Learning The Letter S
Ask your child to slightly press the middle of their tongue to the top of their mouth. There should be more pressure on the side of their tongue than in the middle, as they press the top of the mouth. Blow air out to make the letter S sound.
Your child may know some of these words that start with S:
Teaching the letter S is all about consistency. Reading to your child every day is recommended, and there are special letter S books available online and in stores that you can get. Choose books that have funny illustrations and nursery rhymes in them. Your local library may have these books. You will need to have a lot of patience as well to teach the letter S, as your child will make some mistakes.
If there is a letter S in your child’s name, you can use plastic letters to spell out their name and show them where the letter S is situated. If there is no letter S in your child’s name, then find other names that start with S from TV characters that they know or other members of the family. With any names that you find, spell out all of the letters so that your child can see that they all begin with S.
The following are names that begin with S that your child may be aware of:
You can teach your child these names beginning with S once they have progressed further:
If You Really Want Your Child To Learn Make It Fun
When children are young they really like to do fun things. If you make learning fun for them they will want to learn more, so have fun teaching the letter S to them. You will find some very fun ways to do this later on in this article. One great fun way to teach the letter S is by using letter S worksheets. There are many of these available online, and when you choose them go for those that have funny drawings in them as your child will be entertained by this.
One of the most entertaining ways that you can teach your child the letter S is through letter S songs. There are a number of good S songs out there, and you can learn them and sing them with your child. Another fun thing to do is to watch letter S videos. Below is a good example of a letter S song that is actually a video.
Be sure to learn and sing the letter S song with your toddler, as they will love this and probably want to repeat this activity again and again. Don’t be annoyed by this. Just sing the songs with your child as often as you can. You will create a very special bond with your child by doing this that they will never forget.
Consider These Fun Letter S Activities For Preschool Kids As Well
You have sung songs, watched videos and used worksheets. What else can you do? Well you can start by:
Looking For Animals That Begin With S
Kids really enjoy anything to do with animals, so you can make this a great activity for them. Find as many animals that start with S as you can. You can start with snake, shark, sea lion, sheep, shrimp, skunk, slug, snail, sparrow, spider, squid, squirrel and stork. Show pictures of these animals, and show all of the letters in their names. That way your child can see that they all begin with letter S.
Try a different approach now by looking for animals that have an S in their name, but that do not start with S. There are a few of these and to help you with this think about goose, tortoise, fish, ibis, kingfisher, marsupial, ostrich, horse, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and possum. Spell out all of these animal names using plastic letters, so that your toddler can see where the letter S appears. Show pictures of the animals as well.
Are There Things That Start With S You Can Find At Home Together?
You just know that there are. In your home there will be quite a few things that begin with S. If you are really stuck with this try salad, salt, sandals, sandwich, saw, scarf, scissors, seeds, shirt, shoes, sink, skirt, slippers, snacks, socks, soup, spaghetti, sponge, spoon, string and suitcase. You will probably be able to find more. Show your child each object and then spell out the letters in each word so that they see they all start with the letter S.
There are other words beginning with S that your child may have heard members of their family speak. They could have heard other words on the TV too. Here you can go with sea, speak, sound, sign, sell, Saturday, September, Spring, Summer, sure, stand, still, spell, sit, stand, straight, see and such. Use real life examples, (e.g. sit on a chair), or pictures to explain the meaning of the words. Spell out the words so your toddler can see they begin with S.
Now you can change this a bit by looking for words with S in them, rather than words that start with the letter S. There are literally thousands of examples here, so start off with some of the easy words like nose, has, is, was, words, brush, mash, cash, trash, wash, dish, kiss, miss, less, fuss, mess, bush, rush, wish and fish. As always, use magnetic letters to spell each word and indicate where the letter S occurs.
You can find more S words when you go outside with your child. There will be plenty of street signs with the letter S in them when you are travelling around. If you visit the store then look out for items that have the letter S in them. Take a pen and paper with you so that you can record these words and spell them out to your child when you return home.
Explain The Difference Between Capital Letter S and Lowercase Letter S To your Toddler
It is a good idea to explain the difference between big letter S (capital letter S) and the small letter S (lowercase letter S) formats. It’s a good idea to use pictures of the letter S in both of these formats so that your child can see the difference.
There are plenty of pictures of the letter S in both formats online. You can print these out for your child or alternatively you can use a word processor to type both formats and print this. Let your child trace around the formats to familiarize themselves with them. Explain that capital letters are always used for place names as well as people’s names.
Tell Them About Letter S Phonics
Every letter of the alphabet has its own unique sounds and these are called phonemes. Your child needs to master these phonemes, and those made by certain letter combinations, so that they can be a really good reader. Once their phonemic awareness is fully developed they will find reading is very easy. You will find more information about letter S sounds below.
English Alphabet LETTER S SOUNDS:
The 19th letter in the alphabet is S and is an unvoiced consonant that is pronounced by pushing air through the mouth and not the vocal cords. The letter sound for S is a hissing sound “sssss” but still written as and pronounced as /s/.
The /s/ sound is produced when your teeth slightly touch and air is passed through the mouth.
SAP: /s/ /a/ /p/
STOP: /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/
SUCH: /s/ /u/ /ch/
Exercises for /r/
- Before you begin, print a piece of paper for the Letter S/s/
- Also print a piece of paper with the following words for S:
- Show your child the Letter on the index card or paper and repeat the letter sound several times: S is pronounced /sss/
- Take time with your child to be sure the /s/ sound is pronounced correctly
- Listen carefully as your child repeats the sound after you
- Practice stretching the sound and say /ssssss/ to your child
- Ask your child if different words have the /s/ sound and wait to see the response. Always repeat the word using the letter sound to be sure your child knows the sound
- Continue to repeat other short sound I words such as SIMPLE, SOAP, SAME, SIT
- Finalize the lesson by asking your child what sound the S makes
With The Right Guidance You Can Teach Your Child To Be A Good Reader
Most parents want to teach their child how to read, but feel that they do not have the necessary skills to do this. You are the very best teacher that your child could have because they love and trust you. All you need is the right instructions and materials, and these can be obtained from high quality reading programs.
There are a lot of different reading programs on the market, and some of them cost a great deal. When deciding on one of these programs, look for testimonials from satisfied parents that it delivered. A very high quality reading program that is proven to work is Jim Yang’s Children Learning Reading. This is not an expensive reading program. You will learn how to teach your toddler to read in just 15 minutes a day and everything that you need is supplied. Check out this amazing reading program here.
How to teach the letter T is fully discussed in the next section which you can go to by clicking here.