Make your snake with your hands if you hear /s/: The, salty, sandwich, was, soggy, after, swimming, in, the, stream.

 

7. Say: “Let’s look at Dr. Suess’s book The Sneetches. Dr. Suess talks about a funny creature with stars on their bellies.” Read an exerpt about the Star-bellied sneetches, drawing out /s/. Ask if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to draw their own sneetch and decorate his belly. Display what they draw.

 

8. Show SLAP and model how to decide if it is slap or clap: The S tells me to make my snake with my hands, so this word is sss-lap. You try some: SIT: sit or hit? FEEL: feel or seal? SAD: mad or sad? SUN: sun or bun? LIP: sip or lip?

 

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that being with S. Call students individually to rea 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

 

Assessment worksheet

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins2.htm

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http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/horizons.html