Emergent Literacy Design: Saying Snake Sounds with S
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 sound analogy (hissing 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; word list with "Sally’s sassy snake speaks slowly"; coloring sheet off letter S and snake; word cards with SAY, SMART, YES AND CLASS assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/.
Procedures:
1. Say: Today we're going to work on sounding the word /s/. I am going to show you how to move your mouth to make the /s/ letter sound. We spell /s/ with letter S. S looks like a snake, and /s/ sounds like a snake hissing.
2. Snakes make a /s/ sound when they talk (perform hissing noise). When we make the /s/ sound, our teeth are shut together and our tongue is resting. To make the sound, we gently blow air out between our teeth and open your lips. (Demonstrate and have students practice.)
3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word yes. I'm going to sound yes out in slowly, so be ready to listen to the noise that snakes make. Y-y-e-e-e-s-s. Did you feel the /s/ sound in the end of yes? Yay, you did it!
4. I’m going to read you a tongue clicker. Listen carefully. Sally got a pet snake for her birthday. The snake is sassy when it is tired. The snake speaks very slow when it gets sleepy. Here’s our tickler: "Sally’s sassy snake speaks slowly." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Ssally’s sssassy sssnake ssspeaks ssslowly." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: /S/ally’s /s/assy /s/nake /s/peaks /s/lowly.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake, which is squiggly. Let's write the lowercase letter s. start at the top and curve to the left, curve to the right, and back one more time to the left. This makes the letter /s/. Don’t forget your snake’s eyes and tongue and make him 9 more friends!
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in yes or no? sell or buy? Sunday or Monday? Fork or spoon? Lunch or recess? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Hiss like a snake if you hear the /s/ sounds: dog, smart, apple, steak, stir, bowl, cups, prize?
7. Talk about looking at an alphabet book and show them the letter S page. Ask: “How do we say the letter S? Like a snake!” Proceed to make the /s/ sound and drag it out such as ssss. Ask them to draw a snake and give them a name (examples could be Scott, Sandy, Sarah, Sam). Next, ask the students to put a word to describe their snake that starts with the letter /s/ (examples could be sweet, skinny, slimy, silly). Have each student present their drawing and have them emphasize the letter /s/ when they speak.
8. Show SUN and model how to decide if it is sun or fun: The S sounds like a snake hissing, /s/, so this word is ssss- sun, or sun. Let’s try it!: STAR: star or far? PAIL: pail or snail? SAW: saw or jaw? SACK: sack or pack? LACE: space or lace?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students will color the snake and the letter S and begin tracing the letter S on the bottom to get familiar with writing it.
Reference: https://bridge.edu/tefl/blog/esl-pronunciation-lesson/
"Silly Sally" by Audrey Wood
Assessment : Write a few sentences with at least 6-8 words that have the letter "s" in them.
Worksheet: http://cleverlearner.com/alphabet-themes/images/S-is-for-snake-worksheet-for-preschools.pdf