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Slither Like a Snake with 'S'

By: Morgan Burkett

 

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 (slithering 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.

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Materials: Primary paper and pencils; chart with “Sally’s slimy snake slithers so swiftly”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with SAT, SICK, LONG, SIP, SLAM, DEAR; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL below)

Procedures:

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1. Say, “Our language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for – the mouth moves in a certain way to make different words. Today we are going to work on watching the mouth move /s/. We spell /s/ with the letter S. S looks like a slithering snake, and /s/ sounds like when a snake hisses as it slithers.

 

2. Let’s pretend to slither like a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/. [Pantomime arms moving like a snake] Notice where your tongue is? (Sides of tongue resting on roof of mouth, tip of tongue behind front teeth but not touching them) When we say /s/, we blow air out between our tongue and the roof of our mouth, when the sides of our tongue touch the roof of our mouth.

 

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word pest. I am going to stretch pest out in super slow motion and listen for my slithering snake. p-eee-est. Slower: P-eee-sss-t. There it was! I felt my tongue touch the sides of the roof of my mouth and the air blowing. Slithering /s/ is in pest.

 

4. Lets try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sally has a snake. Her snake has slimy scales, so he can slither around swiftly. Here’s our tickler: “Sally’s slimy snake slithers so swiftly.” Everybody say it, three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. “Ssssally’s ssslimy sssnake ssslithers ssso sssswiftly.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/s/ ally’s /s/ limy /s/ nake /s/ lithers /s/ o /s/ wiftly.

 

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a slithering snake. Let’s write the lowercase s. Start at the top and make a small c for the snake’s head, then go down and around to make a small curve to make the snake’s body and tail. I want to see everybody’s s. After I put a sticker on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.

 

6. Call on students to answer and tell out how they knew. Do you hear /s/ in: sand or tree? Space or plant? Stand or lay? Nest or bird? Pass or fail? Toss or catch? Say: let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Slither your snake if you hear /s/. My, sassy, cat, stops, for, some, treats, and, head, scratches

 

7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a silly boy named Sammy who drank six sodas, and got sick!” Read pages 44 and 45, drawing out /s/. Ask the children if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like slimy slick sloth or sticky silly slop. 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 pat: The S shows me our slithery snake, /s/, so this word is sss-at, sad. You try some: SIP: sip or lip? SAME: same or fame? SAG: sag or bag? SEAM: seam or beam?

 

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

 

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References:

Dr. Bruce Murray, Emergent Literacy Design: Brush Your Teeth with F

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html

 

Dr. Seuss, ABC Book

http://lissaabc.blogspot.com/

 

Assessment Worksheet

https://www.treevalleyacademy.com/letter-s-sound-worksheets/

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