Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /s/, the phoneme represented by S.  Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (sizzling sausages) and the letter symbol S, practice finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

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Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Sam's sizzling sausages secretly simmer”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Suess- The Sneetches (Random House, 1961); word cards with SIP, SAG, JOB, STAR, SAND, and BEAT; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /s/ (URL below)

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Procedures: 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /s/. We spell /s/ with letter S. S looks like a string of sausages, and /s/ sounds like them sizzling on the stove.

2. Let's pretend to sizzle some sausage /s/, /s/, /s/. Notice where the sound is coming out. (Teeth together, mouth open). When we say /s/, we are blowing out air with our teeth closed together. Our tongue is touching the roof of our mouths on both sides.

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word test. I'm going to stretch test out in super slow motion and listen for the sizzling sausages. Ttt-e-e-est. Slower: Ttt-e-e-e-sss-t There it was! I felt air flow through my teeth as my mouth remains slightly open. Sizzling sausages /s/ is in test.

4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sam has some sausages that his mom bought him specially for his birthday, but his birthday is in 4 days. Sam’s mom asked him to wait to eat the sausages. But, one night Sam got really hungry for sausage, so he began to cook them without his mom knowing. The sizzling sausages began to simmer secretly. Here’s our tickler: "Sam’s sizzling sausages simmer secretly”. Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Sssam’s sssizzling sssausages sssimmer sssecretly" Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/s/ am’s /s/ izzling /s/ ausages /s/ immer /s/ ecretly.

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a string of sausages. To write a capital S “we are going to start a little bit below the rooftop and make a “c” that goes to the fence. Then we are going to keep going with our pencil and make a backwards c that goes from the fence down to the sidewalk and back up a little.” Let's write the lowercase letter s. “Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little c up in the air, then straighten it out all the way down to the sidewalk. Then cross it at the fence.” I want to see everybody's s. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in rose or tree? Sad or happy? Stay or go? Sleepy or awake?  Cat or dog? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Sizzle your sausages if you hear /s/: The, sad, salamander, slithered, slowly, to, the, stick

7. Say: "Let's at a book by Dr. Seuss called The Sneetches. Dr. Seuss tells us about a special group a funny creatures called sneetches. There are some with plain bellies, but a particular family of sneetches has stars on their bellies. Read page 4, drawing out /s/. “With their sssnoots in the air, they would sssniff and they’d sssnort”. The rest of the story consists of this group of sneetches being mean to plain-bellied sneetches. Will someone stand up to these mean sneetches? We will continue to read and find out. As we are reading, I will ask children to see if they can think of other words with /s/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Sssnotter or Sssilly-sssmiling-ssslinghammer. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

8. Show SIP and model how to decide if it is sip or dip: The S tells me to sizzle sausages, /s/, so this word is sss-ip, sip. You try some: SAG: sag or bag? JOB: job or sob? STAR: star or car? SAND: sand or band? BEAT: beat or seat?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with S as well as do some practice tracing for upper and lowercase S. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

 

References: Malorie Hester, Sammy the Snake says Ssssss.

        https://sites.google.com/site/mshesterslessons/home/emergent-reader-lesson

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Assessment Worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/s.gif

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