Emergent Literacy


Shush the Crying Baby with Sh

Emergent Literacy Design

Katherine Moss

Rationale:

This lesson will help students identify /sh/, the phoneme represented by sh. Students will learn to recognize /sh/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (shushing the crying baby) and the letter symbol Sh, practice finding /sh/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /sh/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials:

  • Primary paper and pencil chart with “Shelly shopped for shells and shoes by the shore”
  • Shelly’s Shell Shop book
  • word cards with the words SHARE, SHAM, CASH, SHARK
  • writing worksheet practicing /sh/

Procedures:

  1. One tricky part of our language is learning how our mouth moves as we say words. Today we are going to work on noticing how the mouth moves when we say /sh/. We spell /sh/ with the letters s and h. You make the sh sound when you are telling someone to be quiet by shushing them.
  2. Now I want everyone to put their finger up to their lips, like you’re telling someone to be quiet- /sh/, /sh/, /sh/. (Dramatically act out shushing a baby) Can you notice where your top teeth are? (They are touching your bottom teeth) When we say /sh/, we blow air through out bottom and top rows of teeth.
  3. Let me show you how to find the /sh/ in the word dish. I will stretch dish out in really slow motion and listen for me to shush the crying baby. Dd-i-i-shhh. Even slower; ddd-i-i-i-i-sh-sh-sh. There it is! I felt my bottom teeth and top teeth touch and air blew through them. I can feel myself shush the crying baby /sh/ in dish.
  4. Now, let us try a tongue tickler (on chart). “Shelly shopped for shells and shoes by the shore”. Everyone say it three times together. “Shelly shopped for shells and shoes by the shore” x3. Now this time when we say it, we will stretch out all of the words so that we can hear the /sh/ sound. Sssshhelly sssshhhopppedd for ssshhheeellls and ssshhhoes by the sshhore. Now let’s say it again, but this time break the /sh/ sound off the word: “/sh/elly /sh/opped for /sh/ells and /sh/oes by the /sh/ore”.
  5. Students take out primary paper and pencil. Remember when we put the letters s and h together they spell /sh/. I am going to write the letters first, then we will write them together. (Model how to write s and h). For the lowercase s, start just below the fence, then make one c going to the left, and then curve back down to make another c to the right towards the sidewalk. Then, right next to the s we are going to make a little h. To make the h, we start at the rooftop, make a straight line all the way down to the sidewalk, come back up to the fence, and make a hump to the sidewalk again. Now-I want to see your very best handwriting-I want to see everyone’s best sh. When you have finished, raise your hand quietly at your seat so I can check out your work and give you a sticker. Once you have your sticker, I want you to write out sh 6 more times.
  6. Call on students to answer and let them tell how they knew: do you hear /sh/ in shark or dolphin? Blanket or sheet? Shape or circle? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /sh/ in some words. Shush the crying baby by putting your finger over your lips if you can hear /sh/ in these words: sheep, shy, kite, brush, mash, shin, page, elf
  7. Now, we are going to read a story called “Shelly’s Shell Shop”. Shelly’s shell shop is located by a bunch of cool ships. Shane was so excited to go to the shop to buy some shells. You will have to keep reading to see what he experiences when he finally makes it to the shell shop. (Read through the story one time without stopping) Read through it again and ask students to put their finger up to their lips like they are shushing the crying baby every time they hear a word with /sh/.
  8. Show the SHARK word card and model how to decide whether it is if it is shark or sand. The /sh/ tells me to shush the crying baby. So this word is sshh-ark. Now it’s your turn! You try some: sham or rug? Cash or money? Share or take?
  9. Assessment: pass out the worksheet. Students will color in the pictures of the words if they make the /sh/ sound.

References:

Book: Ryan, Cheryl. Shelly's Shell Shop. Learning A-Z.

Susan Roh: "Don't Be Scared of Slithery S": https://smr0035.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/emergent-literacy

Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-digraphs/sh-color.pdf?up=1554964916

More info: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

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