Silly, Silly Snakes
Emergent Literacy design
Rationale:
To be able to read and spell words accurately and consistently, children need to be able to understand the sounds that phonemes make. It is extremely important to understand the relationship between phonemes and graphemes. This lesson will help students build the relationship between the phoneme /s/ and the grapheme S. A unique connection will help the students remember this. This lesson will relate the sound of a snake (sssss) with the phoneme. The grapheme S also looks like a snake, so that will help the students remember the sound it makes. We will focus on the movement of the mouth to help understand the sounds. We will also work on writing the symbol S, finding /s/ in words, and distinguishing which words contain /s/ when we look at two rhyming words by looking at their beginning letters.
Materials:
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Primary paper
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Pencils
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White board
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Dry erase markers
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Eraser
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Tongue twister (on white board)
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Cards with SUN, SICK, COME, MALT, SEE, STOOL
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What Will the Seal Eat? (Cushman & Kornblum, 1990)
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Assessment worksheet (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: “Our language can be quite tricky sometimes. But today we are going to work to make it a little easier and learn how we say /s/. We spell /s/ with the letter S. Doesn't /s/ sound like a snake hissing? If you look at the letter S, it looks like it too!”
2. Say: Now lets all pretend we are snakes. Make the /s/ noise, put your hands together, and move them back and forth like a snake. Notice what your mouth is doing. Put your teeth close together and blow out.
3. Say: “Now we’re going to find /s/ in the word past. I’m going to stretch past out and I want you to listen for our snake sound. Ppp-a-a-asss-tt. Slower: Ppp-a-a-asss-tt. I heard it! Did you? I can feel my teeth touching and making the snake sound in past.
4. Say: Lets try a tongue twister [refer to board]. “The silly student ate a salty snack.” Now lets say it all together three times [repeats twister]. Now lets say it again but this time stretch out the /s/ sound and do our silly snake hand motions. “The ssss-illy ssss-tudent ate a ssss-alty ssss-nack.” We’re going to do it one more time but this time let’s break off the /s/ sound from the rest of the word. “The /s/illy /s/tudent ate a /s/alty /s/nack”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil] Say: We use the letter S to spell /s/. Capital S and lowercase S both look like a snake. Lets write a lowercase s. Start right below the fence, form a tiny little c up in the air and then swing it back down. I want to see everybody’s S, and after I put a sticker on it I want you to write it nine more times.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in cup or vase? Happy or sad? Moon or star? Quick or fast? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Make your silly snake if you hear /s/: Sam, said, he, was, sorry, he, put, salt, in, Sally’s, sandwich.
7. Say: Lets look at a book called What Will the Seal Eat? In this book, a seal cannot figure out what he wants to eat! Lets read page 6 and look for words that have the /s/ sound. Read the page drawing out /s/ and then ask the students if they can think of other words that start with S. Have the students take out primary paper and pencil and write down that the think they seal should eat using invented spelling.
8. Show SUN and model how to figure out of it is sun or bun: Is this word sun or bun? I see my silly snake, so this word is sss-un, sun. Let’s have you try. SICK: sick or lick? COME: some or come? MALT: salt or malt? SEE: see or tree? STOOL: stool or cool? Call on students to answer the questions.
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the spelling and color the words that start with S.
References:
Cushman, Sheila & Kornblum, Rona, What Will the Seal Eat? Carson, CA, 1990, pg. 6
Assessment Worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins2.htm
Holland Brown, Slithery Snake S. https://sites.google.com/site/readingholland/home/emergent-literacy
