Reading Lessons

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 (sizzle from cooking sausage/bacon) (hiss like a snake) and the letter symbol S, practice finding /s/ in words.

Materials: playdough; word cards with SAD, SANE, KEEP, NEW, SAND, and SOLD; Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Sarah sizzles savory sausage:”; crayons, the book 'The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear' by Don Wood, and worksheets for each student

Procedures:

1. Say: We are going to work with the sound /s/. The letter S makes /s/ sound. S is shaped like an snake and snakes make a hissing sound.

2. Take out the playdough and let’s make a snake. [I draw a big S on the board] Now I want you to manipulate your playdough snake into an S shape like I have on the board and make a long hiss. Pay attention to your mouth when you hiss, your teeth are closed with the tip of your tongue touching your bottom teeth.

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word close. Im going to stretch close out very slowly and I want you to listen for the hissing sound. C-lll-ooo-sss. Slower: C-lll-oooo-sssss. There I hissed just like a snake!

4. Lets try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sarah is cooking breakfast for her mom. She has already made pancakes and eggs but she still has to make the sausage. So she puts the sausage in the pan and it starts to sizzle. The tongue tickler is “Sarah sizzles savory sausage” Everyone say it 3 times together. Now everyone say it again but stretch the /s/ at the beginning of each word. “Sssarah sssizzles sssavory sssausage.” Try it one more time and I want you to break it off of the word: “/s/ arah /s/ izzles /s/ avory /s/ ausage.”

5. [Have students take out pencil and paper] We use the letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake standing up. Lowercase letter s looks the same as capital except it is smaller. I want you to write a capital and lowercase S. Start at the fence and make the snake stand on the sidewalk. I will check everyone’s paper and after I do I want you to write nine more.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they know: Do you hear /s/ in salad or cookie? Still or move? Open or shut? School or home? Jump or stand?  Say: lets see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words, slither your snake when you here /s/: The, sneaky, bandit, saw, a, silly, salamander eating strawberries.

7. Say,” Let’s look at the book ‘The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear’. A little mouse found a big red strawberry and he must find a way to hide it so the big hungry bear won’t get to eat it.

8. Show card with SAD and model how to decide if it is sad or mad: the S tells me to hiss like a snake, /s/ so the word is sss-ad, sad. You try some: SANE: mane or sane?, KEEP: keep or seep? SOLD: sold or cold?, NEW: new or sew?, SAND: sand or band?

9. For assessment, distribute worksheet. Students will have a worksheet with pictures that start with the letter S and some that do not, students will color the pictures that begin with /s/ to check for phoneme awareness.

References:  Dr. Bruce Murray http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

​

Michele Czak. Samuel the Sporty Snake http://mlc0039.wixsite.com/reading-designs/about-us

​

worksheet: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiv-J7bvfPeAhVPMqwKHaVEDJMQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.teacherspayteachers.com%2FProduct%2F5-Letter-S-Worksheets-Alphabet-Phonics-Worksheets-Letter-of-the-Week-314362&psig=AOvVaw0mmyuYSr1ehRs_wTrZ8V3b&ust=1543370613777706

​

Wood, Don, and Audrey Wood. The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. Child's  Play (International), 1994.

​

Engagements: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/engagements/

​

​