Emergent Literacy Design:
"Slippery Slimy Snake"

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S. Students will be able to recognize /s/ in words, while applying words by learning a sound analogy (that’s a slippery slope!). Students will be able to recognize the letter symbol S, practice finding /s/ words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials:

• Primary paper and pencil

• Chart with “Sally’s silly snake is slimy”

• Drawing paper and crayons

• Assessment worksheet identifying /s/ and writing S.

• Word cards with (SNAKE, LAKE) (SMOOTH, BOOTH) (SCALES, PALE) (SLIP, CLAP)

• The book “Sally the Snake” by Eric Wood

 

Procedures:

1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for- the mouth moves as we say words. Today we are going to learn about spotting the mouth move /s/. The sound of /s/ is spelled with the letter S. /s/ is a sound we make when we talk about slippery slimy snakes.

2. Let’s pretend to slither along like a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/. [Pantomime slithering hands] Notice how your mouth moves and where your tongue is. [touching the roof of your mouth]. When we pronounce the sound /s/ that the letter s makes, we blow air out of our mouth while the tongue is at the roof of the mouth. This produces the /s/ sound.

3. Let me show you how to find the /s/ in the word test. I am going to slowly say the word test in a super slow motion, and you must listen for the slippery snake. Tt-ee-ss-t. Slower: Ttt-e-e-e-sss-t. Did you hear it? I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth and air blows out. Slippery snake /s/ is in test.

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sally’s silly snake is slimy. Everyone says it four times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. “Sssally’ ssilly ssnake isss sslimy.” Try it again, but this time break it off the word: /s/ally’s  /s/illy /s/nake i/s/ /s/limy.”

5. [Provide/have the student take out primary paper.] We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake with its head raised. [draw a picture on the board of this motion] Now let’s write the lower-case letter s. Start just below the fence. Start to make a little curl, like a lower-case c, then make another curl, like a lower-case c but this time it’s backwards. [slowing draw this out on board] I am going to walk around and look at everyone’s s. Raise your hand once you have completed this, and if I check you off make six more like it.

6. Ask students to raise their hand and tell you how they know what word has the /s/: Do you hear /s/ in soon or moon? Swing or thing? Loss or talk? Class or bat?

7. Say: “Let’s look at our book about Sally the snake. Read pages 1-5 drawing out the /s/ from each page. Ask them if they can think of any other words with /s/ after the reading is complete. Ask them to draw a silly creature, like a snake with five heads, and come up with a name starting with /s/. Have each student write the name under the picture they drew. Display their work, so they feel accomplished.

8. Show the word cards and have children distinguish if they hear the /s/ between the two words given.

9. For the assessment, pass out the worksheet to the students. Have students practice an upper case and a lower-case S four more times at the top of the worksheet. Have the student color the pictures below that start with /s/. Allow time for students to work on this, then call each student up to read the phonetic cue words from step 8.

 

References:

https://sydneyfaith1.wixsite.com/my-site/emergent-literacy

https://samanthaeason1999.wixsite.com/mysite/emergent-literacy-design

https://ansleychristensen.wixsite.com/lesson-designs/growing-fluency-design

https://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Assessment sheet: https://free4classrooms.com/free-beginning-sounds-worksheet-letter-s/