Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S. b Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (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.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Sam said he was sorry he put salt in Sally's sandwich.”; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); drawing paper and crayons; word cards with SAT, SIX, FEET, SOCK, CAT, and SEE; 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 slithering snake.
2. Let's pretend to be a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/. [Pantomime slithering snake] Notice where your teeth are? (bottom and top teeth are touching). What about your lips? (they are separate) When we say /s/, we blow air out while we raise our toungue.
3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word salt. I'm going to stretch salt out in super slow motion and listen for my slithering snake. Sss-a-a-alt. Slower: Sss-a-a-a-lll-t There it was! I felt my tounge raise and air coming out. I can feel the slithering snake /s/ in salt.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. "Sam said he was sorry he put salt in Sally's sandwich." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Sssam sssaid he was sssorry he put sssalt in Sssally’s sssandwich.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/s/am /s/aid he was /s/orry he put /s/alt in /s/ally’s /s/andwich.
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 uppercase S. Start at the rooftop and make the letter c until you get to the fence. When you get to the fence, curve your line and make a backwards c until you reach the sidewalk. Now let's write the lowercase letter s. This will be the same shape as the uppercase s, but squished smaller. Start at the fence. Start to make a little c, curve the line and make another little backwards c that ends at the sidewalk. I want to see everybody's uppercase and lowercase s. After I put a star on it, I want you to make five more uppercase and five more lowercase just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in moon or sun? smell or taste? salt or pepper? float or sink? bumpy or smooth? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Slither like a snake if you hear /s/: Sam, said, he, was, sorry, he, put, salt, in, Sally’s, sandwich.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book where Dr. Seuss tells us about a creature whose name starts with S. Let’s see what this creatures name is and lets see what they are doing! Read page 44, drawing out /s/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Silly Sammy Slick or Sassy Stellar Sue. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
8. Show SAT and model how to decide if it is sat or mat: The S tells me to slither like a snake, /s/, so this word is sss-at, sat. You try some: SIX: six or mix? FEET: seat or feet? SOCK: rock or sock? CAT: cat or sat? SEE: bee or see?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with S. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
Dunn, Morgan, Buzz Like A Bee With Z: http://lmd0015.wix.com/literacy-designs#!blank/ckqo
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins2.htm
Dr. Suess's ABC: http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Seusss-ABC-Amazing-Alphabet/dp/0679882812
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