EMERGENT LITERACY LESSON

Sneaky Snakes Hiss

​

Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /s/ the phoneme represented by S. In order to be a successful reader, students must be able to read spelling word maps. Students will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (a hissing snake), and the letter symbol S, practice spelling /s/ in words with a letterbox lesson, and finally read a decodable book to become familiar with the phoneme.

Materials: Graphic image of the Snake, coverup critter, magnetic or smartboard Elkonin letter boxes and Elkonin letter manipulatives for the teacher, individual letter boxes and letter manipulatives for each student: s, a, i, l, t, r, n, o, p, o, h, c, b, e, m, s. List of spelling words displayed in a manner that can be easily read by the class (whiteboard or poster board): sail, strain, stop, solo, sat, this, scab, best, mess. Decodable text (Sam, The Class Pet). Assessment worksheet (URL below). 

Procedures:

1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the sounds that often make up words. The letters are almost like a secret code that tells us how the word sounds. Today we are going to talk about this letter, (show the spelling card for S), does anyone have an idea about what this letter says? (wait for student response). When I see the letter S, it reminds me of a sneaky snake. Do you see how this letter could look like a snake? Snakes hiss, and it sounds a lot like the sound S makes. Can you all hiss like a snake? Great hissing! Snakes slither along the ground, can you show me a baby snake wiggle in your seats? S makes the /s/ sound (write on the board) and sounds like a sneaky snake hissing. 

2. Say: Before we learn more about S in words, let’s think about where we might hear the letter S. When I listen for /s/ in words, I listen for that sneaky snake hiss, push my teeth together, open my lips, and blow a little stream of air out, like a little snake tongue. I’ll show you: sail. I heard a sneaky snake hiss and felt my air go out like a little snake tongue. There might be an S in that word! Now I’m going to see if it’s in ship. Hmmm, I didn’t hear a snake hiss and my lips were all puckered, the /s/ sound isn’t in that word. Ok your turn. If you hear /s/, say “Sneaky Snake Hiss” and give me a little baby snake wiggle, if you don’t hear /s/ say “That’s not it”. Do you hear /s/ in: LIST WORDS HERE. 

3. Great job listening for those sneaky snakes! Now what if I want to spell S words? “Lisa likes to play in the sand.” I want to spell sand using my letterboxes, first I need to figure out how many phonemes are in the word sand. Let’s say sand really slowly and stretch it out, /s//a//n//d/. I heard four phonemes, so I am going to need four letterboxes (place four letter boxes on the white board). I heard my sneaky snake hiss first, so I am going to place that in the first letterbox. After /s/, I heard /a/, so I am going to put a next. (Say sand slowly again, stretching it out), oh I hear a /d/ on the end, so I will place d in the last letter box. Ok, now we are just missing one letter, (Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//a//n//d/), the letter I am missing is n. Now I’m going to show you how to read a tough word. (Display poster or whiteboard with strain written on the top and model how to read the word). I’m going to start with the ai that makes the sound /A/. Then I see our letter that we know sounds like a sneaky snake, /s/. Now I’m going to add the letters that come after it, /s//t//r/, and add our /A/ sound, /s//t//r//A/. Now I just have to tack on the end to that chunk, /n/, /s//t//r//A//n/. Strain! Like, “If you work out too much you might strain your muscles”.

4. Say: Now it’s your turn to spell with your letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three letter boxes for sat. “I accidentally sat on my drink.” I’m going to walk around and look at your spelling (observe progress). For this next word, you’ll need four letterboxes, listen for the beginning sound for the first box. Then listen for our sneaky snake /s/ sound. The word is best, “Lucy tries her best to play soccer.” (Continue with the remaining words, provide scaffolds with the number of letterboxes and a sentence.)

5. Say: Now we are going to read some of the words that you have spelled. (Show the words sail, strain, stop, solo, sat, this, scab, best, mess; the extra words star and style, and the pseudoword slote. Have students read the words in unison. Then call on students to read words off the list until all words are read.)

6. Say: Great job reading and spelling those sneaky snake S words! All this reading makes me want to read a story. We are going to read a book called Sam, the Class Pet, that I think you are going to enjoy. This book is about a frog named Sam who is a class pet. But Sam goes missing! Let’s find out if the class finds him. Pair up and we are going to take turns reading Sam, The Class Pet. (Students get into pairs and take turns reading alternate pages while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Sam, The Class Pet together, stopping between page turns to discuss the story). 

7. Say: I hope you enjoyed that story. Before we finish our lesson on /s/ we are going to do a worksheet to see if you match S words to their picture. First try reading all the words, then choose the word that fits best with each picture. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress).

Resources: 

Murray, B. http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/lessons/tuning/

Gilbert, R. Sam, The Class Pet. Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/geniebooks/teacherbooks/

Assessment worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/words-s.pdf?up=1466611200