Rational
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 (snakes) 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; the picture/GIF above projected on the screen for the children to see, chart with "The slithery snake was super scaly"; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with SAT, SIX, BUNK, SEND, PAIN, and SAKE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL below).
Procedure
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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 snake when it hisses.
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Let’s pretend we’re snakes. We're going to use our arm to be a slithery snake and say /s/,/s/,/s/. Do you notice that when we say /s/ our tongue goes to the top of our mouth. We blow air out between our tongue and the top of our mouth.
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Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word Past. I'm going to stretch past out in super slow motion and listen for the snake. Pppp-a-a-ast. Slower: Pppp-a-a-a-sss-t There it was! I felt my tongue touch the top of my mouth and blow air. I can feel the snake /s/ in past.
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Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. There was a girl who was at the snake exhibit at the zoo and they were letting people pet the snake. She had never pet a snake before and she had no idea what it would feel like. So she said, "The slithery snake was super scaly." Everybody say it three times together, "The slithery snake was super scaly". Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. " The ssssslithery ssssssnake wasssss sssssuper ssssscaly." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “The /s/lithery /s/nake wa/s/ /s/uper /s/caly.”
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[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital and lowercase S looks like a snake. Let's write the lowercase letter s. Form a tiny c up in the air, then swing back. I want to see everybody's s. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
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Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in sun or moon? foot or sock? yes or no? rain or mist? miss or hit? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Use your arm to make your snake if you hear /s/: The, silly, slippery, fish, swam, very, fast, in, the, sea
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Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us Silly Sammy Slick drank sodas and got very sick!" Read page 36, drawing out /s/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to think of other food names that start with /s/ like Soda or Strawberries. Then have each student write down their foods and draw a picture. Display their work.
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Show SAT and model how to decide if it is sat or bat: The S tells me to make my snake with my arm, /s/, so this word is sss-at, sat. You try some: SIX: six or mix? BUNK: sunk or bunk? SEND: send or lend? PAIN: stain or pain? SAKE: fake or sake?
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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
Assessment worksheet: https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins1.htm
Link to an additional lesson: https://lct0011.wixsite.com/growingstudentminds/blog/emergent-literacy-design
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