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Slithering Like A Snake With S

Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S. Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (slithering 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; chart with tongue tickler (“Sally the sneaky snake is sleeping in the soft grass.”); Book (); word cards with SLIP, SACK, FAT, SNAP, SAM, and FELL; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (https://www.education.com/download/worksheet/30566/letter-sounds-s-prek.pdf). 

 

Procedures:1. Say: Our written language is a secret code but the tricky part about it is learning what letters stand for what sounds and what those sounds mean. Today we are going to practice recognizing the mouth movements of the sound /s/. We spell /s/ with the letter S. The letter S looks like a snake and a snake says /s/. 

 

2. Lets pretend we are snakes by using our hands to slither through the grass like a snake. Do you feel where your tongue is? (almost touching the back of your top teeth). When we make the /s/ sound, we blow air between our tongue and our teeth.

 

3. Let me show you how to find the sound /s/ in the word mister. I’m going to say mister in slow motion and listen for the slithering snake. mm-i-i-ster. Now I'm gonna try it even slower: mmm-i-i-ssssss-ter. There it is! I felt my tongue behind my teeth as I blew air between them so that must mean the slithering snake /s/ is in the word mister. 

 

4. Lets look at our tongue tickler [on chart]. Sally is a snake who has been sneaking around the field trying to hunt for food to feed her babies. She has been doing this all day and is so tired. Our tongue tickler is: “Sally the sneaky snake is sleeping in the soft grass.” Lets all say together. Now we are gonna say it in super slow motion by stretching out the /s/ sound at the beginning of the words. “Ssssally the sssneaky sssnake is sssleeping in the sssoft grass” Now we are going to try it again but this time we are gonna break off the /s/ sound from every word. “/s/ally the /s/neaky /s/nake is /s/leeping in the /s/oft grass.”

 

5. [Have students get out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter S to spell the /s/ sound. the capital S looks like a snake. Lets write the lowercase letter s. Start just before the fence. Form a tiny c up in the air, and then swing back. I want to see everybody’s s. After I give you a sticker, I want you to write four more. 

 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew the answer: Do you hear /s/ in fake or sake? same or tame? you or sue? past or far? great or state? Say: Let’s see if you can notice your mouth move /s/ in some words. Slither like a snake if you hear /s/.: My, sassy, sister, saw, the, sand, on, the, seashell.

7. Say: “Lets look at an alphabet book. Author Iza Trapani tells us about an itsy bitsy spider that climbs up the waterspout.” Read page 3, drawing out /s/. Ask students if they can think of other words with /s/ sound. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Sassy-Spotted-Spider, or Silly-Singing-Spider. Have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

 

8. Show SLIP and model how to decide if it is slip or flip: The S tells me to slither like a snake,

/s/, so this word is sss-lip, slip. Now you try: SACK: sack or back? FAT: fat or sat? SNAP: snap or nap? SAM: sam or ham? FELL: fell or sell?

 

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

 

References:

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