Slithering Snake Says ssss
Rationale: This lesson is designed to help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by the letter S. Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning the sound analogy (the hissing snake) and a hand motion. Students will learn letter symbol S, practice finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading.
Materials:
-
Primary paper
-
Pencils
-
Crayons/colored pencils
-
Word cards with SUN, MAT, SIR, HOPE, SEEN, and SHARP
-
Assessment worksheet
-
Board with “The silly snake likes to see sunsets”
-
Book “
Procedures:
-
Say: Our written language is a secret code. The trick is learning what letters stand for—our mouth moves different ways as we say words. Today we are 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 the hiss a snake makes.
-
Say: Let’s pretend we are slithering snakes. Put your hands together and move them side to side pretending like they are slithering snakes [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.
-
Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word house. I am going to stretch out the word house in super slooowww motion so you can listen for the snake hissing. Hhh-ooouuu-sss-eee. There it is! I felt my teeth come together as I blew air out! I felt the hissing snake in house.
-
Let’s try a silly sentence called a tongue tickler (on board). First, I will tell you a story about this tongue tickler. There once was a snake that would love to slither through the woods. He really liked sunsets and would stay in the shade until it was evening so he could watch. Okay, so I’ll say it first and then we will all say it together. Whenever you hear /s/, show me by using your hands to slither like a snake. “The sssilly sssnake likesss to sssee sssunsssetsss”. Now we are going to try it again and this time we are going to break the /s/ off of the word. “The /s/ illy /s/ nake like /s/ to /s/ ee /s/ un /s/ et /s/”.
-
[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. Say: We use the letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a big, slithering snake. Let’s practice writing capital S. We are going to put the head of our snake at the rooftop and curve it going down the left to make our first hump. Then at the fence we are going to make another hump going to the right and ending at the sidewalk. Now it’s your turn! After I put a smiley face next to it, you try it five more times. Also try our lowercase s, it’s the same as uppercase S but we will start at the fence this time. We are going to put the head of our snake at the fence and curve to the left and then a curve to the right, ending at the sidewalk. There you go!
-
Say: Now we are going to play a game! For this game, you need to listen for the hissing snake /s/ in two words and try to figure out which word has the letter S in it. Do you hear /s/ in mouse or bunny? Do you hear /s/ in Sam or David? Do you hear /s/ in salt or pepper? Good job! Now for this next game, I want you to slither your hands like a snake if you see letter S on these word cards. [Hold up one card at a time]. *SUN, MAT, SIR, HOPE, SEEN, and SHARP*. You all did so good identifying the /s/ in those words!
-
Give a booktalk for “Wake up, Sun!” by David Harrison. Say: The barnyard animals are very worried when the sun doesn’t rise. How do you think they will try to wake the sun up?! Let’s find out! When you hear /s/ in the story, make the slithering snake with your hands.
-
[Pass out the worksheet and have the students take out their crayons or colored pencils]. For this worksheet, you have to color the things that start with S.
Sources:
Smith, Beatrice. “Silly Snake Called S”
https://bks0022.wixsite.com/mysite/emergent-literacy-1
Griggs, Mckenzie. “Silly Snake says ‘ssss’”
https://mls0110.wixsite.com/ctrd3000/emergent
Book: “Wake up, Sun!” By David Harrison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHNmbegLP9Y
Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-s_WFNND.pdf?up=1466611200
Click here to go back to the Vistas index.
Contact me: Sarah Massey