Silly Snake says "ssss"

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 (a hissing 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, worksheet, pencils, crayons/ colored pencils, word cards with SUN, SAM, HAT, SOAP, MEET, and SHARK, assessment worksheet, chart with “The silly snake likes to see sunsets”, and book “Silly Sally”

 

Procedures 

1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for-- the mouth moves as we say words. Today we’re going to work on the mouth move for the sound /s/. We spell /s/ with the letter S. S looks like a slithering snake and sounds like a hissing snake. 

2. Say: Let’s pretend we are slithering snakes. Put your hands together and move them from side to side pretending like they are a slithering snake [pantomime slithering snake].  Now let’s hiss like snakes /s/ /s/ /s/. Notice what your mouth is doing [touch teeth]. When we say /s/ our teeth come together, and we blow air out of our mouths. 

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word mouse. I am going to stretch mouse out in super slow motion and listen for the snake hissing. Mmm-ooouuu-sss-eee. Did you hear the snake hiss? Slower Mmm-oouuu-sss-eee. There it was! I felt my teeth come together as I blew air out! I feel my hissing snake in mouse. 

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler (on chart). s tongue tickler. There once was a snake named Sam that would slither through the woods. Sam loved the sunsets and always wanted his friends to come watch them every single day with him. I’m going to say the tongue tickler first and then we’ll all say it together. Whenever you hear /s/ show me by using your hands to slither like a snake: “The silly snake likes to see sunsets”. Let’s say it again, but this time stretch out the /s/ in the words: “The sssilly sssnake likesss to sssee sssunsssetsss”. Now we’re going to try it again and this time we’re going to break /s/ off the word: “The /s/illy /s/nake like/s/  to /s/ee /s/un/s/et/s/."

5. (Have students take out primary paper and pencil). We use the letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a slithering snake. Let’s write lowercase letter s. We’re going to start at the roof of our paper and write the head of our snake curving down to the left to make our first hump. Then at the fence we’re going to make another hump going to the right and ending at the sidewalk. You try it! After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it! 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you /s/ in sand or work? Fun or swim? Smile or house? Singer or time?  I want you to slither your snake hands if you see the letter S on these word cards. [Hold up one card at a time]. *Sun, Sam, Hat, Soap, Meet* You all did a great job identifying the letter S!

7. Give a book talk for “Silly Sally” by Audrey Wood. Say: Silly Sally walks to town upside down. How does Silly Sally get to town?! Will she go alone? Let’s find out what happens! Eery you hear me make the /s/ sound move your hands like a slithering snake. 

8. Show SUN and model how to decide if its sun or bun. The S tels me to hiss like a snake, /s/, so this word is sss-un. You try some: SAM: sam or bam? HAT: bat or hat? SOAP: soap or boat? SHARK: bark or shark? 

9. For an assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with S. call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8

 

Reference: Smith, Beatrice. “Silly Snaked Called S” 

https://bks0022.wixsite.com/mysite/emergent-literacy-1

Book: “Silly Sally” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjlN19qDfBg

Assessment Worksheet: file:///Users/mckenziegriggs/Downloads/Words-Beginning-with-Letter-S-Worksheet.pdf

S snake picture: https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/s-is-for-snake-poster