Sly snake sssssslithers (suzzi snake slithered slowly)

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S.

Materials: Primary paper and pencil, chart with “sly snake slithering”; drawing paper and crayons, “slithering snake” by Steph Plant, word cards with slid, sent, sit; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/, color picture from “sneaky slithering snakes”.

Procedures: 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. We must learn what each letter stands for, the mouth moves as we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /s/. We spell /s/ with the letter S. S looks like a mad snake hissing with his tongue.

2. Let’s pretend to be a snake, /s/, /s/, /s/, Notice where where your tongue is. Your teeth are together and your tongue is on the back of your teeth. You can feel the air going through your teeth.

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word still. I am going to stretch still out in super slow motion and listen for my snake. SSSSSSS-T-I-L-L. Slower: SSSSS-TTTT-IIIII-LLLL-LLLL. There it was! I felt my teeth together and my tongue on the back of it, with the air coming through. I can feel the snake /s/ in the word still.

5.  Have students take out primary and pencil. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a snake. Let’s write the lowercase s. Start just below the roof top. Start to make a little c, and then another little c below it, and connect them. The letter s even looks like a snake. I want to see everyone’s sly snake! Let’s make some more snakes.

6. Call on students to answer: “Do you hear /s/ in sleep or lap?” grass or flap? Slid or flew? Sit or run? Let’s see if you can spot the /s/ in some words. Slither like a snake if you hear the /s/. The snake slithered away to go sleep under the stars.

7. Say “we are going to now read a book about a slithery snake”. Read the book “slithery snake”. Ask if the children can think of other words with /s/. Ask each student to get on the ground and slither like a snake and hiss the /s/ sound.

8. Show SIT and model how you decide if its sit or hit. The S tells me to slither like a snake, /s/,so the word is sssss-it. You try some: SNOW: snow or rain? SLIDE: slide or ride? SMALL:  small or tall?

9. For the assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and match the picture that begins with s to the sailboat.  Call students individually to read the phonetic cue reading from step 8.

10. While students are waiting have them color a page from the coloring book “sneaky slithering snakes”.

Reference:

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins1.htm

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/adamshel.htm sneaky snake says sssss by Katlin Higgins