Silly Salamander’s Sings Songs

1. 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 the letter S. S looks like a silly salamander, and /s/ sounds like singing songs.  

2. Let’s pretend we are a silly salamander singing, /s/, /s/, /s/, and put your hands up like you’re performing. Do you notice how your tongue is at the back of your teeth? When we say /s/, we can feel the air hissing over our tongue. 

3. Let me show you how to find /s/ in the word “fast”. I’m going to stretch out in super slow motion and you listen for the Silly Salamander Singing. Fff - a- a - ast. Slower: Fff-a-a-a-sss-t. There it was! I felt the air hiss over my tongue behind my teeth. Silly Salamander /s/ is in fast. 

4. Now, let’s try a tongue tickler! Sally has a pet salamander. Sally loves to sing and wants to teach her pet salamander to sing too. The only problem is that Sally’s pet salamander is way too silly. Sally worked and worked and finally she taught her to sing. Here’s our tickler: Sally’s Silly Salamander Sings Songs. Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of the words. “ Ssssally’ss Ssssilly Ssssalamander Ssssings Sssongs” Great! Now try it again, and this time break it off of the word: “ /s/ally’s /s/illy /s/alamander /s/ings /s/ongs”

5. Now let’s get out some paper and our pencils. We use the letter “S” to spell /s/. The Lowercase and capital letter “S” look like a slimy salamander. Let’s write the lowercase letter “s”. Start just below the “fence” (dotted line) and form a tiny “c” up in the air. Then go up, around, and down to the “sidewalk” (bottom line), and then back up a little bit to make the full “s”. Now, let me see your “s”. After I put a sticker on it, I want you to make five more just like it. 

6. Call on your students to answer and tell how they knew the answer: Do you hear /s/ in cup or sack? Stuff or brush? Silly or Happy? Sit or Lay? Book or Song?

7. “Let’s look at a book now. This author tells us all about an itsy bitsy spider that climbs up the waterspout.” Read page 3, drawing out /s/. Ask students if they can think of other words with the /s/ sound. Ask students to come up with other silly spider names like, Salty-Striped-Spider, or Speedy-Speckled-Spider. Have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly spider.  Display their work. 

8. Show “SAT” and model how to decide if it is Sat or Hat: The S tells me to sing like a salamander, /s/, so this word Ssss-at, sat. Now you try: SIX: six or tricks? RAW: raw or saw? JOB: sob or job? SNAP: snap or nap? SOCK: jock or sock? 

For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with S. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from Step #8.