Emergent Literacy (EL) Design
This lesson will help students learn /s/, the phoneme represented by S. Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (slithering) 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.
Emergent Literacy (EL) Design: Slithering like a Snake with S.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with " Sam said he was sorry he put salt in Sally’s sandwich."; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with SAP, DIP, SEAT, SEND, FORT, and SAKE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL below).
Procedures: 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The difficult portion is understanding what letters stand for—when we say words, our mouth moves to create those words. We will be going to work on recognizing the mouth move /s/. We spell /s/ with letter S. S looks like a snake, and /s/ sounds like a slithering snake.
2. Let's pretend that we are slithering like a snake /s/, /s/, /s/, /s/. Notice where your top teeth are? (Touching your bottom teeth). When we say /s/, we blow air between out top teeth and lower lip.
3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word sad. I'm going to stretch sad out in super slow motion and listen for my slither. Ss-a-a-d. Slower:Sss-a-a-a-d There it was! I felt my top teeth touch my bottom teeth and blow air. Slither /s/ is in sad.
4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sally has a sandwich. Sam put salt in her sandwich. Sam feels sorry he put salt in Sally’s sandwich. Here’s our tickler: "Sam said he was sorry he put salt 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. "Sssaaam sssaaaiid he waaasss sssooorryyy he put sssaaallt in Sssaaallyy’sss sssaaannddwwhhiiicch." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/s/ aid /s/ aid he was /s/ orry he put /s/ alt in /S/ ally’s /s/ andwhich.
5. [Students should 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 at the fence. Start to make a half circle in the air, then bend it the opposite way down to the sidewalk. Everybody, show me your s. After I put a stamp on it, I want you to write five more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in moon or sun? smell or touch? no or yes? Gold or silver? Warm or sore? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Slither like a snake when you hear /s/: The, big, smelly, skunk, sang, about, the, sunshine.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about Sammy sipping his soda pop!" Read page 14, drawing out /s/. Ask students if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Sss-nn-iii-pp-y Sss-mm-eee-ll-y Sss-rr-oo-aaa-p. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
8. Show SAP and model how to decide if it is sap or cap: The S tells me to slither like a snake, /s/, so this word is sss-ap, sap. You try some: SIP: dip or sip? SEAT: feet or seat? SEND: send or mend? SORT: sort or fort? 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.
Activities: worksheet!!! https://www.myteachingstation.com/reading/phonics/color-the-pictures-words-beginning-with-letter-s
References:
Hannah Helton- https://hch0030.wixsite.com/ctrd3000site/emergent-literacy-design
The Alphabet Book by Dr. Seuss, Worksheet, Random House Books, 1960
Bruce Murray: Tongue Tickler- http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/materials/ticklers/
Reading Genie Insights -
Insights – Bruce Murray, College of Education