Emergent Literacy Design
Six Silly Snakes
Emergent Literacy Design
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, practice finding /s/ in words, apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters, and by reading a decodable book.
Materials: Images of six snakes, individual letterboxes, letter tiles: s, a, t, o, p, c, b, e, k, o, l, and i, coverup critter, primary paper, pencil, chart with tongue tickler, list of spelling words: stop, sat, scab, best, sock, solo, slip, and the decodable book, Sam, The Class Pet.
Procedures:
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Say: Our written language is a secret code. The secret, tricky part is figuring out what the letters stand for. Today, we are going to learn the /s/ sound. The letter S makes the /s/ sound. It looks like a snake and it makes the same hissing sound that a snake makes.
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Say: Let’s all pretend we are silly, slithering snakes. Put your hands together, move your body back and forth and make a hissing sound, just like a snake. When we make the /s/ /s/ /s/ sound like a snake, out teeth our touching. Every time we make the /s/ sound, our teeth come together, and we blow the air out of our mouths.
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Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word best. I am going to stretch the word mouse out in a super slow motion, and I want you to listen for the silly snake hissing. Bbb-eee-sss-ttt. Could you hear the snake sound? Slower, bbbb-eeee-ssss-tttt. There it is! I know it is there when mt teeth come together and I was making the hissing sound.
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Let’s try a tongue tickler (on chart). “Sam sang with six silly snakes in the sun.” Sam was at home on a hot, summer day and decided to go for a walk by the lake. He saw six snakes singing on the bay. He went over to them and he began to sing with them. Here’s our tickler, “Sam sand with six silly snakes in the sun.” Everyone says it three times together. Now, let’s say it again but stretch the /s/ out so we can hear it. “Sssam sssang with sssix sssilly sssnakesss in the sssun.” This time, we are going to break the /s/ off of the word. “/S/am /s/ang with /s/ix /s/illy /s/nake/s/s in the /s/un.”
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(Have students get out primary paper and pencil.) We use the letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake slithering on the ground. Let’s write our lowercase s,. We start at the fence, make a curve halfway down to the sidewalk, switch around, make another curve that reaches the sidewalk. Now you try! After I put a smiley face on it, I want you to write nine more just like it!
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Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in sand or frog? Fun or swim? Slow or quick? Hard or soft? List or card? Say: I am going to hold up some cards with words on them. If you see or hear a /s/ in the word, slither your hands like a snake. (Hold up cards): Sam, Stop, Hat, Swim, Sing, Fun, Snake
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Give book talk for Sam, The Class Pet. Sam the frog is the class pet. One day, the students were giving Sam a bath and he jumped out. The lost Sam! They look everywhere, inside and outside. Where will the students look for him? Will they find Sam? Where will he be? While we read this book, I will challenge the students to slither their hands like a snake each time they hear the /s/ sound.
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Show SAT and model how to decide if it is sat or mat: The S tells me to slither like a snake, /s/. This word is sss-at, sat. Now you try a few! Seat: seat or meat? Sock: sock or dock? Sang: sang or rang? Send: send or tend?
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For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color each picture that begins with the letter S. Call on specific students to individually practice the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
Annah Logan Harrelson,” Slither Like a Snake With S!”
https://aharrers.wixsite.com/ctrd/slither-like-a-snake-with-s
Assessment Worksheet https://www.myteachingstation.com/reading/phonics/color-the-pictures-words-beginning-with-letter-s
Reagan Gilbert, Sam, The Class Pet
http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/geniebooks/teacherbooks/
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