Rationale:

This lesson will teach children to identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S. The students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by using a sound analogy (moving hand/arm in a slithering motion), practice finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

• Cart with tongue tickler on it

• Primary paper 

• Paper

• Pencil

• Color Crayons

• Book, "An Amazing Alphabet book"

• Word cards with SEE, SEAL, SACK, SNAIL, STAR

• S worksheet

 

Procedures:

1.  Say: Today, we are going to be learning about the letter S. The letter S makes the sound /s/. It sounds like a hissing snake, so make sure to watch out for S in today's lesson. When we say /s/ our tongue touches the back of our teeth and we can feel the air come out between our teeth and tongue.

2. Now, I want you to practice saying /s/ with me. Put your hand up like it is a slithering snake and say /s/, /s/, /s/.

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word bus. I am going to stretch sun out in slow motion and I want you to search for the snaky/s/ sound. Bbb-u-u-u-s. One more time even slower Bbb-u-u-u-sss. I found it! I felt the sneaky S snaky out behind my teeth. 

4. Let’s see if you can find the S in a tongue tickler (on the chart). Sammy’s mom made him a yummy sandwich for lunch and he was so hungry when it was lunchtime but when he got it out of his lunchbox it was squished. Here is our tongue tickler: “Silly Sammy Sat on his Sandwich”. Now let’s say it together. [say it with the whole class] Okay, this time we are going to repeat it again, but we are going to stretch out the /s/ at the beginning. “Ssssilly Sssammy Sssat on his Sssandwhich”. Try it one more time by breaking it off of the word. “ /s/ illy /s/ ammy /s/ at on his /s/andwhich."

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter S to write /s/. A capital S and a lowercase s look just alike except lowercase s is a little smaller and starts at the fence. I want to see you write a lower case s. Remember that it starts at the fence and then it curves around to the left and then makes a backward c between the fence and sidewalk. I am going to walk around to see if anyone needs help but I want you to write an s 5 more times. 

6.  [Call on students to answer and explain how they know the correct answer]: Do you hear /s/ in sand or dirt? Cat or snake? Spoon or fork? Small or big? Rough or soft? Let me see your hand slither like a snake when you hear the /s/ sound: apple, sand, soup, cup, sun, at, walk, is

7. Now, I am going to show you a page from a book called, "An Amazing Alphabet Book". This book has some really cool saying for each of the letters in the alphabet but today we are just going to focus on our snaky S. When you hear our /s/ sound I want you to show me your snakes [show the S page from the book and have them make the sound analogy for the /s/ sound]. 

8. You have done a great job searching for the letter S, but now I want to you tell me how it sounds! Let me hear that hissing snake!” [proceed to make the /s/ sound and drag it out such as ssss]. [have them take out paper and pencil] You are now going to draw a snake on your paper and then give your snake a name with an S like Sarah, Samantha, or Scotty [give time to draw a snake and name it]. Next, I want you to write a word that describes your pet snake that starts with an S an example might be, stinky, silly, or sneaky [allow time for them to come up with a word]. When I call on you, I want you to show the class your picture, tell us its name, and the word you came up with to describe it [each student will present their drawing]. [have other students can get their hands ready for when they hear the sound /s/.]

9. [show SAD and model how to decide if it is sad or mad]: The S sounds like a snake hissing, /s/, so this word is ssss- sssad, sad. You try some: SEE: see or hear, SEAL: dog or seal, SACK: sack or rack, SNAIL: boat or snail, STAR: star or moon. 

10. Great job! You will now color the pictures on the worksheet that start with the letter S [distribute the worksheet]

 

 Assessment:

1. Students color the pictures that begin with S

2. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step 6 and 9

3. Take up the pictures of the snake they drew

4. Assess their writing of the letter S

 

Reference:

• Anna Katherine Palmer, Saying Snake Sounds with S: 

https://annakpalmer27.wixsite.com/lessons/emergent-literacy 

• Book, Dr. Seuss's "An Amazing Alphabet Book" 

​https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Seusss-ABC-Amazing-Alphabet/dp/0679882812 

• Worksheet 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/531143349781759714/ 

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