Go to the Zoo with S
By: Meleigha Kizer
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Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S.bStudents will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (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:
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Primary paper and pencil
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Chart with "Sam Said He Was Sorry For Putting Sand In Sally’s Sandwich"
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Drawing paper and crayons
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Mo William’s Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! (Scholastic, 2006)
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Word cards with SAT, SONG, MOCK, SAW, ME, and SEAT
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Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL below)
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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 slithery snake, and /s/ sounds like what noise a snake makes.
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2. Let's pretend to be a snake and make the noise snakes make, /s/, /s/, /s/. [Pantomime slithering snake tongue] Notice how your teeth are? (Resembles smiling). When we say /s/, we blow air out of our mouth through our teeth. \
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3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word Soft. I'm going to stretch softout in super slow motion and listen for my snake sound. Sss-oo-ff-tt. Slower: Sssss-ooo-fff-tttt. There it was! I felt air blow out of my mouth while my mouth was in the smiling position. Slithering snake /s/ isin soft.
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4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sam and Sally prepare snacks to eat by the sandpit. Sam slips and sand flies into Sally’s sandwich. Here’s our tickler: "Sam said he was sorry for putting sand in Sally’s sandwich." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Sssam sssaid he was sssory for putting sssand in sssally’s sssanwich." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/s/am /s/aid he was /s/orry for putting /s/and in /s/ally’s /s/andwich.
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5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter Sto spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake’s body. Let's write the lowercase letter s. Start just below the fence. Start to make a little c, when you get halfwaybelow the fence loop back around and finish with a tail on the sidewalk. Now you try and do it! After I see everyone’s s, I will give you a sticker and then I want you to try it 5 more times.
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6. Ask the class to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in cloudor sun? stomp or bump? Sing or jump? Plants or flower? moose or table? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Slither you snake tongue if you hear /s/: The, sun, is, so, hot, that, the, sunflowers, needed, some, more, water, for, their, leaves.
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7. Say: "Let's look at the book “Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late” by Mo Williams”. This pigeon is going to tempt us to let him stay up late! Who is going to stay strong and who is going to let the pigeon stay up?" Ask students to make the slithery snake tongue sound /s/ when they hear it in the book.
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8. Show SAT and model how to decide if it is sator pat: The Stells me be a slithery snake tongue, /s/, so this word is sss-aa-tt, sat. You try some: SONG: song or long? MOCK: sock or mock? SAW: saw or law? ME: see or me? SEAT: seat or meet?
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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.
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References:
Assessment worksheet: Nola Educator, “Letter Ss Words Coloring Sheet” https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-Ss-Words-Coloring-Worksheet-2225623
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Elizabeth Bennett "Bounce the Ball with B" https://elizabethbennett79.wixsite.com/lessondesigns17/emergent-literacy
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Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie
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