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 sound analogy (hissing like a 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.c

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Sam’s snake slithered slowly"; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with SUN, SEE, LET,  SOON,  and SAKE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL below).d

 

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 snake hissing.f

 

2. Let's pretend to sound like a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/. [hissing like snake] Notice where your top teeth are? When we say /s/, weplace put tongue up to our top teeth and blow air.f

 

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word sun. I'm going to stretch sun out in super slow motion and listen for my hissing snake sound. Sss-uu-u-nn Slower: Ssss-u-u-u-u-nn There it was! I felt my tongue touch my teeth and blow air. Hissing snake /s/ is in sun.g

 

4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart].Sam’s snake slithered slowly. The snake was trying to get back to Sam’s room. He was slithering slowly and trying to find his way. Here’s our tickler: "Sam’s snake slithered slowly" Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Sssam’s sssnake ssslithered ssslowly" Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/s/ am’s /s/ nake /s/ lithered /s/ lowly.h

 

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 rooftop. Start to make a sideways c and follow it down into a squiggle. I want to see everybody's s. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.i

 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in work or sun? finger or stop? on or toss? school or food? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Hiss like a snake if you hear /s/: The, sunny, sky, looked, like, the, sparkling, sea.h

 

7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a silly skunk who stinks" Read page 16, 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-supper-sam. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.h

 

8. Show SUN and model how to decide if it is sun or fun: The S tells me to hiss like a snake, /s/, so this word is sss-un. sun. You try some: SEE: see or me? LET:let or met? SOON: soon or moon? SAKE: sake or make?

 

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with S. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.k