Rationale:

Reading is the cornerstone of our world, and it is important for children to learn how to read at an early age. Children must have a substantial amount of phoneme awareness in order to decode words. Through this lesson, students will be able to identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S. They will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (smart starfish) and the letter symbol S in written words. Students will also practice finding /s/ in words and applying their phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters. In addition to this, students will also be able to write the letter S in both uppercase and lowercase.

 

Materials:  primary paper

                       pencils

                       chart paper with tongue twister on it (Sam saw seven starfish by the seashore)

                       word cards with these words: SUB, DOGS, TIP, SWAY, SIP, FOR, JUMP, SIDE

                       coloring page with “S” and crayons

                       the book “Swiss Fun Run”

 

Procedures:

 

1. Start by explaining to the students how our alphabet is full of different sounds. Talk to them about how the different sounds letters make and how our mouths move when we say each different letter/sound. You can say “Our alphabet is very unique! We have many letters that make up the words that we say. Our mouths move differently each time we say each letter.” Then say, “Today we will be working on the letter /s/. We will learn the sound it makes and how our mouth moves when we say it.”

 

2.   Say, “Let’s all stand up and hold our hands out wide and spread out legs apart to look like a starfish!               Reach high up to the sky with your starfish arms! As you do this, say “/s/, /s/, /s/, I am a /s/tarfish!” Do             you notice that when you say /s/, your tongue touches the roof of your mouth and your teeth close                 together and you blow air out of your mouth? Let’s say together /s/, /s/, /s/. Great Job!!!”

 

3.  “Watch me show you how to find the /s/ in the word MASK. I am going to say mask very, very slow, and I          want you to listen for the /s/ sound. Ready? Here we go?

       mmm-aaaa-sssssk. I found where it is! I felt my tongue touch the roof of my mouth and my teeth come            together. I blew air out when this was happening. Try saying it to see if you can find it, too!” Allow                    students to slowly say “mask” to find the /s/ sound.

 

4.  “You all are doing great! Let’s try a fun tongue twister. Look to the chart and you will see our tongue                  twister. It says, ‘Sam saw seven starfish by the seashore’. Let’s say this together three times. [say the                  tongue tickler three times together]. Now we will say it again, but we will stretch out the /s/ sound that            we hear in each word. ‘Sssssam ssssssaw sssssseven ssssstarfish by the ssssseashore.’ Great job! This              time we will break the /s/ off of the word so that it it on its own. ‘/s/ am /s/ aw /s/ even /s/ tarfish by the          /s/eashore.’"

 

5.  “Now let’s get our paper and pencil out and practice writing our letter. Our letter S spells the sound /s/.            This is a fun letter to write. Let’s begin with the lowercase letter. With your pencil, start just below the              fence. Start by making a little curl like a c halfway to the sidewalk and then make another little curl, like a        c, but backwards this time all the way down until it curls up on the sidewalk. (Assist if needed). Now to            write a capital S, you do the same thing but you start just under the rooftop and move down to the                  sidewalk. I am going to come check everyone’s letters, and when you get a sticker I want you to write              nine more lowercase s’s.”

 

6.  “Is everyone ready to see how well we can find the /s/ sound in words? Stand up beside your desks and            tell me which word you hear that sound in! Do we hear /s/ in tap or sip? Hop or sick? Mad or snake?                Good job! Let’s see if you can tell when we say the /s/ in some words. Make a big starfish when you hear        the /s/. Ready? Her, sick, playground, flowers, soft, chew, dogs, September, blanket, farms. Great job!!”

 

7.  “Have you ever wanted to do something, but you kept running into problems? Maybe you wanted to ride        a bike, but you kept falling off. We are about to read a book about someone who wanted to run a race            so badly that he tried his best no matter what to finish. Scott and Stan wanted to run in the Swiss Fun              Run where you have to run, skip, and swim to complete the race. Stan can’t swim, and Scott falls a                    couple times trying to run the race. Will they be able to finish the race? How will they overcome their              difficulties? Let’s read to find out! I am going to read it, and I want you to just listen. I will then read it              again, and I want you to make your arms into a big starfish again.” Read the book and when you read it          a second time write down the /s/ words they hear and discuss them. Ask the students what other words          start with S then have them write that word on their primary paper and draw a picture that goes along            with it.

 

8.    With our cards with the words on them, we will show them to students and ask what the word is. For                example, with the word DOGS, we can show the card and say, “is this word “dogs or frog”? Continue            doing this with all the cards.

 

9.    To assess what they have learned, pass out the color worksheet. The color worksheet has several                      different pictures on it. Ask the students to color ONLY the pictures that start with the letter S. This will            be a great way to assess whether they have detected the /s/ sound in each word and if they are able to          recognize the S letter.

 

References:

 

Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/

 

Floyd, Jessie. Hiss like a snake with S. https://jessiekfloyd.wixsite.com/lessondesigns

 

McCullough, Kassidy. A Slithering Snake Says Ssss… with S (/s/ sound). https://kmm0093.wixsite.com/missmacdesigns/beginning-reader

 

Herrlin, Addie. Swish like a squirrel’s tail with S. http://aherrlin.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/emergent-literacy

 

Assessment Worksheet: I Spy an S.

 https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/i-spy-letter-s/

 

Book: Swiss Fun Run. https://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=346&lang=English