Spray like a Skunk with S
Emergent Literacy
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 (skunk spray) and the letter symbol S. Students will practice finding /s/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
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Primary paper and pencil
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Mirror
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A picture of a skunk
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Chart with “Sally said snails seem slow.”
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Scaredy SquirrelBook
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Pictures of objects that begin with S and some that do not
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snake, shoe, glass, saw, slide, house, book, spoon, straw, hat, soap
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Word cards
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SAD, TOP, SONG, MET, SEE, STOP, BAKE,SLIP
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Assessment Worksheet Drawing Lines to S Words (link provided below under references)
Procedures:
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Say: “Our written language is like a secret code. The hardest part is learning what each letter stands for—our mouth makes moves as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /s/. Watch as I stretch out the letter s in skunk and make the /s/ sound. ‘Sssssss’ Now I want you to make the sound /s/ with me.” We spell /s/ with letter S. S looks like a skunk’s tail, and /s/ sounds like a skunk spraying.
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“Let's pretend to make the noise a skunk makes as it sprays, /s/, /s/, /s/. [Make hand motions of a tail raising] Now watch my mouth as I make the /s/ sound. ‘Sssss’ Can you see what my mouth was doing? I want you to try and make the /s/ sound and watch your mouth in the mirror to see what it does.” This will allow the child to learn what his/her mouth does while making the /s/ sound.
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“Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word best. I'm going to stretch bestout in super slow motion and listen for the skunk spray. Bbb-e-e-est. Slower: Bbb-e-e-e-sss-t There it was! The skunk spray /s/ is in best.”
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“Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Sally is a young girl who visited a pet store. She is looking to find a new pet. She wanted a fun animal to run around with her. She looked at hamsters, snails, and ferrets. Here’s our tickler: ‘Sally said snails seem slow.’ Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. "Sally said snails seem slow." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: ‘/S/ ally /s/ aid /s/ nails /s/ eem /s/ low.’”
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Students will take out primary paper and pencil. Say “We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like a skunk tail. Let’s practice writing the /s/ sound on paper. Start your s at the fence, make a little c in the air, and then swing it back. Your s should end at the sidewalk. After I put a smile on it, I want you to finish your line with more s’s just like it.”
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Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: “Do you hear /s/ in shoeor toe? Gloveor sock? Slowor quick? Best or bad? Jacket or shirt?” Say: “Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Raise your hand to spray the skunk if you hear /s/ in the words I am about to say: The, sun, is, bright, and, shines, over, the, sea.”
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Read an alphabet book. Book talk: “This book talks about Scaredy Squirrel. Scaredy Squirrel is a nervous squirrel. He wants to stay in his tree all day where it is comfortable. Scaredy Squirrel is not ready to face what is out there beyond his tree. One day, he accidentally leaves his tree and discovers there is more beyond his tree then he imagined. Let’s read the rest of the book to find out what happens with Scaredy Squirrel.”
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Show SAT and model how to decide if it is sator mat: “The S tells me that the skunk just sprayed, /s/, so this word is sss-at, sat. You try some: SAD: sad or mad? MEAT: seat or meat? SHAKE: shake or make? MOB: sob or mob? SOON: soon or moon?”
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For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students draw a line to the picture that starts with S. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step eight.
References:
Sydney Beatty, Slide Down with S https://slb0061.wixsite.com/lessons/emergent-literacy
Watt, Melanie (2008), Scaredy Squirrel, Kids Can Press
Assessment worksheet: https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins1.htm
