Rationale:

This lesson will help emergent readers identify the phoneme /s/ represented by S. From this lesson, students will gain the ability to recognize /s/ by learning the audial analogy that /s/ sounds like soup sizzling, learning to identify the letter symbol S by practicing finding the phoneme /s/ in words, as well as apply their phoneme awareness skills with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by brainstorming a word with the same beginning letter and sound of S.

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Materials (per student):

Pencil, eraser, and primary paper; 6 words cards with SAT, HAT, SAND, CAKE, SING, and HIKE; blank white paper and markers; Tongue tickler chart with “Sally’s suitcase slid slowly Saturday”; decodable book A Super Special Soup (Joe Slade); identifying pictures with /s/ assessment (worksheet attached below).

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Procedures:

1. Explain to the student that all the letters in our spoken language have special sound(s) that we have to match to our written language like a game. The tricky part of the game is that some letters have more than one sound. However, our mouths have certain movements when we pronounce different sounds. Today, we will work on the mouth movements for /s/. We use the letter symbol S to spell the sound /s/ which looks like a spaghetti noodle and sounds like soup sizzling.

2. Now, let us pretend we have to cook a pot of soup “ssssss”. Notice where your teeth and lips are when you say “ssssss”. Your top teeth are touching your bottom teeth and your tongue should be pulled back a little bit not touching the back of your teeth. When we say “ssssss” notice you are blowing air through your teeth as they are together.

3. Next, I will first show you how to find the sound /s/ in the word CHASE. I am going to say CHASE out loud and slowly and you listen for the sizzling sound “ssssss”. CH-A-SSSE. Now, I will say it even slower: CHHH-AAA-SSSSSE. I found the sizzling sound! I felt my top and bottom teeth touch as I blew out. Did you hear the sizzling sound /s/?

4. Now that we can move out mouths for /s/, let us look at our tongue tickler chart. Sally was going on a trip Saturday when her suitcase rolled slowly so she almost missed her flight. Here is our tongue tickler: “Sally’s suitcase slid slowly Saturday.” Let me say it again two more times, then I want us to say it together 2 more times. Now, when you say it the third time stretch the sizzling sound /s/ when you hear it as the beginning of the words: “SSSSally’s ssssuitcase sssslid sssslowly SSSSaturday.” Try it one more time but this time say it faster but break the /s/ off of the word: “/S/-ally’s /s/-uitcase /s/-lid /s/-lowly /S/-aturday.”

5. The student will now use their pencil and primary paper. Explain that to spell the sound /s/ we use the letter S. Capital S looks like a noodle in our soup that sounds like “ssssss” when it sizzles while it cooks. Now, let’s try to write the lowercase s. You start by making a small curve starting at the middle then swerving your way to a curve on the bottom. Lowercase s looks just like a smaller version of capital S. I want you try it on your own ten more times.

6. With the instructor’s words cards show the following cards while asking them to see if they can spot my mouth move for /s/ in some of the words: do you hear /s/ in Sand or Cake? Sing or Hike? Sat or Hat? Now we will try some new words and I want you to Stir your soup when you hear the sizzling /s/: Sandy, snake, slithered, past, the, tree, earlier, Saturday, morning, when, the, sun, shot, up.

7. Next we will look and listen to our audible book A Super Special Soup where the narrator invited friends over on a Saturday for his special soup. The soup has so many crazy ingredients that you would never have guessed. Like the book ask the students to think of special ingredients, that begin with the /s/ sounds, for their own soup. Each student will have a piece of paper and markers to then draw and color their special soup. When finished get students to volunteer and share with the class their soup creation and what ingredients they included which will then be displayed in the classroom.

8. Now show your word card words again. Begin with SAND and show the students how to distinguish the difference between SAND and LAND. The S in SAND tells me to stir my soup, /s/ sounds like the sizzle: “ssssss”, so my word is definitely SAND. Now you try some on your own: SING or RING? SAT or HAT? SIKE or HIKE?

9. For the end of the lesson assessment we want to give the student a fun worksheet where they will have the opportunity to color the color the picture that represents a word beginning with S=/s/. Allow the students to say what they see in the picture out loud to help them comprehend what they are looking at.

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References:

Olivia DiChiara, Brush Your Teeth with F: https://oad0004.wixsite.com/mysite/gallery

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Assessment Sheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-s_WFNND.pdf?up=1466611200

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A Super Special Soup:  https://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=437&langId=1