Emergent Literacy

Sizzling a Steak with Sam

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 steak) 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.

Materials:

  1. Primary Paper
  2. Pencil
  3. Chart with: “sally sings silly songs with sarah”
  4. Drawing Paper
  5. Crayons
  6. Book: Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt
  7. Word Cards with: SAD, PAT, SIT, FAN, GROW, SNAP
  8. Assessment Worksheet (identifying pictures with /s/, URL below)

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 snake, and /s/ sounds like a sizzling steak.

2. When we say /s/ to make the letter S, let’s pretend that there is a sizzling steak on the grill. When the steak hits the grill, it makes a sizzling sound. Let’s practice grilling a steak: /s/, /s/, /s/. Notice how your teeth are touching. Can you feel your tongue barely touching the upper sides of your teeth? When we say /s/ we blow air through the cracks of our teeth.

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word class. I'm going to stretch class out in super slow motion and listen for my sizzling steak. Cll-a-a-ass. Slower: Cll-a-a-a-sss. There it was at the end! I felt my teeth touch together and my tongue touch my teeth, while I blew air out of my front teeth.

4. Now let’s try a tongue tickler [take out the chart]. “sally sings silly songs with sarah”. Now, let’s all say it together! This time let’s stretch out the /s/ sound. “Ssssally ssssings ssssilly ssssongs with ssssarah”. Let’s try it again, this time break off the sizzling steak at the beginning of the word: “/s/ally /s/ings /s/illy /s/ongs with /s/arah”.

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter S to spell /s/. Capital S looks like the steam coming off the steak. Let's write the lowercase letter s. We’re going to put the head of our snake S at the rooftop and then curve it going down the left to make our first hump. Then at the fence we’re going to make another hump going to the right and ending at the sidewalk. You try it! After I put a smiley face next to it, please write it three more times. [After the capital S has been written] Now we’re going to try lowercase s. We’re going to do the same thing that we did for the capital S, except the head of the snake is at the fence. You make a small curve to the left and then a small curve to right, finishing with the tail at the sidewalk. Give it a try! After I put a smiley face next to your lowercase s, write it three more times.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /s/ in sit or cat? fan or class? bag or fast? sift or drop? stiff or sore? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /s/ in some words. Sizzle the steak if you hear /s/: The, silly, singing, bug, swam, swiftly, to, the, pink, slide.

7. Give a book talk for “Scaredy Squirrel” by Melanie Watt. Say: There is a squirrel who is a very nervous little guy. He loves staying in his nice, cozy tree all day. The world was too scary to him. But then one day he accidentally leaves his tree! He’s in the scary world! Let’s find out what happens to him! Whenever you hear me make the /s/ sound move your hands to sizzle the steak.

8. Show SAD and model how to decide if it is sad or mad: The S tells me to sizzle my steak, /s/, so this word is sss-ad, sad. You try some: PAT: pat or fat?, SIT: sit or fit? FAN: can or fan?, GROW: grow or flow?, SNAP: snap or

9. Assessment: Pass out the worksheet. Students should draw a line from the sailboats to the items that begin with the letter S. When they have finished that the students should color the items that start with the letter S. Call students over one at a time to read the phonics cue words in step 8.

References:

Murray, Bruce “Brush Your Teeth with F”

https://murraba.wixsite.com/lessondesigns2018/emergent-literacy

Bolton, Olivia. “Slithering Snake with S”

https://ojb0003.wixsite.com/mysite-2/emergent-literacy

Ashley Kirkland. The Silly Slithering Snake. https://abk0020.wixsite.com/reading/emergent-literacy

Book: Scaredy Squirrel:

Watt Mélanie. Scaredy Squirrel. Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority, Library, 2019., 2006.

Worksheet:

https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/s-begins1.htm