Learning /s/ with the Sneaky, Slithery Snake

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme that is represented by the letter S. Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by using the sound analogy “Sneaky, Slithery Snake” and the letter symbol S, practice finding /s/ in words, and learn how to apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words based on the beginning letters. 

Materials: 

• Primary paper

• Pencils 

• Crayons

• Chart with tongue tickler: The sneaky snake said he was sorry to Sally.

• Flash cards: sat, slam, blob, sand, pet, slug 

• Assessment worksheet for identifying /s/

• Book: "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly" said the Sloth by Eric Carle 

Procedures:

1. Say: Today we will be learning the phoneme /s/, which is represented by the letter S in our alphabet. The first thing that we will do is learn how our mouth, tongue, and teeth will move to make the sound. We can call this the snake sound!

2. Let’s pretend our arm is a snake (model weaving your arm back and forth like a snake crawls). To make the ssssss sound, tap your tongue right behind your top front teeth, then blow air out of your lips. Do you notice where your tongue is placed while making the ssssss sound? 

3. I will show you how to find /s/ in the word vest. I’m going to stretch it out very slowly and listen for the snake. Vvv-e-e-est. Slower: Vvv-e-e-e-sss-t. Oh, I heard it! I felt my tongue tap right behind my top front teeth and blow air. That sneaky snake is in the word vest. 

4. Now let’s try a tongue tickler (on the chart): Sally has a pet snake. The snake had been sneaking out and adventuring where he wasn’t supposed to go, but Sally caught him. Our tongue tickler is: “The sneaky snake said he was sorry to Sally.” Let’s say it together three times. Now say it again, and let’s draw out the /s/ at the beginning of the words. “The sssneaky sssnake sssaid he was sssorry to Sssally.” Try it again and let’s break off /s/ off of the words: The /s/ neaky /s/ nake /s/ aid he was /s/ orry to /S/ ally. 

5. Students will take out their primary paper and pencils: We use the letter S to spell /s/. Both capital S and little s look like snakes. Let’s write lowercase s. Put the tip of your pencil on the red dotted line and start in the middle of the dotted line. Do a little curved line around toward the left and back to the right, follow the line around and and make another curve to the left. (model it on the board for them to follow). Once I put a star sticker on your “s” I want you to make nine more just like it. 

6. Call on your students to answer and give a response on how they know: Do you hear /s/ in sun or cat? Cast or flat? Car or send? Now let’s see if you can recognize the mouth movement /s/ in some words. Move your arm like a snake if you hear /s/. Sam, said, he, was, sorry, he, put, salt, in, Sally’s, sandwich. 

7. Now let’s read the book “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth by Eric Carle. Slowly, slowly, slowly… that’s the way the sloth moves. The other animals wonder what he is, why he’s so slow and have many questions for him. The sloth doesn’t answer until the jaguar asks, “why are you so lazy?” What will happen next? We have to read to find out! At the end, ask your students to write a sentence with their favorite animal that starts with the /s/ and draw a picture of it. Provide examples: sloth, snake, seahorse, squirrel, etc. 

8. Show the word SIT and model whether it is sit or fit. The S tells me to tap my tongue behind my top front teeth so this word is sss-it, sit. Now have them try some: SAIL: sail or pail? SAD: sad or mad? SAKE: sake or rake? 

9. Assessment: provide a worksheet for identifying /s/. Students will color the pictures that begin S. Individually assess each child by calling them one by one to read the words from the previous step. (worksheet linked in references)