More Than the ABCs: The Consonant S

Welcome back! In a previous post, I showed you how to help students own the alphabet as more than just the ABCs. Each symbol or letter is a picture of sound. Our job is to teach kids how to attach the sound or sounds that each symbol represents. I introduced to you the three sounds of Vowel Aa. As promised, I will be teaching you about a consonant next…the Consonant Ss. Again, like last time, I print both the capital and lowercase letter Ss so that you won’t forget to make it a point to teach the sounds that way.

Unlike the vowels, consonants stop air with the teeth, tongue, or lips. Vowels let the air flow out. I call vowels “breathers” because the vowel sounds are pronounced in a way so that air is not blocked or stopped. On the other hand, consonants, like my featured letter Ss, are considered air “blockers”, just like all the other consonants will be. If the airflow needed to pronounce a sound is restricted or “blocked” by the teeth, tongue, or lips in some way, the sound will be a consonant sound.

Listen to the two sounds represented by Consonant Ss. The first sound of Ss is the most common; it makes a thin, hissing sound…like a snake. It is unvoiced. Do you know about the voiced/unvoiced test? Simply place your fingers lightly on the front of your neck as you pronounce a sound. If you feel a vibration, the sound is voiced because it makes your voice box resonate. The first sound of Ss won’t vibrate your voice box. The second sound of Ss is less common—but you still want to teach both the first and second sounds. The second sound of Ss is like the sound of /z/. Bees sound a lot like the second sound of Ss. It is always important to make the sounds come alive as you teach them, so you can tell students that “Snakes and bees sound a lot like these,” when you teach the two sounds of Ss. Make it even more multi-sensory by showing a funny or attention-grabbing graphic of a snake and a bee.

Do you recall how I use a color-coding system for vowels? Well, with consonants, like the letter Ss, which has two sounds, I teach kids to draw a single line under the first sound of Ss and a double line under the second sound of Ss. Get it? I call these markings line codes. Later, I will tell you about the other three single consonants that have more than one sound in the basic alphabet: g, x, and c.

When students practice their letter lines, it would look like this:

Don’t forget to review the three sounds of Vowel A, and keep color-coding them properly. Remember: Use color-codes for vowels, and use line-codes for consonants that have more than one sound: s, g, x, and c.

You may not realize it yet, but I am setting you up for a blending exercise in the very near future. Next time, I will bring in one more consonant sound, and then we’ll start blending the sounds into words!